One question, one straight-to-the point answer in 1 min: Which investor should a startup choose?
Quick interview with Marcin Hejka, co-founder, general partner of OTB Ventures, ex-VP of Intel Capital.
What should you consider to select the right investor?
Euroventures, headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, is one of the longest-established and leading independent private equity and venture capital firms in Central Europe, with a proven track record of international exits over two decades.
It’s advised/advising five investment programs totalling over EUR 180M since its establishment in 1989, with a focus on funding innovation and growth in Hungary and Central Europe.
Euroventures’ nearly 50 current and former portfolio companies illustrate the commitment to provide steady support through the cycles of the regional and global economy. Euroventures supports its partners’ growth with funding, advice and contacts, and has participated in some highly successful exits, incl. IPOs (Vienna, NASDAQ, NYSE), trade sales to international strategic investors and sales to management (e.g. EPAM’s IPO on NYSE and strategic sales of SequenceIQ, Medimass or IND Group).
Its professional team members have many decades of VC/PE experience. Investments have ranged from the milk industry and wine production to leading edge technologies in the fields of medtech, big data, security, and IoT among others, currently it targets innovative, growing companies seeking EUR 1-5M to fund technical development, investment and expansion.
Euroventures is a founding member of the Hungarian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HVCA).
Among its recent investments we can find the regenerative medicine R&D company OrthoSera or the Node.js developer and consultant company RisingStack.
More about Euroventures: http://www.euroventures.hu/en
Hiventures is one of the most active VC companies in Europe and ranking on the top among the global seed staged investors as well. Hiventures invest in and support the cutting-edge ideas of pre-established startups and young, R&D focused innovative businesses to contribute to the growth of a sustainable, value-creating, competitive startup ecosystem and strengthening entrepreneurial culture.
Hiventures is a state-owned venture capital company, supervised and supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office and the Hungarian Development Bank Plc. (HDB). With ~EUR 150M (HUF 50 billion) worth of EU and HDB funds under management Hiventures became one of the largest investor companies in the CEE region, offering a completely unique combination of VC programs from pre-seed through seed to growth stages with flexible investment conditions and a request of minority shares in its portfolio companies in return.
More about Hiventures: https://www.hiventures.hu/en
Innovation Nest is a Poland headquartered VC firm, invests in early stage B2B SaaS startups across Europe and supports their growth from local / regional to global, using their extensive network and strong in-house competencies.
Innovation Nest strongly believes that sales and business practices developed in Silicon Valley give those companies an edge in achieving a truly global scale; therefore they encourage their portfolio companies to set up businesses there.
They seek ambitious leaders and teams with strong personalities and thorough market expertise to cooperate. Their investments range from EUR 100k up to EUR 1M, they like co-investment structures with angels and VCs from Europe and the US.
Among their most recent investments you can find the Hungarian startup Antavo, the leading customer loyalty technology for fashion and retail, providing a SaaS platform and strategy to create efficient and profitable customer retention programs.
Innovation Nest is supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe.
More about Innovation Nest: https://www.innovationnest.co/
Capital300 is a newly founded Series A venture capital fund of 50M USD under management, headquartered in Vienna, backing disruptive European technology companies aspiring to become an international player.
The VC firm typically invests in co-investment structure, offering USD ~1+M in addition to their fund partner. Capital300 has established strong partnerships with the leading US VC firms such as Accel, Sequoia, Mayfield, Index and Greylock, which provides their portfolio companies with a true global perspective, substantial leverage for entering and growing on the US market and building a significant global presence.
Capital300 is backed by the startup300 network, outstanding entrepreneurs and investors, have invested in hundreds of companies and generated billions in exits.
More about Capital300: https://www.capital300.com/
Credo Ventures is one of the most active early stage VC funds in CEE with 10+ years investment track record and ~ 50 closed deals, with EUR 71M assets under management. The VC firm focuses mainly on IT, internet and health industries, supporting companies in their growth projects, incl. expansion beyond CEE and to the U.S. / global market.
Among their most recent investments you can find e.g. Price f(x), Oradian, productboard product management system (invested in total USD 18M in two Series A rounds, 2nd one closed in February 2019) and the CEE unicorn UiPath.
More about Credo Ventures: https://www.credoventures.com/
Partech is a global investment firm with offices in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin and Dakar. They bring together capital, operational experience and strategic support for tech and digital entrepreneurs and companies at seed, venture and growth stages across multiple continents, with over USD 1.3B investment capacity. Investments range from USD 200k to 50M in a wide range of technologies and businesses for enterprises and consumers, from software, digital brands and services, to hardware and deep tech across all major industries. Companies backed by Partech have completed 20+ IPOs and 50+ strategic exits above USD 100M.
Ranked among the top 5 Series A investors in Europe, closed 300+ deals successfully. Among their most recent investments you can find Bitrise series B round of 20M USD, deal has just closed mid June 2019.
More about Partech Partners: https://partechpartners.com/
*A GVH felé bejelentéssel tartoznak a tranzakciós a felek akkor, ha valamennyi érintett vállalkozáscsoport, valamint az érintett vállalkozáscsoportok tagjai és más vállalkozások által közösen irányított vállalkozások előző üzleti évben elért nettó árbevétele együttesen a 15 milliárd forintot meghaladja, és az érintett vállalkozáscsoportok között van legalább két olyan vállalkozáscsoport, amelynek az előző évi nettó árbevétele a vállalkozáscsoport tagjai és más vállalkozások által közösen irányított vállalkozások előző évi nettó árbevételével együtt 1 milliárd forint felett van.