September 27 (SeeNews) - Vienna-based UNIQA Ventures, the venture capital company of Austrian insurance group UNIQA, said that it is doubling its investment volume to 150 million euro ($175.5 million) from 75 million euro to actively support European startups in the Series A phase and beyond with growth capital.
Around half of the investment volume will be invested in startups based in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, UNIQA Ventures said in a statement last week.
"Startups in the CEE region that have a scalable business model as well as great exit potential and whose capital requirement is over 500,000 euro are on the radar of the UNIQA Ventures team, which now has seven people. The investment focus here is clearly on the sectors fintech, insurtech, and digital health, which are also relevant for UNIQA," the company said.
UNIQA Ventures also said that the average investment volume is usually in the range of half a million euro to 5 million and is primarily for promising companies in the early growth phase with a proven product-market fit and already existing, relevant sales made available.
The venture capital company appreciates the entrepreneurial spirit in the CEE region as well as the pool of talent, especially in the IT sector, Sofia-based business news outlet The Recursive reported on Monday, quoting the company.
"We at UNIQA Ventures will continue to invest in our home market in the future, but are clearly focusing on the CEE region as a growth market,” the company noted.
UNIQA Ventures, founded in 2016, invests in innovative business models and start-up teams. The company's investment focus is on startups across Europe with a proven product-market fit and solid traction in the late seed or early growth stage in sectors such as FinTech, InsurTech and HealthTech. UNIQA Ventures' portfolio which includes more than 30 tech startups, including one unicorn, has had five exits since 2016 and has achieved solid double-digit returns to date, according to the statement.
($ = 0.85494 euro)