Tag Archive for: scaleup

Scaling internationally from CEE – first-hand experience from 500 Startups

MEETUP – If you want to build a successful startup / scaleup, raise capital to support your ambitious growth, you need to think globally, enter international markets and face a bunch of tough challenges leaving CEE. We will proudly host Enis Hulli from the most active global early stage VC firm 500 Startups and take his personal advice based on his deep experience in supporting CEE/SEE startups entering the global playground. When is the right time? What are the main risks and challenges on scaling beyond CEE, incl. founder mindset, sales, marketing, hiring, organization, culture, etc.?

The realistic timeframe of scaling vs. VC investment horizon

MEETUP – After fundraising, the growth expectations from VCs put a huge pressure on founders. They have to deliver profit, prepare for exit, close the fund; but what is the realistic timeframe of scaling, how does it fit into VC lifecycle, how do they handle the conflicts of time horizons?

The role of outbound approach in scaling – can you make it without?

MEETUP – Cold contacting, outbound efforts – a lot of founders, sales managers literally hate them, because it’s seen slow, providing low conversion – or don’t work at all, just burn money, time and motivation. What is the “truth-rate” of these statements? Is there a choice at all: can you scale and deliver an impressive growth to (also) your VC investor w/o an outbound approach, considering that your CEE local market is probably too small?

Beyond early stage: Series B/C rounds, debt financing to support international scaling

MEETUP – What you need to know about raising EUR 20-50M from international investors? Later stage investments, Series B/C rounds, debt financing – characteristics, rules, preparation, requirements and KPIs making these rounds highly different from any earlier stage investments – how to prepare successfully? What are the challenges to become “ready and go for it”? We will discover this topic with our international investor guests from Kreos Capital and OTB Ventures. 

German VC ecosystem and preparation for a Series A round

MEETUP – In CEE with the heavily funded local VC funds, you can easily get seed investments with even less impressive results and “safe” ambitions. Raising a next round (esp. with an international investor) may be hard after such way of funding. How to prepare for a REAL Series A round, what steps to be taken to close a successful deal with international investors? Why is it more likely to get funding from local / CEE VCs than e.g. German ones? How they see the CEE startup ecosystem, how to build on our strengths and “reposition” ourselves?

Meetup with Speedinvest & MOC: Valuation, terms, VC activity in COVID times

MEETUP – Lockdowns, supply chain issues, projects on-hold, strategy redesign, cost restructuring etc. – the majority of business players and startups are affected around the world, regardless which side of the table they sit. If you are building a startup / scaleup and you plan to raise a new VC round, you might have a plenty of questions: so what’s now? how? where from? what terms? Join us and raise your questions on 28 May at Equity Thursday online meetup directly to Jacek Lubinski (Market One Capital) and Alex Zhigarev (Speedinvest)!

Logiscool accelerates international growth with a 3.5 million EUR investment

Logiscool, an international leader in coding education for children and teens, raised a 3.5 million EUR investment from Euroventures, one of the leading independent VC and PE firms in the CEE region. The current investment gives a significant boost to our Client Logiscool’s further international expansion and building its franchise network on the new markets.

Logiscool was exclusively advised by Absolvo’s growth financing team in the transaction process.

A Logiscool, a befektető Euroventures és a tranzakciós tanácsadó Absolvo csapata a tőkebevonási tranzakció zárását ünneplik

Logiscool launched its fun-based innovative coding school in Hungary in 2014, providing programming and digital courses and camps for children aged 6-18. Today it is present in 16 countries and over 100 locations, teaching more than 60,000 students. The rapid growth is the result of the introduction of the franchise model, which enables building the school network dynamically worldwide.

The success of the Logiscool method, which has ever-growing international popularity, has several components. Its modular curriculum is composed of more than 600 lessons allowing students to continuously improve their coding skills over several years. The company’s proprietary educational platform “grows” together with students’ age and knowledge level giving them the feeling of long term, successful achievement. The young and enthusiastic trainers make the courses friendly and inspiring to the students.

“We believe that acquiring the knowledge of the future can be enjoyable and fun. At Logiscool kids can learn the basics of logical thinking in a fun-based way, improve their problem-solving skills, understand complex processes and in later life they can use that knowledge in almost any workspace” – said dr. Anita Breuer, co-founder of Logiscool.

The company has previously received investment from NNG-founder and angel investor Péter Balogh. The investment helped in the development and the successful initial international launch: “Logiscool had already achieved what is rare for Hungarian brands: it is building a successful franchise network from Taiwan to Florida, and changes the life of ten thousands of children. Our big dream with the team is to teach one million children to code – that kind of ambition makes it really worthwhile to get up in the morning” – said Péter Balogh.

The current investment of 3.5 million EUR, led by Euroventures in co-investment with the experienced investor Márton Szőke (founder of Indextools which was acquired by Yahoo!, has had several successful exits with a past and present portfolio including among others AutoHop, Tresorit, Omixon and Bitrise) enables Logiscool to expand its HQ team in Budapest, to develop its educational offering and its local and international partnerships to  accelerate international expansion.

“This investment round is an important milestone in the life of Logiscool, it gives a significant boost to our further growth. It enables the development and expansion of the team, therefore we will be able to better support our partners and with our continuous developments we can gain and sustain our leading role worldwide. Our aim is to provide the best coding education to kids globally” – said Gyula Csitári, co-founder of Logiscool.

“We invested in Logiscool, because we see a rare combination of an excellent and devoted management with international experience, a rapidly growing global market and a technology-based, unique value proposition. It is a great opportunity and responsibility to be part of such a growth story” – said Péter Tánczos, director of Euroventures.

Source: official press release

TheScaleupFest – International event on scaling

Key highlights of TheScaleupFest event - March 2020

TheScaleupFest is much more than just yet another startup event.

It is aimed to create a friendly place to learn, atmosphere and time for all stakeholders in the ecosystem to meet, share, get inspired, network and build their story in the most valuable way for their scaling and growing beyond CEE – together, successfully.

It is a place for startups, scaleups, investors and corporates where talented businesses, international experience, best practices and capital can find and impact each other. You will hear founders telling their growth stories, real international case studies, investors letting you know why one team succeeded and who they are looking for.

The Scaleup Fest is the 4th wave of VCs in CEE event series, co-organized by Absolvo, HVCA and HunBan –  this time powered further by HR Fest, the leading professional HR event and festival series in Hungary with 4 years history.

For more details about the event, topics, speakers please visit TheScaleupFest event website: https://thescaleupfest.com/

VCs in CEE 2019 – The scaleup journey

EVENT – Are you building a startup / scaleup and you are aspiring to become a regional or even global key player? Are you fundraising and want to meet international VCs, share your pitch deck with them and have the opportunity of an initial 1-on-1 meeting? If so, this event on 10th September 2019 is for you! We invite to Budapest and stage again international VCs and great CEE entrepreneurs to introduce you and share their experience, case studies and success stories – this time about the journey of scaling, challenges of global market entry, fundraising, and growing beyond CEE successfully.

VCs in CEE 2019 – The scaleup session

EVENT – Are you building a startup / scaleup and you are aspiring to become a regional or even global key player? Are you fundraising and want to meet international VCs? Or, are you simply interested in the investment and startup world of the CEE region? If so, this event on 26th March 2019 is for youVCs and entrepreneurs will share their experience, case studies, success stories, and discuss the challenges of global market entry and how to scale and grow beyond CEE successfully. We introduce again “new wave” of international VCs interested in the region.

Tag Archive for: scaleup