Varsity VC
Varsity VC operates a seed fund with a unique strategy akin to the NBA draft. They select 30 startups and aim to propel them into the portfolios of top-tier early-stage venture capital firms. This suggests a focus on identifying promising startups at the seed stage and providing them with the resources and support necessary to attract follow-on investment from leading VCs. The fund appears to focus on a high-volume, selective approach, aiming to generate significant returns through successful graduation to later-stage funding rounds. The 'propel' strategy implies that Varsity VC provides more than just capital. This could include strategic guidance, networking opportunities, and operational support designed to enhance the startups' attractiveness to larger VCs. The emphasis on 'the world's best early-stage VCs' suggests a focus on quality and a deep understanding of the venture capital landscape. The firm seems to cultivate a network and provide resources to its portfolio companies, with a strong emphasis on facilitating connections to later-stage investors. Their strategy hints at a comprehensive approach to nurturing early-stage ventures, improving their value proposition, and positioning them for successful Series A and beyond.
Vendep Capital
Vendep Capital is a B2B SaaS VC firm that invests early in Nordic and Baltic SaaS teams. They provide capital, expertise, and follow-on support, staying close to their portfolio companies as they scale. They focus on backing a smaller number of teams to provide each one with their full attention and support, offering meaningful follow-on capital, firsthand founder and operator experience, and a community of sharp founders. They aim to help founders navigate tough calls and scale with confidence. Their investments span from first traction to real momentum, focusing on companies that are building solutions that matter.
Venture Kick
Venture Kick's core mission is to significantly boost the Swiss startup ecosystem. They aim to double the number of spin-offs originating from Swiss universities, accelerate their journey to market readiness, and enhance their attractiveness to both professional investors and strategic industry partners. Their approach is centered around providing early-stage funding and comprehensive support to promising startups. Venture Kick operates a three-stage philanthropic funding model. This model provides Swiss startups with crucial initial capital, up to CHF 150,000, designed to catalyze their entrepreneurial ventures. Beyond initial funding, Venture Kick facilitates access to further financial resources, including up to CHF 850,000 in equity funding through Kickfund and an additional CHF 150,000 InnoBooster grant. Beyond capital, Venture Kick emphasizes hands-on business development and fundraising support. They offer Kickers Camps, which provide guidance from experienced entrepreneurs to structure pitches and develop robust business strategies. Startups also benefit from access to a global network of industry leaders and investors, coupled with strong media exposure, designed to amplify their visibility and attract further investment.
Venture Studio from Crisis
Venture Studio from Crisis is an investment initiative dedicated to supporting startups that are developing innovative solutions to address homelessness and the housing crisis. Established in 2020, this venture studio aligns with Crisis's broader mission of driving long-term, systemic change through policy, research, and frontline services. Recognizing the significant increase in households in temporary accommodation and the critical need for more social homes, the Venture Studio aims to prevent or end homelessness for up to 1 million people by backing scalable, sustainable solutions that improve access to quality, affordable housing. The investment strategy focuses on providing equity funding to businesses with the potential to drive efficiency and affordability in the housing sector. Crisis actively co-designs solutions with individuals who have experienced homelessness, ensuring that the startups' efforts are grounded in real-world insights and needs. They leverage Crisis's expertise to help founders create greater impact. Moreover, the Venture Studio nurtures a community of innovators and entrepreneurs, reinvesting any returns to tackle the underlying drivers of homelessness over the long-term. Crisis is deeply involved in advocating for policy changes, conducting research to understand homelessness, and providing direct support to those at risk or experiencing homelessness. The Venture Studio operates alongside these efforts to create a holistic approach to ending homelessness. By convening stakeholders across public, private, and third sectors, they aim to foster collaboration and drive meaningful change. The organization reinvests returns from their portfolio to further support new companies and projects, creating a sustainable funding cycle for tackling homelessness. Their work extends to influencing legislation, as seen in their contributions to the new homelessness law in Wales, and providing comprehensive support through Skylight centers across Great Britain.
Verge Healthtech Fund
Verge HealthTech Fund focuses on investing in transformative healthtech companies that aim to extend healthspan and improve healthcare accessibility, quality, and efficiency. They believe that healthtech can amplify the current health system by connecting traditional sectors with non-health sectors, reaching billions of people. The fund supports visionary founders who are creating transformative healthtech companies and addresses large unmet needs in health through platforms that can reach millions. They provide active expertise, access to a global ecosystem, and portfolio synergies to help companies scale from early to growth stage.
Vertex Ventures Israel
Vertex Ventures US focuses on partnering with and investing in early-stage founders building infrastructure and SaaS companies. Their approach is rooted in their experience as founders and operators, enabling them to provide practical insights and support to technical founders, especially in nailing the go-to-market strategy and assembling exceptional teams. They aim to be high-conviction and highly present investors, sharing lessons learned from their own company-building journeys and bringing curiosity and candor to every step of the investment process. They believe in investing in people, not just products, and focus on helping portfolio companies amplify their message, recruit talent, and connect with potential customers. Vertex Ventures US emphasizes the importance of understanding the unique challenges faced by early-stage companies and providing relevant, hands-on support that addresses those specific needs. Vertex Ventures US is actively exploring how AI is changing software development and operations. They observe a shift from manual workflows to systems that understand context and proactively suggest optimal actions. They believe provisioning, CI/CD, security, observability, performance, and incident response are being rethought to handle the increasing complexity and dynamism of modern IT environments, especially those utilizing AI-generated code and agentic workloads. Vertex sees potential in how AI can improve operations and reduce the constant firefighting that consumes SREs time, allowing them to focus on more valuable strategic work.
Viola Ventures
Viola is Israel’s leading technology investment group with over $6 billion assets under management. They enable Israeli entrepreneurs to build transformational technology companies. Viola is a multi-strategy investment house with focused, separate investment arms. They partner with companies from inception to growth. Each partnership operates independently with a dedicated investment team, investors, pool of funds, and portfolio companies, but shares access to added-value services, best practices and insights. Viola operates through several focused funds including Viola Ventures (early-stage VC), Viola Growth (expansion-stage capital), Viola Credit (alternative credit for tech companies), Viola FinTech (cross-stage FinTech investments), and Viola Partners (access to Viola Group funds). Viola Ventures empowers early-stage startups to become category leaders. Viola Growth focuses on investing in global companies at the expansion phase. Viola Credit provides multi-credit products to growing technology companies. Viola FinTech invests in global FinTech companies alongside leading venture investors, aiming to accelerate the modernization and digitization of financial institutions and support the growth of FinTech companies. Viola aims to transform global industries through its investments, supporting companies across various sectors with capital and strategic guidance. The firm also publishes "Viola Notes," which appear to be thought leadership pieces or market analyses.
Vitosha Venture Partners
Vitosha Venture Partners is an early-stage VC fund investing in innovative businesses in Bulgaria. They aim to provide more than just funding, offering their investment experience, global network, and market access to help turn entrepreneurs into champions. The firm focuses on resourceful founders, ideas that matter, and strong execution. They look at deals on an ongoing basis and make decisions quickly. They specifically target companies based in or related to Bulgaria. While the website doesn't explicitly detail a sector-specific thesis, the portfolio demonstrates an interest in RegTech, EnergyTech, Traveltech, E-commerce, FinTech, and SaaS companies, all demonstrating innovative business models. Vitosha Venture Partners positions itself as more than just a capital provider. They bring to bear investment experience, a global network, and market access to accelerate the growth of their portfolio companies. Their team has deep connections within the Bulgarian startup ecosystem and international networks, allowing them to connect founders to relevant resources and expertise. They also provide operational support. The firm emphasizes quick decision-making and continuous deal evaluation. This suggests an agile and responsive approach to venture investing, tailored to the dynamic needs of early-stage companies. Vitosha Venture Partners invests between EUR 25,000 and EUR 1,000,000.
Vorwerk Ventures
Vorwerk Ventures is an independent €150m Venture Capital Fund with €400m under management. They are committed to backing founders that drive positive change for people and the planet. They offer experience and a strong track record to forward-thinking tech entrepreneurs. They look for companies with an outstanding founding team, a unique product or service addressing a substantial market, and a strong business model. Their investment strategy involves providing continuous support by reserving capital for upcoming financing rounds.
Wayra Deutschland
Wayra Deutschland operates as the open innovation hub for o2 Telefónica, focusing on bridging the gap between tech startups and the telecommunications giant. They aim to drive corporate innovation by scouting, scaling, and investing in tech startups, facilitating mutually beneficial collaborations. Their core strategy revolves around connecting startups with o2 Telefónica to enable pilot projects, test solutions, and implement innovative products, offering startups access to a large enterprise client and a fast-track procurement process. This approach serves as a venture-client model, where o2 Telefónica becomes the first, anchor customer for promising startups. Wayra provides startups with essential tools, contacts, and support to secure o2 Telefónica as a client, scale their businesses, and gain market traction.
Wayra UK
Wayra UK is the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) arm and open innovation platform of Telefónica. Their primary mission is to foster innovation and drive progress in startups by facilitating their collaboration with Telefónica and other organizations. They achieve this through a 'venture-client' approach, which provides startups with access to Telefónica's extensive network of 380 million customers, thereby accelerating their entry into global markets and facilitating scaling. Wayra also builds bridges between corporations and startups by investing in startups for other companies based on custom-designed investment theses. Wayra has evolved from a startup accelerator into a CVC fund with over 15 years of experience in the global entrepreneurial landscape. They operate hubs in Europe and Latin America, allowing startups to achieve a global presence. Since 2018, Wayra has played a significant role in open innovation, not only investing in startups, but also offering innovation services directly to Telefónica and other corporations through their open innovation platforms. Wayra focuses on identifying and supporting disruptive projects within the startup ecosystem. They aim to incorporate these innovations into Telefónica's operations, generating impactful results. Their open innovation services are designed to help other corporations enhance their own innovation strategies, further extending Wayra's influence on the entrepreneurial landscape. Their investment strategy is underscored by a set of core values, namely: 'Think Big,' encouraging ambition and challenging the status quo; 'Trust,' emphasizing honesty, integrity, and accountability; 'Bias for Action,' promoting determination and implementation focus; 'We Are One Team,' valuing collaboration and mutual support; and 'Have Fun,' highlighting the importance of enjoyment, empathy, and care throughout the venture journey.
Wellstreet
Wellstreet is an early-stage Nordic tech investor focused on building and accelerating innovations that lead to a better tomorrow. They aim to be a proactive investor by providing capital and hands-on support through a purpose-built ecosystem. They invest in early-stage Nordic companies and support their development up to the scale-up stage, considering sustainability, ESG, and exit paths from the outset. Wellstreet distinguishes itself by creating an international curated ecosystem of industry competence, offering proactive support and expertise to its portfolio companies. This ecosystem includes partners, mentors, LPs, and industry experts who contribute knowledge to key strategic events and initiatives. They have developed a unique ESG framework which they share with the startup and investor community. Their sweet spot is investing in early-stage Nordic companies, and supporting their development up to scale-up stage. They emphasize sustainability, ESG, and exit paths early on. Wellstreet supports every entrepreneur with the necessary resources to thrive, identifying opportunities that lead to success and aiming for the highest survival rate in the industry. Wellstreet focuses on proactive ESG, ensuring they're working towards building a better future. They have a proven track record, dedication to their partners, and commitment to sustainability.
XPRESS Ventures
XPRESS Ventures invests in founders transforming the industrialized world, focusing on startups at the beginning of their journey. They believe that success in the industrial world depends on industry expertise, infrastructure access, and clients, and they aim to help startups bridge to these critical assets. They empower founders with capital and expertise early, providing advice rather than control, and leverage their network to supercharge startup growth. This includes helping startups navigate corporate collaboration challenges, connecting them with key industry players, and engaging their network of investors to foster advancements that build on industrial knowledge.
Xplore by Épopée Gestion
Xplore, formerly West Web Valley, is the venture capital arm of Épopée Gestion. Their investment thesis centers around accelerating innovation within specific territories, particularly the Arc Atlantique region of France. They aim to finance, support, and accelerate innovative companies to create economic, ecological, and social value at a local level. Xplore focuses on investments at the intersection of technological innovation and major societal challenges. They prioritize sectors undergoing rapid transformation, reflecting concerns about sovereignty, sustainability, and performance. Xplore offers tailored support, leveraging their in-depth expertise and understanding of local ecosystems, to help ambitious and scalable projects emerge. Their goal is to foster the growth of companies that will contribute to regional development and address significant global challenges. Xplore emphasizes building a strong local network and actively supporting portfolio companies' growth ambitions. They describe themselves as demanding yet supportive partners, offering more than just capital, including mentorship and guidance from experienced entrepreneurs.
ZORA Ventures
ZORA Ventures is an early-stage deep tech investor based in Tel Aviv, focusing on Israel's impact space since 2017. The firm invests in leading scientists and entrepreneurs with globally scalable deep tech to combat climate change and cultivate sustainable food systems. ZORA seeks opportunities for game-changing global impact and partners with innovators and corporates, viewing this collaboration as the fastest path to a cleaner and healthier future. The fund's strategy involves converting lab-scale innovations into mainstream food, agriculture, and climate solutions that transform how global business is done -- healthfully, sustainably, and resource-efficiently. The firm's investments are geared towards deploying products for the world’s largest economic actors, i.e., global corporations, to effect meaningful change at an unprecedented scale. ZORA emphasizes a hands-on approach, working intimately with its portfolio companies to bring innovations from lab to field. They see Israel's deep tech ecosystem as having unparalleled R&D capabilities to address the planet's largest challenges - managing climate change while ensuring a sustainable food supply for a growing population. ZORA's community extends to its investors, who are keen on deploying their capital in pursuit of a brighter tomorrow. The firm sees partnership between innovators and corporates as the fastest path to a cleaner and healthier future. They are voracious learners, deriving endless energy from the world-class scientists and teams they back.
Zephyr Angels
Zephyr Angels is currently focused on making investments and appears to be in the early stages of development, as indicated by their website's under-construction status. Their primary objective seems to be identifying promising startups and connecting them with angel investors. The firm encourages individuals interested in becoming business angels to join their network and invites startups to submit their pitches for consideration at upcoming events. This suggests a focus on early-stage investments and a hands-on approach to sourcing deals and supporting portfolio companies. The firm aims to bridge the gap between early stage startups and angel investors.
allygatr
allygatr positions itself as a pioneering HR Tech ecosystem, aiming to create remarkable value for startups, investors, experts, and companies by building and investing in strong solutions covering the entire HR value chain. They focus on attracting, recruiting, selecting, educating, developing, motivating, rewarding, retaining, supporting, and organizing within the HR tech space. They provide support to startups in the HR Tech sector to help them establish a strong business presence and support already growing companies to thrive. Their approach includes designing, validating, and growing each venture by leveraging existing assets, and they provide ongoing support with interdisciplinary experts until the ventures are ready to operate independently. allygatr states their mission is to help start-ups in the HR Tech sector take a foothold in the business and to support already growing companies to thrive. They design, validate and grow each venture by leveraging their existing assets, and while doing so, they go much further than others. They have the knowledge and strategy that keeps businesses running smoothly after the birth of a portfolio. Also, they stay on board with their interdisciplinary experts until they’re ready to walk on their own.
build! Gründungszentrum Carinthia
build! Gründungszentrum Carinthia is an incubator and support center focused on assisting young founders in their journey to self-employment. They provide support to technology-oriented, knowledge-based, and scalable startup projects, with a particular focus on IOT BUSINESS INNOVATIONS. Additionally, they support scale-up projects of young companies (within their first five years) and project development in regional opportunity areas with high potential for technology-oriented and knowledge-based startups or scale-up processes that create regional value. The firm aims to be a center for innovative, technology-oriented, and scalable startups, guiding them step-by-step from initial idea to a fully operational company. Their program involves informing, preparing and planning stages to help founders.
building10 Servicegesellschaft mbH
b10 is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups. They claim to have invested 10 Million Euros and provided 10,000 days of operational support to 10 companies. The firm seems to focus on helping companies grow and has a team with experience in fundraising, sales, finance, legal, and international growth. They appear to offer operational support, as indicated by the "10K Days Ops Support" mentioned on their homepage. Furthermore, considering the team composition, which includes roles such as Head of Design, Head of Content, and Head of Talent, it's likely the firm provides hands-on support in various functional areas. The firm's portfolio demonstrates a preference for innovative companies, including those in autonomous vehicles (ENWAY), smart building technology (Sensorberg), and digital publishing (Pressmatrix). Furthermore, the portfolio is a mix of companies they have directly invested in and companies that partners of b10 have been involved with individually. Given the investment focus and team expertise, b10 likely seeks startups with strong growth potential and innovative business models, where their experience and operational support can accelerate development and market penetration. The exits to date highlight their ability to identify early stage promising startups and help them navigate the path to successful exits. The team's experience in specific areas like fundraising, sales, and international growth indicates a targeted value proposition for portfolio companies facing these challenges.
i&i Prague
i&i Prague is a biotech incubator and venture builder focused on helping groundbreaking ideas in drug development, diagnostics, medical technologies, and other life sciences move from the lab to the market. They specialize in supporting startups in the early stages of development, providing expert consulting in scientific, legal, business, and other areas essential for successful growth. They aim to build a unique network of startups, investors, industrial partners, and biotechnology experts, enabling effective collaboration and knowledge sharing. Their incubation program offers step-by-step support in setting up a company, including market analysis and information, gaining early-on industry feedback, obtaining initial funding, and investor contacts. They seek to identify new inventions in Drug Discovery, Diagnostics, MedTech, and other Life Science fields, connecting innovation with capital and expertise to create growth opportunities. Their team leverages decades of know-how and experiences gathered in academic institutions, technology transfer, and industrial companies. i&i Prague's strategy involves actively sourcing biotech projects originating in academia and finding commercial partners for them. They acquire intellectual property rights from research institutions and collaborate with industrial partners for product development, manufacturing, and market entry. This collaborative approach allows them to bring scientific discoveries closer to real-world applications, as exemplified by their partnership with the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (ÚHKT) to commercialize an innovative liquid microextraction technology. Overall, i&i Prague aims to bridge the gap between academic research and commercialization by providing comprehensive support, facilitating collaborations, and leveraging their expertise in the biotech sector. They support scientific discoveries that can fundamentally improve patient care and believe in supporting scalable and beneficial technologies.
iExec Web3 Incubator
Based on the information available, H7 is a startup accelerator that focuses on helping startups grow and have a positive impact. They organize events like "Zero to One" to connect entrepreneurs with investors, large companies, and institutions. They also provide resources and support to startups in various sectors, including LegalTech and impact-driven businesses. H7 appears to be focused on startups in the early stages of their development, providing coaching and resources to help them succeed. The accelerator's focus on "responsible" acceleration suggests an emphasis on sustainable and ethical business practices. Specific details on their investment criteria, check sizes, and fund structure are not readily available on the crawled pages.
neosfer GmbH
neosfer GmbH is Commerzbank's innovation unit and early-stage investor. They focus on the digital and sustainable transformation of financial services, believing it contributes to a better future. Their strategy revolves around three core activities: Invest, Build, and Connect. First, they identify promising innovations in the market and support them with venture capital and experience. Second, they develop know-how and business models for new technologies, internally prototyping and developing business models. Third, they foster an ecosystem around innovation, technology, and sustainability, connecting startups, investors, and innovators. As Commerzbank’s corporate venture capitalist, neosfer aims to redefine financial services with solutions that add real value to the Commerzbank Group and its customers, focusing on digital and sustainable approaches. They look for startups across Europe, operating primarily from Frankfurt and Berlin.
re.Mind Capital
re.Mind Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in companies dedicated to mental health, brain health, and human flourishing. Their investment thesis centers around supporting innovative solutions that address critical needs in these areas.
whataventure
whataventure is a venture building firm that focuses on helping established corporations create new businesses and revenue streams. They believe diversification and building new revenue streams are essential for corporate long-term survival and staying ahead of disruption. Their approach involves systematically building investable ventures by fostering a team with strong entrepreneurial experience and a venture mindset. They develop and refine their methodology to best leverage corporate assets, ultimately aiming to deliver measurable business innovations that drive real growth. They emphasize a hands-on entrepreneurial approach, building ventures from concept to MVP and market launch. The firm's strategy revolves around partnering with corporate leaders to build ventures within their existing structures, offering a blend of entrepreneurial expertise and corporate resources. They create small, agile project teams composed of venture architects and analysts and work in a hybrid setup, often on-site with clients. A key aspect of their approach is the 'squad system,' where cross-functional teams focus on strategic topics like people & culture, innovation, or internal tools and methods, allowing individuals to contribute beyond client projects. They aim to foster an entrepreneurial mindset within the corporate environment, encouraging ownership, creativity, and courage. Their internal culture emphasizes entrepreneurship, quality orientation, transparency, evolving strengths, and constant improvement. This approach enables them to bridge the gap between established corporations and the agility of startups, facilitating innovation and new business creation even amidst economic uncertainty. whataventure offers a structured career growth path, emphasizing learning-by-doing and early empowerment. They provide regular feedback, 360° reviews, Smart Sessions (internal knowledge sharing), team-wide learning days, and interactive workshops to foster growth alongside the team. They encourage team members to shape their own path, whether that's leading a squad initiative, introducing a new validation approach, mentoring junior team members, or sharing expertise.