· CNMV has just approved the creation of Demium Central Europe Talent Fund I FCRE, that will promote high-tech innovative projects in seed or pre-seed stage.
· The new fund has been launched with an initial closure of €7-9M in July and expects a second closure of €30-40M in September.
25th July, 2022 - Demium Capital, the Venture Capital asset management company (formerly known as Think Bigger Capital) announces the launch of a new fund, latterly approved by the CNMV. This fund will be investing in high-tech innovative Central European startups, in their seed and pre-seed stage. The novel investment vehicle, termed Demium Central Europe Talent Fund I FCRE, intends to endorse and promote talent over this European region and contribute to its economic growth and expansion.
The company has a history in capturing talent and investing in it, in countries like Poland and Ukraine since 2019, where they have started their own hubs to incubate projects and has already a total of 12 startups in their portfolio, invested by Think Bigger Fund I. Because of that, Demium is acutely aware of the true potential that exists in those regions and deems the market to be captivating enough to offer engaging investment opportunities.
“Our first fund was already investing in European companies, yet we will exclusively dedicate this new fund in promoting innovation in Central Europe even more so. This is our way of showing how committed we are with the economic growth of countries like Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Romania. We are hoping to give our investors a much higher profitability than what the market has to offer, leveraging our position and competitive advantages over those particular regions” affirms Demium CEO, Monte Davis.
The Demium Central Europe Talent Fund I FCRE is being launched in July 2022 with an initial closure, pledging €2M on behalf of Demium. Its objective is to reach €7-9M with an eye to accelerate its impact in Central Europe, at a time when it’s notably necessary. With this first closure, Demium Capital will increase its assets under management (AUM) to a minimum of €62M. A second closure is intended at a later date - September 2022 - settled to reach €30-40M.
“Our aim is to launch a pan-European fund in 2023 that will continue our strategy of investing in regions all across Europe with extraordinary talent, helping them realize their potential, and this fund that we are launching today will be part of that project”, adds Davis.
European Vocation and Strong Trajectory
Founded in June 2020, the Demium Venture Capital asset management company, has become the most active venture capital in southern Europe and one of the top four most active venture capitals in Europe in number of operations, in 2021. It has invested a total of €13.8M in an overall figure of 112 startups (80 Spanish startups, and 32 startups in other EU countries) “hatched” in their very own incubator hubs set up in Spain, Portugal, Ukraine and Poland.
Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company has taken action in provision for making sure that all those entrepreneurs who were incubating their projects in the Kyiv office could leave the country and maintain their endeavor elsewhere. Right now, 32 Ukrainian teams still follow through with their incubation program, 18 out of which have moved to Warsaw, 8 have moved to Barcelona and the remaining 6 are physically in Ukraine, doing their work online.
On a related note, Demium has sped up the initiation of operations in Prague, where they have recently opened a new hub, and are assessing the possibility of starting new ones in Budapest and Bucharest. With the novel fund for Central European countries, Demium is hoping to be able to guide and mentor entrepreneurs in these countries, and support them financially in developing their innovation projects.