August 7 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it intends to make an equity investment of up to 10 million euro ($11 million) in the second GapMinder venture fund, to back potential acquisitions in early stage technology-driven companies in Southeast Europe (SEE).
The fund will primarily make equity and quasi-equity investment in target companies mainly active in Romania, but also in Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Serbia and Slovenia, the bank said in a project summary on Friday.
The EBRD's investment in the Netherlands-registered GapMinder Fund II Cooperatief UA, which was approved at concept stage and is pending final review, will be channelled through the lender's Early-Stage Innovation Facility II (ESIF II). The overall target size of GapMinder Fund II is 80 million euro.
The fund manager, Amsterdam-based GapMinder Ventures, has a current portfolio of over 40 companies and has been prioritising Romania, with investments in AI start-up Veridion, online career platform Undelucram, enterprise conversational platform DruidAI, financial and insurance technology provider FintechOS, and e-fulfilment platform Frisbo, among others.
"Given the challenging fundraising and macroeconomic climate in the region, the bank's investment will be additional in enabling the fund to achieve a final closing at a credible size, allowing the fund manager to build a diversified portfolio and provide capital to support the expansion of the fund's early-stage technology portfolio companies," the EBRD noted. The investment support also aligns with the lender's innovation priorities outlined in its digital transition strategy, part of the EBRD Strategic and Capital Framework 2021-2025.
GapMinder Ventures targets seed and Series A stage business-to-business (B2B) IT software and digital product start-ups in the areas of fintech, cybersecurity, enterprise automation, and data and analytics. It traditionally invests up to 2 million euro in seed funding and up to 6 million euro in follow-up fundraising rounds, its website shows. The venture capital fund entered the Romanian market with an initial budget of 26 million euro in 2018.
($ = 0.9098 euro)