New Baltic fund targets €30m to back female founders

Agne Mazeike (Mergermarket)
20 January 2021

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Estonia-based The Better Fund is aiming to raise €30m for investing in Baltic and Nordic startups with female founders and gender-balanced executive teams, founder Liina Laas told Unquote.

The newly established GP aims to launch the fund this year, Laas said. It hopes to attract the European Investment Fund as its lead investor, and wants to attract Baltic and Nordic family offices, pension funds and angel investors, Laas said.

The Estonia-based fund has a pipeline of more than 30 potential startups, Laas said. It expects to invest the capital into 20-30 companies, predominantly at the seed and series-A stage. The fund is sector-agnostic but favours the technology, wellness, environmental and consumer sectors for investments, based on the founding team's previous experience.

The firm views female-founded businesses as underfunded, Laas said. Female founders received around 3% of VC capital globally in 2019, while in Estonia female founders got around 1.5% of VC capital in the same year, she said.