Over the past years Earlybird has emerged as one of the leading venture capital firms fuelling the growth of the Berlin startup ecosystem. Their investments include 6Wunderkinder and The Football App. In recent years, the firm has made investments in other European cities including Prague (Socialbakers), Vienna and Istanbul (Peak Games), where they even have an office.
Earlybird announced their new Digital East Fund, dedicated to early stage investments in Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey. Until now, the fund has $110million committed capital, but the firm said they plan to close the fund at $130m, enabling about twenty seed and series A level investments in the region.
Earlybird's Digital East Fund received capital commitments from large institutional investors including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Fund, the International Finance Corporation and Turkey's dedicated fund of funds and co-investment program Istanbul Venture Capital Initiative (iVCi) as well as from family offices and entrepreneurs around the globe.
Roland Manger, an original founder of Earlybird, brought together an experienced early stage venture capital team. The new partners for the region are Cem Sertoglu and Evren Ucok, two of the most active and most recognized technology investors in Turkey, and Dan Lupu, with a unique history covering large areas of CEE for Intel Capital.
When asked about Budapest as a startup capital, Manger said “Budapest is on our radar screen and we expect to see deal flow from there”. He also noted the biggest challenge for investing in the region is the lack of interest from other investors. “We usually bring on board further investors as we grow our companies. While we are exited to look at CEE opportunities almost exclusively, the flip side of the coin is that it will be harder to syndicate financings at later stages of a company’s life.”
Earlybird’s Digital East Fund a strong vote of confidence in the emerging CEE region, and we can hope their presence will lure other experienced institutional investors and entrepreneurs here.
