Startup Wise Guys gears up for B2B fund close next year

The fund, which invests into early-stage startups, has held a second close on EUR 7m and has a hard cap of EUR 30m, she said.

The VC firm is targeting institutional investors such as later-stage VC funds and family offices, as well as high-net-worth individuals, particularly those who want to become involved in mentoring, Isaic said. The minimum ticket for Challenger II is EUR 250,000. Bigger tickets are welcome and can be deployed across other Startup Wise Guys funds, she said.

Challenger II invests in early-stage B2B startups, in areas such as software as a service (SaaS), fintech, cybersecurity, extended reality as well as in the sustainability space, including agritech and foodtech. The vehicle is expected to make around 120 pre-seed and seed investments over the next three years.

Central and Eastern Europe, Italy, Turkey and the CIS region will account for 80% of the fund’s investment, with Africa and other geographies accounting for the other 20%.

The fund will have an investment period of three years and a fund life of 10 years.

Investments
Challenger II has made 49 investments to date and the fund expects to make at least 20 more before year-end, Isaic said. More than half of its current portfolio are companies based in the Baltics and the CEE and CIS regions.

Startup Wise Guys backs strong technical founders early on and uses the help of its flagship accelerator program. It aims to speed up growth and support international scaling, Isaic said. The firm’s mission is to help founders become entrepreneurs and to build strong, sustainable companies, she said.

From around 200 applicants, 10 to 12 startups are selected for each of Startup Wise Guys‘ five-month accelerator programmes, which includes an equity investment. The hybrid accelerator programmes run in several countries including Estonia, Italy, Denmark, Romania and Spain. The African program is the only one that ran exclusively online.

Isaic says that Startup Wise Guys was and remains the most active early-stage investor in Ukraine. The firm invests primarily in EU-registered companies, with a small share for global investment-friendly jurisdictions. The fund also makes follow-on investments of up to EUR 200,000 and separate direct investments of up to EUR 500,000. It has a strong scouting team and also receives a lot of referrals and inbound approaches, Isaic said.

Since it was founded in 2012, the firm has 60 people and has invested in more than 320 early-stage startups with founders from more than 50 countries.

Its EUR 8m Challenger I fund counts 116 investments in startups, while the firm has made 13 exits, including StepShot which was acquired by UiPath in 2019, and VOCHI which was acquired by Pinterest in 2021.

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