Fundraising School 2025: apply by 4 September

Fundraising School is a free programme of six weeks for pre-seed and seed founders in any industry. It is the only accelerator in Latvia that teaches only fundraising: how to approach investors, pitch and close a round.

The venture capital and angel investment fund BADideas.fund, in partnership with the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA) and the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency (RITA), is opening applications for the third Fundraising School, a free programme that teaches CEE founders to raise money and introduces them to investors. Over the past two years, Fundraising School alumni have collectively raised more than €5.2 million in investments.

The programme has webinars and workshops, then one-on-one investor meetings and a demo day. The best startups can win cash prizes from Make and HubSpot. In previous years, more than a third of participants received invitations from investors for follow-up discussions or entry into other accelerator programs.

“This is a unique opportunity to gain fundraising skills in a short and intensive format, and it’s completely free of charge,” says Jurģis Kalniņš, Program Director of Fundraising School. “Once again, the program will be led by two experienced instructors with backgrounds both in startups and investment, including Silicon Valley companies: Diāna Lāce-Davidova, current Head of Operations at Latvia’s success story Whimsical, and Suhas Ghante, a two-time 500 Startups graduate, entrepreneur, and partner at SVethos.”

In addition to lectures and workshops, the program will feature more than 20 venture capital funds managing over €700 million, as well as four founder-mentors who have successfully raised capital themselves.

“It’s not the best companies that get funded. It’s the best storytellers.”

“Time and again we see that great companies fail to raise because their applications don’t answer key investor questions: why this team, how fast is the market growing, and how exactly will capital fuel growth,” notes Raimonds Kulbergs, founder of BADideas.fund. “In today’s post-pandemic climate, investors demand rapid but efficient growth. With our 250-strong investor community, we’re able to bring Silicon Valley’s best fundraising practices and share them with our region. The growing interest from both startups and investors for the third year in a row is a strong signal that this program is needed.”

Who it is for

Fundraising School is a free programme of six weeks for pre-seed and seed founders in any industry. It is the only accelerator in Latvia that teaches only fundraising: how to approach investors, pitch and close a round.

Applications are open until September 4, 2025: https://www.badideas.fund/fundraising-school

The program is free of charge, thanks to strategic support from the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency, as well as the Latvian Investment and Development Agency, that operates under activity 1.2.1.4 "Support for the improvement of the technology transfer system" of the Specific Support Objective 1.2.1 "Strengthening of research and innovation capacity and introduction of advanced technologies in enterprises" of the European Union Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027 (project identification number 1.2.1.4/1/23/I/001).

📅 Applications close: September 4, 2025

🌐 Apply here: https://www.badideas.fund/fundraising-school

Media contact:

Jurģis Kalniņš, Program Director, Fundraising School

j@badideas.fund | +371 26757704