Vitosha Venture Partners is a brand new venture fund launching out of Bulgaria, and backed by the Bulgarian government. The €26 million ($30 million) fund aims to invest in approximately 100 companies, starting from low ticket sizes all the way up to a million, in early-stage and growth-stage companies that are based in or related to Bulgaria.
Vitosha will be co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds under the Operational Programme for Innovation and Competitiveness 2014-2020, managed by the Fund of Funds in Bulgaria. Beyond standard VC conventions, it will also back companies that matter for the growth, sustainability and development of the local economy in Bulgaria and the Central European region.
Speaking to me over a call, co-founder Max Gurvits said: “Bulgaria and this whole region of Southeastern Europe is a very early ecosystem. The cool thing that’s happening here and that’s something we’re excited about and proud of is that because Bulgaria started a little earlier in tech than the neighboring countries, it’s still very early, but there are thousands of people now in startups.”
He added: “I do think that in Bulgaria, something like the emergence of a unicorn-like UiPath might happen in the next two or three years. So we’re slowly but surely catching up.”
“There’s a lot of food tech / agtech here, there there’s a lot of connected hardware manufacturing like electric bicycles. While those companies might not be groundbreaking or world-changing they are actually quite solid fast-growing businesses that have a pretty high probability of exiting for 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or more.”
Vitosha will also run an acceleration program.
The team consists of:
Erik Anderson – managing partner (ex WiseGuys)
Max Gurvits – managing partner
Marin Iliev – managing partner
Maris Prii – managing partner
Nikola Stojanow – managing partner
Paul Weinberger – managing partner
Kamen Bankovski – principal
Stoyan Nedin – venture partner
Portfolio – 17 companies to date
Investments between €150,000 and €800,000
Hobo
Quendoo
Econic One
Eirene Studio
Tokwise
Omnio
Petmall
Assen Aero
MeatMe Bar
PelletBox- Stealth
Vitosha ACCELERATE startups (tickets up to €50K)
Gridmetrics
Trace the Taste- Stealth
FidU Trade
Augment
NulaBG
Bye Bye Stuttering
Ecopolitech- Stealth
The companies that became part of Vitosha’s portfolio in April are:
Tokwise – €150K
Omnio – €200K
Petmall – €800K
Assen Aero – €600K
MeatMe Bar – €400K
PelletBox – €200K
Gridmetrics -€50K
Trace the Taste – €50K
FidU Trade – €75K
Augment – €50K
NulaBG – €50K
Bye Bye Stuttering – €50K
EcoPolytech – €50K