BADideas.fund hits a €1M investment milestone in first 9 months

BADideas.fund has invested €1.2M in 11 startups since April 2022, less than a year after launch.

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, from €50,000 to €200,000 per investment. More than 150 members back the fund. They helped build Pipedrive, Printify, Nordigen, Vinted and Printful.

Focus on early-traction tech in CEE

So far, the fund has invested in 11 different startups, exceeding the original expectations to make 10 investments in the first year. The startups work in many industries, from event planning software to dropshipping and recruitment. We look mainly for B2B and marketplace startups with roots in the Baltics or CEE that plan to sell globally. 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.

What comes next

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 working with the TechChill 2023 startup event to give its pitch competition winner a chance at up to €150,000 in investment.

Kulbergs has built several startups, including Funderful (exited) and Klix.app. He knows early founders need advice as much as money. Since launching BADideas.fund in 2022, over 150 startup operators from 16 countries have joined in, representing companies such as Vimeo ($450M funding), Printify ($54M), 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.