Committed to investing in promising European tech startups with global ambitions, the venture capital firm 3VC is due to launch its second fund with a value of €150 million.
2022 can be described as a rollercoaster year so far in terms of VC funds and VC popularity. There’s no doubt the year started off strong with big funding rounds and big announcements coming off the back of a year that saw the most funding in Europe ever. But, there’s since been some anxiety and uncertainty within the VC space. Marking its commitment to Europe’s startup ecosystem, 3VC has just launched its second fund at a total worth of €150 million.
Based in Vienna, 3VC is a European-focused VC group investing in carefully handpicked tech startups with global ambitions. The fund, earmarked for Series A companies, reflects the matured need and ability to deploy capital by these businesses, as well as the determination of 3VC to support portfolio companies long-term.
Founded by General Partners Roman Scharf and Peter Lasinger in 2017, the firm has a high-conversion investment strategy that they are reaffirming a commitment to. It involves a priority of quality over quantity, making 3-4 investments per year into companies that are solving massive and pertinent proves through software, regardless of the industry or business model (B2B, B2C).
With this fund, 3VC will continue to build a portfolio of healthily valued companies with strong and sustainable growth—a strategy that is yet again proving to be successful with the easy money era coming to an end and markets going back to normal. As with previous investments, 3VC supports companies starting at the Series A stage and in strong consortiums alongside other top VCs.
Currently, the company counts 3 portfolio companies that have turned into unicorns. This includes Picsart, the all-in-one photo & video editing app with over 1 billion downloads, DeepCode (now part of Snyk), a cloud-native application security provider that enables millions of developers to build software securely, and, Gamee (now part of ANimoca Brands), the market leader in Web 3, NFT, and blockchain-enabled metaverses.
The portfolio also includes several notable soonicorns, including Lokalise, Kaia Health, Storyblok, Avi Medical, and Tatum.
It’s a firm that has been committed to promoting diversity and sustainability – promoting global change through innovation but also through business approach and strategy. And it’s doing so whilst promoting CEE as a big growth market for globally-minded companies.
The team counts regional backgrounds in Austria, Cambodia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia, Romania, and Hungary and professional backgrounds in branding, design, finance, product, sales, and tech. 3VC has 50:50 gender diversity both on the Partner level as well as in the investment team. In 2017, 3VC made its first hire, Eva Arh. Now, alongside this funding, Eva and Sok-Kheng Taing have been named as Partners in the firm.
Eva Arh, Partner at 3VC, commented: “It was a unique opportunity back in 2017 to join 3VC in its formation stage when CEE as a region was still under the radar. We have evolved as a team, and it has been very rewarding to work with Peter and Roman who are so complementary to each other. My motivation has always been to be a (small) puzzle piece in the success of companies that come out of the region and strive for winning globally. Partnering with the Lokalise team was very special to me since they started in Latvia, where I come from, and their success is and will have an impact on the whole ecosystem in Latvia. I am very excited to further double down on those down to earth yet ambitious teams rooted in CEE and DACH.”
Sok-Kheng Taing, Partner at 3VC, said: “I was a limited partner in 3VC’s first fund as well as the chairwoman of the investment committee. Through this early engagement, I realised how keen 3VC is to support scalable European startups and invest in ambitious teams with excellent execution. When Peter and Roman asked me to join as a Partner going forward, it was clear to me that I very much wanted to be part of this journey and scale. It was the unique investment approach, the entrepreneurial personality, and the technological knowledge of the 3VC team that convinced me to join.”
