September 23 (SeeNews) - The Fund of Funds (FoF) in Bulgaria said that it established a 38 million levs ($22.7 million/19.4 million euro) acceleration and seed financing fund jointly with local financial intermediary Vitosha Venture Partners to support startups.
The Vitosha Venture Partners Fund 1, set up for a period of ten years, includes 35.6 million levs in public funds contributed by EU's operational programme Innovation and Competitiveness 2014-2020, while the remainder of 2.4 million levs is privately sourced, FoF said in a statement last week.
Vitosha Venture Partners Fund 1, to be managed by Vitosha Venture Partners, will invest in 116 startups at an early stage of development by the end of 2023.
"Small and medium-sized enterprises at the acceleration stage can rely on financing ranging from 30,000 levs to 100,000 levs. Companies at a more advanced stage of developing their product offering or designing a prototype can get between 30,000 levs to 2 million levs," FoF said.
The new fund will support technology projects with high potential for sustainable growth as well as provide access to seed financing, business advice, mentoring, operational and strategic support.
"With the new fund, there are now four such funds up and running. The fifth one is currently at the contract award stage," FoF said.
In July, the Fund of Funds said that it has awarded a 3.6 million euro ($4.2 million) contract for setting up and managing a fund for acceleration and seed financing at stage II to Vitosha Venture Partners.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)