a16z Scouting Fund
a16z was founded in 2009 on the belief that software would fundamentally transform the world and that the most successful technology companies would become immensely valuable. The firm operates on a platform model, providing founders with a comprehensive team of operators across various functions, including marketing, talent, legal, and policy, to support them at every stage. Their investment team comprises former founders and operators with experience in building successful companies, offering firsthand knowledge of the challenges entrepreneurs face. a16z's investment strategy is centered around identifying and supporting builders who are shaping the future. They aim to provide these builders with the resources and support they need to succeed. The firm emphasizes long-term relationships and operates with a commitment to integrity, honesty, and keeping their word. a16z emphasizes investing in entrepreneurs to help achieve a better future and avoids public criticism of any entrepreneur or startup. They believe in taking a long view of relationships and prioritize truth and honesty in their interactions. The firm's philosophy extends to its internal culture, where actions are valued over beliefs. The firm emphasizes clarity about its values and expectations of team members. a16z takes inspiration from James Pierpont Morgan's approach to business, prioritizing respect for the entrepreneurial process and providing timely, substantive feedback to founders, even in cases of rejection. The firm invests across various sectors, from seed to growth stage, focusing on technology companies. The firm also actively produces content and engages with various forms of media to communicate and share big ideas.
Anamcara Capital
Anamcara Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in exceptional European founders building for global markets. They focus on pre-seed and seed stage companies in Enterprise Software and AI. Their strategy revolves around early conviction, identifying companies before the broader market recognizes their potential. They aim to provide more than just capital, emphasizing relationships and long-term partnerships with their portfolio companies. Their primary value proposition is access. They connect founders directly to Fortune 500 customers, US operators, and tier-1 investors through a proprietary network built over a decade across the US, Europe, and GCC. This network is intended to drive revenue, critical hires, and US expansion for their portfolio companies. They adopt a hands-on approach, working closely with founders from day one to offer support and guidance. Anamcara Capital emphasizes building partnerships that extend beyond the initial investment, indicating a commitment to supporting founders through challenges and successes. They prioritize conviction over consensus, demonstrating a willingness to take risks on companies with transformative potential. The firm doesn't optimize for volume, suggesting a focus on making fewer, more impactful investments.
Connectventures
Connect Ventures is a venture firm designed to work for exceptional founders building outlier product companies. They focus on supporting brilliant minds driving change, providing support every step of the way. They seek founders who are building products they themselves badly want and can't find anywhere, solving problems they personally experience. This resonates with Connect's thesis, indicating a product-centric investment approach. They claim to deeply understand the power of product, showing an obsession with developer experience.
Expedite Ventures
Expedite Ventures is a business angel group of CTOs and CPOs focused on investing in and mentoring tech founders, with a particular emphasis on creating sustainable businesses. They provide both capital and in-depth, hands-on mentorship derived from decades of collective experience in building and scaling technology companies, which they believe is at least as valuable as funding. They prioritize supporting underrepresented groups in tech, including female and immigrant entrepreneurs. They are particularly interested in DevTools that promote cross-functionality, bridging gaps between developers and other creative colleagues. The firm looks for founders who identify and address real problems with innovative solutions. They value teams with industry expertise, unique access to data or resources, and a combination of smart technological implementations. They also invest in companies that combine AI, document management, and payments to tackle inefficiencies in the fintech and legaltech spaces. Their investment strategy involves partnering with founders and teams who demonstrate a clear vision, an innovative use of state-of-the-art technology, and the potential to disrupt their respective industries. They emphasize hands-on support to the companies they invest in and provide mentorship to ensure success.
TheFactory Proptech Accelerator
TheFactory is an early-stage investor and accelerator based in Norway. They operate various programs, including TheFactory DefSec Accelerator (focused on defense and security technology), Gründer Academy (a startup academy program for Norwegian entrepreneurs), and Sportstech Academy. The firm aims to connect entrepreneurs with industry partners to accelerate business and innovation. They focus on providing early-stage capital, hands-on acceleration, and access to a network of mentors, investors, and partners. Their investment strategy targets promising startups across various sectors including fintech, proptech, greentech, retail, and sportstech. They support startups from the initial concept phase through to becoming investment-ready and market-ready. TheFactory emphasizes building long-term value through innovation and collaboration.
e2vc
e2vc focuses on investing in "today's dreamers, building tomorrow's Emerging Europe." This suggests a strategy of backing early-stage companies with high growth potential in the Emerging Europe region. The portfolio highlights showcase a focus on companies achieving significant milestones, such as unicorn status (Loom Games, Carbon Health, BillionToOne, Insider), substantial funding rounds (Fal, Daytona, Arf, Ubicloud, Cypher Games, Agave Games, Vivoo, Massive Bio) and AI driven technologies. The firm's content strategy is geared towards highlighting trends and opportunities in Emerging Europe, such as Türkiye's gaming industry potential and the rise of global unicorns from the region. e2vc seems particularly interested in the intersection of technology and various sectors like gaming, health tech, devtools/AI, and fintech.
Folklore Ventures
Folklore Ventures positions itself as a long-term partner for founders from the earliest stages, even pre-product and pre-revenue, through to significant growth. Their investment philosophy centers around believing in founder vision, the potential of teams, and long-range ambition. They aim to be the investors they wish they had when they were founders, offering coaching, support, and a tight-knit team to help navigate the startup journey. Folklore emphasizes a deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs of building a company from the ground up, derived from their own experiences as former founders and builders. Their mission is to support Australian and New Zealand tech founders in building globally competitive companies, contributing to the future health and vibrancy of the Australian startup ecosystem. Folklore's approach goes beyond simply providing capital; they aim to create an abundance of opportunity for future generations by building one of the world's great investment firms. They are committed to supporting founders through the ups and downs, providing guidance and resources to help them realize their vision. They acknowledge that startups are not simply small big companies but unique journeys into the unknown, and they are prepared to be a long-term partner to help founders move mountains, fight fires, and celebrate small victories. This commitment extends to investing in companies from pre-product and pre-revenue stages and partnering to get them to hundreds of employees and millions in revenue. Beyond capital, Folklore provides curated resources through their "Campfire toolkit," a library of resources and tips to help founders maximize their output, success, and improve processes. This toolkit covers a wide array of topics including revenue, growth, engineering, finance and legal, investment, product, comms and brand, people and culture, and company building. The firm also supports their founders through the State of Australian Startup Funding Report which provides invaluable insights into the investment landscape.
Infinity Ventures
Infinity Ventures focuses on backing early-stage founders building the next generation of fintech infrastructure, particularly in the B2B space and commerce enablement. They believe that the future of fintech depends on modern infrastructure to overcome the limitations of existing legacy systems. The firm aims to invest in companies that improve access, utility, flexibility, and cost within the financial infrastructure landscape. They leverage their operating and investing experience, especially from their PayPal background, to support founders through deep relationships, operational know-how, and regulatory understanding. Their investment approach is grounded in a deep sector focus, multi-stage investment experience from seed to exit, and relationships across the fintech and commerce enablement ecosystems. They aim to be more than just a financial investor, providing hands-on support to their portfolio companies. Infinity Ventures emphasizes its team's experience as operators, advisors, and investors, highlighting their ability to provide support in product strategy and roadmap development, distribution, and go-to-market strategies. They aim to be architects of trusted, modern fintech infrastructure by partnering closely with founders.
Schwarzwald Capital Fund
Schwarzwald Capital Fund, founded in 2021, is a venture capital firm focused on investing in companies operating within the fintech and creator economy sectors. They back visionary founders who are building a dynamic future. They engage with exceptional teams at the inception of their ventures. Their primary investment targets are pioneering projects in fintech and the creator economy. Schwarzwald forges partnerships with founders possessing foresight and collaborates with astute investors. They aim to provide value through deep industry knowledge and proven company-building acumen. Their network is extensive, offering connections for global scaling and market penetration. They focus on Pre-Seed and Seed stage companies, specifically in post-MVP and pre-traction phases. They are open to leading or co-leading investment rounds.
Philipp Angermann
PA Ventures GmbH, led by Philipp Angermann, focuses on early-stage fintech and B2B SaaS startups. As an angel investor and startup advisor, Philipp leverages his experience in product management, B2B marketing, B2B sales, and operations to support portfolio companies. His investment strategy centers around providing not only capital but also hands-on guidance to help startups navigate the challenges of early growth. He aims to connect them with a strong network of fellow angel investors, VCs, and family offices for subsequent fundraising rounds. Philipp also runs the PA Foundation to support non-profits and is committed to sustainability by offsetting his carbon footprint through Leaders for Climate Action.
Fortech Investments
Fortech Investments is an early-stage investment fund and strategic partner based in Romania, targeting ambitious founders in specific sectors: manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, fintech, and energy. Originating from a software company with over 20 years of expertise in these industries, they bring not only capital but also actionable advice and introductions to their portfolio companies. They emphasize moving quickly and investing with conviction, recognizing the importance of time in the startup world. Fortech Investments aims to be more than just a source of capital. They position themselves as thought partners, ready to actively support founders throughout their journey, from the initial idea to a potential IPO. They provide strategic support, including go-to-market strategies, expansion plans, and scaling in new or existing markets, alongside access to a network of founders, domain experts, investors, and enterprise clients. Their approach focuses on providing 'smart money' – capital coupled with technical and business expertise – enabling founders to make quicker and better decisions throughout the startup lifecycle. They also highlight the importance of founder-fund fit, emphasizing the desire to be a true partner rather than simply an investor on the cap table, someone capable of providing comprehensive support along the entire journey. Fortech Investments distinguishes itself by leveraging its origin in a software company, offering deep technical and industry-specific knowledge to their portfolio companies.
365.fintech
365.fintech is a venture capital firm focused on providing financing and support to seed-stage fintech startups. They aim to build a strong fintech network in Europe to benefit their portfolio companies. Beyond financing, they offer hands-on operational and strategic support, including pitch deck reviews and strategic workshops, providing assistance when and where needed. They understand the banking sector, including the intricacies of financial services such as regulation and other challenges faced by startups, to create an ecosystem for knowledge sharing and potential synergies between startups, partners, and the banking sector. They prioritize a founder-friendly approach to fundraising, aiming to streamline the process and reduce the time investment for founders.
Acrobator Ventures
Acrobator Ventures is a relationship-first fund that invests in early-stage startups, starting at pre-seed and potentially backing them until exit. They focus on B2B(2C) AI/ML software companies operating in cybersecurity, fintech, infrastructure, synthetic media, and data-heavy technologies. They have a particular interest in founders from the CIS, Baltics, and CEE regions who are building global software platforms. Acrobator Ventures provides initial investments ranging from $200k to $1.25m, preferably in a lead investor role. They are willing to participate in follow-on rounds A, B, and C. The firm emphasizes founder coaching and operational support, rolling up their sleeves when needed to assist portfolio companies. The firm's investment philosophy is rooted in their own experiences as founders and operators. They have built businesses, led large development teams, scaled SaaS companies, and invested across diverse regions and cultures, giving them a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by early-stage startups.
Araliventures
Arali Ventures partners with audacious founders rewriting the future of enterprise technology. They invest early, typically at the pre-seed and seed stages, partnering with founders from the initial idea stage through signing early customers. They describe themselves as 'ScaleFounder first | Operator led. | Compounding impact.' offering candid feedback delivered with respect and context. They emphasize deep work on product, customers, and markets, avoiding shallow insights. They value speed of learning through rapid iteration and are committed to long-term trust-based relationships with founders. Arali focuses on businesses that are "workflow-first," with an expanded operator network and a strong understanding of repeatable go-to-market patterns. The fund actively helps fintech founders sharpen business models, understand unit economics, and develop distribution plans. They also support founders on pricing, metrics, and investor readiness, especially for businesses selling into regulated institutions, emphasizing partnerships and clarity of narrative for complex buyers. The firm assists early-stage teams with customer discovery, Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) clarity, and go-to-market iteration. They emphasize turning early signals into actionable plans, focusing on positioning, messaging, and a sustainable execution cadence. Core to their approach is prioritizing clarity on the customer and the fundamental wedge to build upon. They work with teams on pipelines, pilots, and reference-building. They are hands-on when it comes to enterprise deals and helping teams establish the operating cadence needed for long sales cycles. For companies in industrial and regulated domains, they help teams navigate complex buying centers, operational rollouts, and strategic partnerships. The VC firm is particularly useful on sharpening the “why now,” packaging the wedge, and building momentum from lighthouse wins. They provide assistance with key hires, pricing strategy, go-to-market planning, and partnerships, as well as pressure-testing ideas and acting as a sounding board.
Coparion
Coparion invests in German technology startups with scalable, innovative solutions and measurable growth traction (e.g., revenue, key customers, product adoption). They prioritize hands-on support, long-term value creation, and co-investment with private investors. Focused on operational excellence, independence, and sector-agnostic (excluding EIB-excluded activities) investments up to €15M per company across multiple rounds.
EcoMachines Ventures
EcoMachines Ventures is a London-based boutique investment company with a global reach, focused on early-stage investments. They look for entrepreneurs and businesses building exciting technologies with the potential to scale in large, proven markets. The firm aims to support teams actively and tailored to the needs of each business, offering more than just financial support. They are open to companies at seed stage or later levels of investment. When evaluating potential investments, EcoMachines emphasizes the ability of companies to clearly articulate the problems they are solving, the barriers they face, the required resources, and their achievable plan. This suggests a focus on businesses with well-defined strategies and a clear understanding of their market and operational challenges. The firm provides equity investment, access to a network of industry experts, brokering corporate linkages, and syndicating with other investors. This multi-faceted approach indicates a commitment to actively supporting portfolio companies beyond just capital infusion, aiming to facilitate growth and strategic partnerships.
ffVC Tech & Gaming
ff Venture Capital (ffVC) is a global family of funds with a successful track record of identifying and investing in high-potential seed-stage companies over 15 years. The firm adheres to due diligence rigor and a proven set of well-defined investment criteria. Their investment strategy is designed to deliver strong performance to investors, enhanced by access to significant and proprietary deal flow. ffVC takes a highly engaged approach, helping founders build real companies with real business models, leading to higher survivorship. Their founder-friendly approach, providing deep operational expertise and support, has resulted in a 15-year track record of ffVC portfolio companies graduating to Series B at a rate 5x the industry average. They invest at the earliest stage of company formation, often as the lead investor with active Board participation. Significant co-investment opportunities are available for their LPs. The firm's investment conviction comes through exhaustive due diligence, investing in only 5% of the 3,000 deals reviewed annually. Post-investment, ffVC devotes extensive resources beyond capital to help companies grow from Seed through Series A and B, including access to their exclusive accounting firm, a 35,000+ founder and investor ecosystem, and an investment team that advises on product development, sales & marketing, and revenue generation. This has resulted in top-decile performing fund portfolios with 26 exits and more than a half dozen pre-IPO unicorns driving over $100 million in annual recurring revenue. ffVC also has a European fund based in Warsaw, Poland, primarily funding Tech + Gaming innovations from Series Seed through Series B. This initiative is part of a wider partnership with Totalizator Sportowy, PFR Ventures, and the Polish National Center for Research and Development to invest and nurture companies in the Central European region. ffVC Europe is particularly focused on empowering founders with a Polish footprint that are deploying their products globally in e‑commerce, fintech, gaming, cybersecurity, enterprise software, and AI / big-data.