Outlast Fund
Outlast Fund backs disciplined founders building enduring companies, long after trends fade, markets shift, and their vision becomes inevitable. They are proud generalists with zero tolerance for empty trend-chasing, demonstrating a commitment to long-term value creation over short-term gains driven by fleeting trends. They focus on supporting companies with the potential to withstand market fluctuations and achieve lasting impact. Their investment strategy centers around pre-seed and seed stage companies in the Baltics and Nordics. They are flexible in their approach, willing to lead or follow investment rounds, but committed to active involvement in supporting their portfolio companies. They are not passive investors, but actively engage with the teams they back to provide guidance and resources. The fund emphasizes a right-sized fund to maintain an early-stage focus, allowing them to experiment, provide follow-on funding, and remain involved without being spread too thin. They prioritize investing the necessary capital at the early stage to enable companies to build, test, and prove real traction. Furthermore, they reserve significant capital for follow-on investments, indicating a commitment to supporting successful companies as they scale. Operating with offices in Riga and Stockholm, Outlast Fund aims to provide its portfolio companies with access and localized support across the Baltics and Nordics. This dual presence suggests a strong understanding of the regional ecosystems and a commitment to fostering growth within these markets.
Climate Founders
Empowers ambitious individuals and teams to build climate-focused startups, providing tailored acceleration programs to achieve product-market fit and secure initial funding.
Philipp Angermann
PA Ventures GmbH, led by Philipp Angermann, focuses on early-stage fintech and B2B SaaS startups. As an angel investor and startup advisor, Philipp leverages his experience in product management, B2B marketing, B2B sales, and operations to support portfolio companies. His investment strategy centers around providing not only capital but also hands-on guidance to help startups navigate the challenges of early growth. He aims to connect them with a strong network of fellow angel investors, VCs, and family offices for subsequent fundraising rounds. Philipp also runs the PA Foundation to support non-profits and is committed to sustainability by offsetting his carbon footprint through Leaders for Climate Action.
Prequel Ventures
Prequel Ventures focuses on empowering sustainable supply chains by investing in visionary founder teams building resilient, efficient, transparent, and sustainable supply chain solutions. The firm combines operational startup experience and venture capital expertise with a passion for the supply chain industry. They aim to provide financial backing and operational support to transform the inner workings of global trade. Their goal is to fund related startups from the pre-seed stage onwards, helping innovative teams turn their business ideas into financially viable ventures that align profits with principles. Prequel Ventures takes a purpose-driven approach to investing, emphasizing a commitment to building a greener and stronger tomorrow, one supply chain solution at a time. The firm seeks to invest in companies that are at the forefront of positive change within the supply chain sector. They are interested in startups that are driving innovation and creating a more sustainable and efficient future for global trade. Their primary focus is on empowering supply chain pioneers right from the initial stages, specifically pre-seed stage, recognizing the importance of early-stage support. They aim to scout and invest in teams throughout Europe, targeting those who they believe will become champions of industry. They combine over three decades of experience as investment specialists with a common drive to transform the inner workings of global trade.
Ugly Duckling Ventures
Ugly Duckling Ventures (UDV) focuses on backing Nordic founders at the pre-seed and seed stages. Their investment strategy centers around providing capital, know-how, and real-world application to early-stage ventures. They aim to be active GPs, leveraging their experience as builders and business angels to help startups scale rapidly. UDV emphasizes building relationships with founders, valuing transparency, and offering straightforward communication. They take a hands-on, operational approach, actively engaging with their portfolio companies to prepare them for growth. A key differentiator is their GPs-only model, ensuring that portfolio founders work directly with experienced partners rather than junior account managers. Furthermore, their established network within the Danish startup community provides access to investors and resources that can assist portfolio companies.
Zero Carbon Capital
Backing visionary founders in Europe with pre-seed and seed investments in deep tech climate solutions that redefine industries by reducing costs and emissions.
Concept Ventures
Concept Ventures invests in early-stage startups with a focus on unconventional, high-conviction ideas. They prioritize founders with strong domain expertise and a clear vision, often backing them before broad market validation or traction. The fund emphasizes 'first-cheque' investments and supports founders through the pre-seed and early stages with tailored, founder-centric backing.
Cross Ocean Ventures
Cross Ocean Ventures focuses on backing "exceptionally motivated people" building "category-defining solutions" to "intriguing problems." They seek founders with grit, sacrifice, and follow-through, viewing building as a calling rather than a career. The firm is drawn to hard, messy, and often overlooked problems, prioritizing founders who fix inefficiencies and misunderstandings over those chasing trends. They target companies with the potential to reshape industries, shift consumer behavior, or set new standards entirely. Their investment strategy involves leveraging their investor base, which consists of family-owned, mid-market companies ($100M–$500M in revenue) known as Venture Offices. These Venture Offices invest for both strategic advantage and financial returns, offering portfolio companies access to real customers, distribution channels, and a network of operators. Cross Ocean emphasizes that their Venture Offices are more agile than large corporates, facilitating faster pilots and partnerships. The firm provides more than just capital, connecting portfolio companies to a network of customers and operators. Their team comprises individuals with experience in building, scaling, and exiting businesses, including a category-defining company acquired by a major player in the US market. They emphasize their operator experience, differentiating themselves from consultants without firsthand operational knowledge. Cross Ocean Ventures is global by design with a strong focus on the United States and Europe.
Emerge Education
Emerge Education is a pre-seed fund focused on democratizing access to opportunity by investing in early-stage founders building the future of work and learning. The firm aims to be a catalytic partner, providing not only capital but also access to a community of 100+ experienced operators in the future of work and learning space. Their investment approach centers on identifying ambitious founders with a desire to learn from those who have successfully navigated similar challenges, supporting them on their journey to becoming global category leaders. The firm believes in providing hands-on support and being mission-aligned with their portfolio companies from day one. Emerge Education's strategy involves leveraging its extensive network of venture partners, covering a wide range of skills, business models, and customer types relevant to the future of work and learning. By connecting portfolio companies with these experienced operators, Emerge aims to accelerate their growth and increase their chances of success. This community-driven approach is intended to offer early-stage companies valuable insights and mentorship that goes beyond traditional financial investment. They seek pre-seed and seed founders who are building innovative solutions that will shape the future of how people learn and work. The fund is committed to supporting companies with the potential to scale and become global leaders in their respective categories. Emerge Education positions itself as more than just a source of capital; they aim to be a true partner, offering strategic guidance and operational support through its network and dedicated team.
WePlay Ventures
WePlay Ventures is a Gaming VC focused on supporting pre-seed and seed-stage gaming studios in Europe, Central Asia, and Turkey. They aim to power the future of gaming through strategic capital, their extensive network, and deep industry expertise. They go beyond traditional investment by actively partnering with studios, offering an acceleration program (WePlay HUB) and a smart money model to drive growth. Their approach involves functioning as teammates, providing support in all aspects of the studio's journey. WePlay Ventures invests in early-stage gaming studios across all platforms and genres, providing up to $300k with 15% equity. They utilize the WePlay HUB, a 3-month acceleration program, to provide studios with resources, events, and introductions to key partners. This program includes interactive business and technical workshops, as well as 1:1 mentorship led by industry leaders. The firm also operates WePlay Starz, a digital platform that connects investment-ready studios with partners, mentors, and potential collaborations. Their core philosophy revolves around providing value beyond capital. The firm leverages its wide network across different sectors and acts as a first mover in the region. Their team possesses significant experience in both gaming and startups. Their 'Smart Money' approach involves actively supporting game studios, and they offer a flexible and fast investment structure, making them active partners in the studios’ success.
Lemonade Stand
Lemonade Stand is an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on investing in tech startups with Baltic and East European founders. They provide funding in the range of €50,000 to €300,000, targeting strong teams that demonstrate technological prowess or early traction. The firm exhibits flexibility in its investment approach, being open to investing pre-revenue and pre-product, and also participating in larger seed rounds. The firm shows interest in ambitious, experienced, and diverse founding teams, which hints at their commitment to investing in teams with strong potential for success.
Accelerace
Accelerace invests in and accelerates pre-seed startups in the Nordics and Baltics, focusing on first-time founders. It provides funding, mentorship from successful alumni (Allstars), and a lifelong community to support founders in raising seed funding and scaling their ventures.
CB Investment Management
CB Investment Management (CB IM) operates with the vision of becoming a growth catalyst for thriving startups and SMEs, believing they are the backbone of Europe’s future prosperity. They aim to provide not only capital but also valuable know-how to help businesses succeed. CB IM focuses on seed and pre-seed businesses based in Slovakia, supporting them with funding and leveraging their team's experience in finance management, investment banking, and venture capital. The firm actively seeks startups and SMEs to invest. CB Investment Management Growth One fund was founded in 2019 and has a fund size of €23.2M. They have invested in 32 companies and operate with a 10-year lifetime, with the potential for a 3-year extension. CB Investment Management is associated with Crowdberry, which has been involved in investments in startups, SMEs, impact investing, and real estate projects in Slovakia and Czechia since 2015. The firm's investment strategy focuses on providing both financial resources and strategic guidance to portfolio companies, assisting them in expanding domestically and internationally. They emphasize building a strong network to create opportunities for their investments, and provide experience and capital.
Luminarventures
Luminar Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm based in the Nordics. As former founders and angel investors, they aim to help visionary founders turn big ideas into trailblazing companies. They provide capital and support to help founders navigate product-market fit, rapid growth, and international expansion. Their experience and networks guide and support founders on their journey from vision to hyper-growth, including assistance with key hires, first products, and crucial decisions towards global scale. Luminar Ventures emphasizes a hands-on approach and a shared passion for building disruptive, scalable solutions. They are generalist investors but seem to have a strong focus on B2B SaaS and data businesses, as well as companies in Green Transition and Digital Health.
Sarona Ventures
Sarona Ventures is a global venture capital firm and tech ecosystem founded in 2019, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a significant presence in New York, San Francisco, the UK, UAE, and Singapore. They back exceptional founding teams with strong execution capabilities who are shaping the future of business. Evolved from the tech investment arm of the Bouaziz Single Family Office, their combined portfolio includes seven billion-dollar unicorns. They specialize in identifying and supporting promising pre-seed to Series B companies, working with them to create lasting impact. As entrepreneurs themselves, they invest their own capital alongside that of their LPs, creating a greater alignment of interests between their companies, LPs, and the fund. Sarona operates with deep attention and a strong emphasis on growing a strong, immersive, accountable ecosystem of entrepreneurs, talent, investors, and multinational corporations. Sarona maintains a balanced portfolio across stages, geographies, and verticals, investing Pre-Seed to Series-B across Israel, the US, Europe, and Latam in a wide range of software-centric verticals. Their selective LPs and co-investors include global families, corporate funds, partners of the world’s leading VCs, and unicorn founders. With a focus on identifying, backing, and growing extraordinary founders, they support their companies with their selective professional network to achieve their goals and drive innovation globally. Sarona Partners has an edge in discovering early traction startups, grace to our first-hand deal flow from co-investors, LPs, portfolio companies, founders.
innoWerft
innoWerft operates as an early-stage investor and startup accelerator, focusing on B2B high-tech startups. They provide support in fundraising, sales, and other challenges faced by startups. As a StartupBW pre-seed support partner and long-standing accelerator, innoWerft aims to assist startups by acting as a co-investor, early-stage investor, and sparring partner. The firm's vision is to enable founders to overcome societal challenges with innovative solutions. Their mission is to support outstanding founders by developing customized strategies and connecting them with suitable customers and capital. They emphasize sustainable value creation, exits for reinvestment, future-oriented thinking, trust-based collaboration, and responsibility. innoWerft's team encompasses a wide range of skills, from startup experience to financial and coaching expertise. They offer tailored support to startups, companies, and investors, emphasizing diversity, efficient working methods, and passion in their work.
0100 Ventures
0100 Ventures is a venture builder and accelerator supporting the creation and growth of startups, fostering local talent, and contributing to the European startup ecosystem. They operate co-working spaces, organize international VC conferences, and leverage their founders' extensive networks to drive innovation and expansion.
APX
APX is an earliest-stage venture capital firm based in Berlin and backed by Axel Springer and Porsche. They invest in pre-seed startups from Europe and beyond, often as their first investor. Their focus is on partnering with ambitious founder teams building startups with digital business models. They aim to be a long-term partner, indicating a commitment beyond initial investment. The firm emphasizes a growing family of startups, highlighting a community-focused approach to venture capital.
Alliance For Impact (AFI)
Alliance for Impact (AFI) is a European Day-One Impact Launchpad focused on bridging the gap between purpose and profits. They aim to fast-track the emergence of tomorrow's leaders and support the next generation of impact-driven entrepreneurs. AFI combines equity-free acceleration through AFI Factory with first-ticket seed funding through AFI Ventures. AFI Factory is a 6-12 month acceleration program for growth-stage impact startups seeking funding. AFI Ventures is a pre-seed & seed impact fund investing in 1 to 2 companies per month. AFI believes innovation is a tool for positive evolution, building a sustainable balance between economic growth and positive impact. They consider innovation as a source of opportunity for creating new, sustainable, and impactful business models that benefit society and the environment. The firm is powered by La Ruche, Ventech, and Abeille Assurances, indicating a strong network of partners and resources available to the startups they support. AFI focuses on supporting companies within specific sectors, aiming to create a positive societal and environmental impact alongside financial returns. The firm's manifesto emphasizes the belief in innovation as a driver for sustainable and impactful business models.
Araliventures
Arali Ventures partners with audacious founders rewriting the future of enterprise technology. They invest early, typically at the pre-seed and seed stages, partnering with founders from the initial idea stage through signing early customers. They describe themselves as 'ScaleFounder first | Operator led. | Compounding impact.' offering candid feedback delivered with respect and context. They emphasize deep work on product, customers, and markets, avoiding shallow insights. They value speed of learning through rapid iteration and are committed to long-term trust-based relationships with founders. Arali focuses on businesses that are "workflow-first," with an expanded operator network and a strong understanding of repeatable go-to-market patterns. The fund actively helps fintech founders sharpen business models, understand unit economics, and develop distribution plans. They also support founders on pricing, metrics, and investor readiness, especially for businesses selling into regulated institutions, emphasizing partnerships and clarity of narrative for complex buyers. The firm assists early-stage teams with customer discovery, Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) clarity, and go-to-market iteration. They emphasize turning early signals into actionable plans, focusing on positioning, messaging, and a sustainable execution cadence. Core to their approach is prioritizing clarity on the customer and the fundamental wedge to build upon. They work with teams on pipelines, pilots, and reference-building. They are hands-on when it comes to enterprise deals and helping teams establish the operating cadence needed for long sales cycles. For companies in industrial and regulated domains, they help teams navigate complex buying centers, operational rollouts, and strategic partnerships. The VC firm is particularly useful on sharpening the “why now,” packaging the wedge, and building momentum from lighthouse wins. They provide assistance with key hires, pricing strategy, go-to-market planning, and partnerships, as well as pressure-testing ideas and acting as a sounding board.
Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund
Sector-agnostic pre-seed and seed stage investor focused on backing female-(co-)founded startups in Europe, emphasizing diversity in perspective and founder support.
Capnamic Ventures
Capnamic Ventures invests in technology companies based in Germany and German-speaking regions, with the goal of supporting them in becoming global category leaders. They believe in the potential of 'Made in Germany' to extend into the digital age and aim to back daring entrepreneurs who can shape the future of technology. Capnamic focuses on early-stage tech startups, offering support from Pre-Seed to Series A rounds, providing hands-on assistance with crucial decisions such as setting up finance departments and making initial executive hires. Their strategy includes leveraging an extensive industry network and providing support functions like marketing and finance to help turn business ideas into fully-fledged companies. They emphasize their deep-rooted network in the German tech scene, with offices in Cologne, Berlin, and Munich. This localized presence gives them a strong understanding of the regional ecosystem. While primarily focused on Germany and the German-speaking regions, they are open to deals elsewhere if they have strong conviction in the company's potential. Capnamic's ultimate goal is to help their portfolio companies scale globally, leveraging their experience and network to provide the resources and guidance needed for success. Capnamic actively supports their portfolio companies, aiming to be the best companion throughout their growth journey. They recognize the importance of their founders' creativity, passion, and drive and aim to fuel this with their support. They have a track record of supporting companies from Seed to IPO, demonstrating their commitment to long-term partnerships. Capnamic's network includes successful founders and large corporations as Limited Partners, providing access to valuable expertise and connections for their portfolio companies. They invest in tech startups at the early stages, from pre-seed to Series A. With their industry network, hands-on approach and their support functions such as marketing and finance, they help to turn a business idea into a fully-fledged company. As a VC firm with people on the ground in Cologne, Berlin, and Munich they have a deep-rooted network in the German tech scene. They strongly focus their investment activities on Germany and the German-speaking regions. That doesn’t rule out deals elsewhere - but they certainly need extra conviction then.
Encomenda Smart Capital
Encomenda Smart Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in technology-driven pre-seed and seed founders. Founded and managed by entrepreneurs, the firm emphasizes a founder-oriented approach, aligning with entrepreneurs and leveraging their experience to help portfolio companies grow. They believe in good ideas that can become great partnerships and cultivate a brilliant future-forward ecosystem. Their investment philosophy includes being founders-oriented, focusing on projects arising in Spain with an international ambition, helping companies from pre-seed to growth stages, providing smart capital based on their entrepreneurial experience, focusing on deep tech (SaaS, AI, blockchain, etc.), and valuing capital efficiency. Encomenda operates with a hands-on approach, actively helping entrepreneurs with their know-how and network. They pride themselves on fast execution and maintain strong connections with national and international venture capital funds. They provide follow-on investments and have a strong network of venture partners across various industries. Encomenda aims to provide an entrepreneur-led fund that allows co-investment to its investors. The firm invests at the earliest stage of projects and look for opportunities to bring their experience as both entrepreneurs and investors to support company growth and scaling. Encomenda's team combines entrepreneurial and investment experience, providing expertise in the early stages of startup development. They invest in founders eager to change the world.
Excellis Holding
Excellis Holding focuses on investing in talented Italian researchers who are emerging as successful entrepreneurs abroad. They aim to address the "brain drain" from Italy by supporting deep-tech startups founded or co-founded by Italians with advanced degrees from prestigious universities and who have developed their careers as researchers and entrepreneurs internationally. They target technologies originating from research in top global labs and research centers, with strong patent protection and significant potential impact. Excellis co-invests in startups that have already secured pre-seed or seed funding, including grants and research awards, and are ready to raise capital with qualified international VCs as lead investors. They aim to invest quickly to create a valuable portfolio, supporting revolutionary scientific startups with strong patent foundations, and creating ideal investment conditions for their partners, co-investors, and entrepreneurs. The firm invests in ambitious projects that aim to have a tangible positive impact on society and co-invests with qualified venture capital funds with a clear track record in the relevant sector.