BELGRADE (Serbia) July 19. (SeeNews) South Central Ventures (SCV), a venture fund focused on tech startups and small and medium-sized tech companies in the Western Balkans, is wrapping up negotiations with one company in Serbia and another one in Macedonia, the fund's managing partner Jan Kobler told SeeNews.
The official, however, would not disclose further details about the two companies.
SCV, with committed funds of 40 million euro, does not have a specific amount of funding allocated to individual countries but takes investment decisions based on the opportunities that arise, Kobler said.
Investments in a single company range from 100,000 to 3 million euro ($90,800 - 2.7 million).
The fund stays with a company for an approximately five year period, and after this period it starts looking for a strategic partner or a buyer for its stake, Kobler explained.
Earlier this month SCV backed Croatian agtech company Agrivi with 1 million euro, which the company will use to further develop farm management software that helps farmers improve productivity and profitability.
The fund has also invested 700,000 euro in City Expert, a Serbian real estate company with a focus on developing of technologies that simplify the process of lending and renting real estate.
It has also supported with 300,000 euro another Serbian company, software developer Drytools, based in Novi Sad, in the province of Vojvodina.
In the future, SCV would like to cooperate with other venture funds, co-investing in companies with the aim to boost their business regionally, Kobler also said.
Of the fund's total capital commitment, 33 million euro was provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Fund, and German Development Bank (KfW), and the remainder by private investors, regional governments and the management team.
The fund, which has offices in Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia, considers the Serbian and Croatian markets as offering the most attractive opportunities for startup financing, Kobler said, however adding that it is scanning the market in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, as well.
The official stressed that despite cumbersome administrative procedures, business conditions in the region are improving.
($=0.9080 euro)