Why 2021 was a momentous year for LAUNCHub Ventures
For many of us, 2021 has been the year of slowly (often too slowly) getting back to some sense of normalcy as businesses come back to life to meet new challenges. But despite all of the challenges it brought, 2021 was a momentous year for us and we’d like to share it all with you. So check out what we’ve been up to and get involved in the community!
We closed a €74m new fund
In the fall, we hit a major milestone, closing a brand new fund of over €74m to invest in Seed and Series A stage companies. This was made possible by institutional investors like the European Investment Fund, The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and a number of strategic private Investors.
With this new fund, we’re looking to lead €300K to €4M investment rounds in verticals like SaaS, Fintech, Proptech, Big Data, AI, Marketplaces, Digital Health, Blockchain, and IoT. This places us in an excellent position to address the region’s VC fundraising gap.
Of course, we’re still sticking with our mission to support SEE and CEE funders here and around the world. If you think your company might be a good fit for this latest fund, check out our more detailed investment criteria.
Gtmhub raised $120m in Series C
Gtmhub, a portfolio company of LAUNCHub Ventures, raised a $120m in Series C round led by Index Ventures.
Read all details here: click
We invested in 7 new companies
Despite the difficulties involved with travelling to meet founders for much of the year, we still built a slew of fantastic new relationships that led us to invest in 7 companies we think are poised to shake up fields as diverse as Fintech to literal overseas travel. Here’s what each of them is up to:
- FintechOS is building the future of financial technology by empowering banks and insurers to become future-ready.
- Orbiit is using AI to match community members for 1:1 chats that bring real value.
- Ferryhopper is empowering travellers to move effortlessly between over 160 Mediterranean islands and ports.
- AdEx Ambire is a display ad network for reduced ad fraud and increased user privacy
- Giraffe360 is giving real estate companies the tools to easily provide virtual tours, professional photography, remote viewings, and accurate floor plans.
- Kriptomat is making it easier and safer than ever for people to buy and sell cryptocurrencies around the world.
- Rush is Automated, State-Of-The-Art Shipment Tracking For Shopify
Check them out and see why every one of these companies turned us into true believers.
We had 2 exits
This year we were absolutely thrilled to see two of our portfolio companies make successful exits, marking major successes not just for us but for the larger CEE and SEE ecosystems.
We saw the Bulgarian sports streaming company FITE get acquired by TrillerNet in the biggest exit in our firm’s history. FITE is now giving Triller a major foothold in the live-event PPV and streaming space alongside its existing AI-driven content ecosystem. Triller now looks poised to grow into a powerhouse in lifestyle and entertainment programming.
We also saw the SaaS management company Cleanshelf get acquired by LeanIX. Together, they’re making it easier than ever for large enterprises to manage all of their myriad SaaS solutions in one easy place. The security and efficiency gains LeanIX customers gain can be transformative, so we’re excited to see what the Cleanshelf team achieves in the future as a part of LeanIX.
We shared innumerable insights in our Series A Academy
Launched this year, our goal for Series A Academy has been to connect CEE and SEE founders with top tier investors ready to answer their most pressing questions. In the 6 events we held, founders gained insights on scalable go-to-market strategies, what SaaS businesses can’t afford to leave out of their pitch decks, what kind of data metrics investors are looking for, and much more.
We recommend you check out the top takeaways from our first 3 events and consider joining us for future Series A Academy events in 2022.
Get in touch and join our community!
While we’re terribly excited to share all of our 2021 successes, we’re already looking ahead to do even better in 2022. You can stay on top of everything we’re doing by following us on Medium and Facebook.
