The total amount invested through the early-stage angel investor BADideas.fund crosses the €1M mark less than a year after launch. Since April 2022, the angel investor syndicate has invested €1.2M in 11 startups overall, ranging from €50' 000 to €200' 000 per investment ticket. The fund is backed by over 150 members who’ve been building companies such as Pipedrive, Printify, Nordigen and Vinted, Printful among others.
Focus on early-traction tech in CEE with global plans at the core of success
So far, the fund has invested in 11 different startups, exceeding the original expectations to make 10 investments in the first year. Even though the current portfolio represents a very diverse mix of industries - including an operations platform for event planning, on-demand dropshipping service and an all-in-one recruitment platform, to name just a few - the syndicate has been deliberately targeting tech-enabled startups in the B2B and marketplace spaces with roots in the Baltics/CEE and global expansion plans. The overall portfolio includes predominantly early-traction (73%) companies from Latvia (37%), Estonia (27%), Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovakia and Germany, and covers B2B (55%), marketplace (27%) and enterprise (18%) sectors.
“The combination of our own startup building experience and geographical focus allows us to spot and make bets on the best startup teams in the region,” says Raimonds Kulbergs, founder of BADideas.fund. “Our strength lies within the collective expertise of our 150+ strong community of experienced startup builders including unicorn founders that our startups can tap into, starting from a rigorous vetting process and extending to individual support. ” Startups particularly appreciate the fast funding turnaround, feedback and support provided by the angel syndicate.
Future plans center around helping companies beyond writing the check
Looking ahead, BADideas.fund has growth plans beyond expanding its member base and portfolio. “The idea was borne out of a shared interest across accomplished startup builders and founders to not just build wealth, but also meaningfully support our startups, ” Kulbergs adds. Their future plans include creating space for investors to connect with startups within a particular expertise area, launching a platform with online learning resources, and teaming up with TechChill 2023, arguably the most highly-anticipated startup in CEE, to support the pitch battle with a prize - a chance to get up to €150' 000 in investment.
The notion that early-stage startups value deep expertise, support and advice as much as funding is not new to Kulbergs who’s previously built multiple successful startups, including Funderful (exited) and Klix.app. Since launching BADideas.fund in 2022, over 150 startup operators from 16 countries have joined in, representing companies such as Vimeo ($450M funding), Printify ($54), Pandadoc ($51M), Pipedrive ($90M), Bolt ($1.3B), Apollo ($151M), Bird ($783M funding), Shopify ($122M), Printful ($130M), Twilio ($614M), Veriff ($192.3M), Wise ($1.3B), Interactio ($30M), Vinted ($562.3M), NordVPN ($100M) and Hubspot ($100.5M), among others.