AIN.Capital has created a ranking of the most active Bulgarian VC funds in H1 2022. The ranking includes 10 local backers that together made 63 investments during January 2022-June 2022. Innovation Capital, LAUNCHub Ventures, and Eleven Ventures topped the list by closing 47 deals.
Methodology
We applied the same methodology, as we used in preparing rankings of the most active Polish, Baltic, Finnish, Hungarian, Czech, and Romanian venture capital funds. Firstly, to create the list of top Bulgarian backers, we analyzed the investment activities of all active VCs in this country for the period from January 2022 to June 2022.
After that, we chose those that made one or more investments in startups in the first half of 2022, and conducted a survey among them. Relying on their answers, open source information, as well as Dealroom.com and Crunchbase data, we chose 10 backers that have led or joined at least one round in the six months of 2022.
This ranking consists of profiles of the 10 most active Bulgarian VC funds and shows information on the number of investments they made in total and within the period mentioned above, funding focus, ticket sizes, management team, and recently closed deals.
1. Innovation Capital
- Number of investments: 120+ / 31 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partner: Angel H. Angelov and Dimitar Kostov
- Fund size: €21.1 million
- Region: Bulgaria
- Industries: sector agnostic
- Investment stages: pre-seed, seed
- Ticket size: €50,000-€100,000
Innovation Capital is a venture capital fund that focuses on providing access to equity and quasi-equity funding to Bulgarian startup. The firm is sector agnostic with priorities in enterprise software, e-commerce, financial services, education, logistics, healthcare, cybersecurity. Innovation Capital is interested in companies with high potential or already existing sustainable competitive advantage for scaling globally.
Recent investments: Foodobox, Stailor, Foody.to.
2. LAUNCHub
- Number of investments: 120+ / 9 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partners: Todor Breshkov and Lyuben Belov
- Fund size: €70 million
- Region: globally
- Industries: SaaS, fintech, proptech, Big Data, AI, marketplaces, digital health, blockchain, IoT
- Investment stages: seed and Series A
- Ticket size: €300,000-€4 million
Founded in 2012, LAUNCHub Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Sofia. The firm prefers to invest in seed and Series A technology projects in Central and Southeastern Europe, as well as in SEE & CEE founders based in leading startup hubs worldwide.
Recent investments: Index Health, Rush, mediately.
3. Eleven Ventures
- Number of investments: 148 / 7 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partners: Ivaylo Simov and Vassil Terziev
- Fund size: €60 million Fund III
- Region: Southeast Europe
- Industries: fintech, healthcare, future of work and future of food
- Investment stages: seed-Series B
- Ticket size: €250,000-€2 million
Established in 2012, Eleven Ventures is an early-stage fund that supports tech companies from Southeast Europe in four priority verticals — fintech, healthcare, future of work and future of food. With 150 collective investments over nine years, Eleven’s team is aimed to drive and catalyze the regional startup ecosystem and the region development as well.
Recent investments: Almacena Platform, Healee, Boleron.
4. Vitosha Venture Partners
- Number of investments: 46 / 6 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partner: Max Gurvits
- Fund size: €26 million
- Region: companies that are based or related to Bulgaria
- Industries: sector agnostic
- Investment stages: early and growth stages
- Ticket size: up to €50,000 for acceleration stage, and between €100,000 and €1 million for seed and later
Founded in 2020, Sofia-based Vitosha Venture Partners invests in early-stage and growth-stage companies that are based in or related to Bulgaria. The firm claims it is looking for local founders with ideas that matter, and strong execution. Apart from the investment, Vitosha Venture Partners provides the startups with experts advice, global network and market access, helping entrepreneurs to develop and scale their businesses.
Recent investments: Agriniser, GreenRay, Sheetly.
5. BrightCap Ventures
- Number of investments: 19 / 4 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partners: Georgi Mitov and Elina Halatcheva
- Fund size: €25 million (nearly €21 million is in a seed/early-stage instrument, and around €4 million in an accelerator)
- Region: invest globally
- Industries: sector agnostic
- Investment stages: early stages
- Ticket size: €1 million-€1.5 million (can go up to €3.5 million) for seed/early-stage, €200,000 for accelerator
Launched in 2018, BrightCap Ventures is an early-stage and accelerator VC fund based in Sofia. It invests in global founders who leverage local engineering talent, helping them by providing with entrepreneurial experience and extensive global network. BrightCap Venture has investment activities across the US, Israel, and EMEA.
Recent investments: Kardi AI, LucidLink, Novus.
6. New Vision 3 Fund
- Number of investments: 15 / 2 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partner: Zlatolina Mukova
- Fund size: €22 million
- Region: Bulgaria or Bulgarian diaspora abroad
- Industries: ta fintech and blockchain, AI, shared economy and platforms, IoT and Big Data
- Investment stages: early stages
- Ticket size: €100,000-€1 million
Launched in 2019, New Vision 3 Fund is a Sofia-based early-stage venture capital fund. Apart from the target sectors, which are healthcare, fintech, blockchain, AI, IoT, Big Data, the fund’s interests inckude 3D printing, robotics, nanotech and biotech, cybersecurity, cleantech, as well as AR/VR.
Recent investments: AE Solar Horizon, Releva.
7. Sofia Angels Ventures
- Number of investments: 5 / 1 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partners: Milen Ivanov and George Sidjimkov
- Fund size: €13 million
- Region: Bulgaria, SEE and CEE
- Industries: sector agnostic
- Investment stages: pre-seed, seed
- Ticket size: €200,000-€500,000
Founded in 2020, Sofia Angels Ventures is a €13 million venture capital fund backed up by the European Investment Fund to co-invest alongside angels, family offices, and other private investors and funds. The firm focus on technology startups at pre-seed & seed stage predominantly from Bulgaria, SEE & CEE countries but with a vision to operate around Europe and globally.
Recent investments: Hoting Innovations, Digistain.
8. NEO Ventures
- Number of investments: 30 / 1 of them in H1 2022
- Founding Partner: Pavel Ezekiev
- Region: globally
- Industries: space, biotech, security
- Investment stages: early stages
- Ticket size: up to €3 million
Founded in 2017, Neo Ventures is a Sofia-based fund that invests in early-stage companies for a share between 5% and 20%, and with a maximum ticket size of €3 million. The fund supports game-changing businesses, without geographic limitations. Apart from the investment, Neo Ventures provides portfolio startups with support in business planning, scaling operations, follow-on investments, as well as mentorship from venture partners.
Recent investments: Cyberwrite.
9. NEVEQ
- Number of investments: 20 / 1 of them in H1 2022
- CEO: Konstantin Petrov
- Fund size: €20 million
- Region: Central and Eastern Europe
- Industries: IT, software, fintech sector agnostic
- Investment stages: seed to Series B
- Ticket size: up to €2 million
Founded in 2006, NEVEQ is a venture capital firm based in Sofia. The firm seeks to invest in Central and Eastern European companies operating in the software & internet sectors, with a focus on enterprise applications software, fintech, analytics, and industry vertical applications.
Recent investments: Smartocto.
10. Morningside Hill Capital Management
- Number of investments: 18 / 1 of them in H1 2022
- Managing Partner: Pavel Velkov
- Fund size: €38.5 million
- Region: Bulgaria
- Industries: sector agnostic
- Investment stages: post-seed
- Ticket size: €700,000-€3.5 million
Morningside Hill Capital Management launched its latest venture capital fund in November 2019 to provide growth capital to early-stage startups. The fund is sector agnostic, but companies must either generate at least 50% of their revenue in Bulgaria, at least 50% of the company’s staff is based in Bulgaria, or at least 50% of the company’s assets are held in a Bulgarian subsidiary. Morningside Hill plans to invest in equity (or equivalent) minority positions in 25 to 30 companies.
Recent investments: ThingsLog.
