Startup Wise Guys (SWG), an early-stage investor and accelerator based in Tallin, has closed the first €25 million ($26.7M) of a projected €45 million to support the company’s new strategy of making investments in “missed” international markets, ranging from southern Europe to Africa.
“[These are] markets with some unfair limitations in terms of early-stage funding accessibility or lack of specific expertise in the ecosystem, but with high technical talent and eagerness to ‘catch up’ with the rest of the world,” says Cristobal Alonso, global CEO of SWG.
How The Investor Will Invest The New Fund
The new capital will be split across five funds with various regional or industry coverage; one fund, for instance, will be devoted solely to Africa, while another will concentrate on the top startups in SWG’s current portfolio.
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For the next few years, SWG plans to support at least 200 companies from across Europe and Africa. In Europe, it will concentrate on Spain and Italy. It will also step up its efforts outside of the continent, in Africa and South America. It will try to expand its investment and expansion in the countries it considers “underfunded.”
The company specialises in B2B businesses in the fields of SaaS, fintech, cybersecurity, and sustainability. According to Alonso, the fund is planning to invest in new verticals later this year and is becoming more and more interested in industry 4.0 (the introduction of cloud-based and AI-powered technologies to manufacturing).
Depending on the fund, it will invest between €65k and €100k, with the potential for follow-on investments of up to €300k.
A Look At What SWG Does
SWG was established in 2012 and has since made investments in over 350 early-stage firms with founders from over 60 different nations. It completed 120 early-stage investments in 2022, and by the end of January 2023, it had already funded 12 firms.
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The company’s first overseas locations were established in Lithuania and Latvia in 2019, and historically the majority of its investments have been made in the Baltic States and larger central and eastern Europe, including Turkey and Ukraine.
Nonetheless, SWG has recently become increasingly active in pursuing businesses from beyond the region; in 2022, Italy accounted for the majority of the startups it supported, followed by Ukraine, Estonia, Turkey, and Kenya.
Moreover, new offices have been established in Milan, Italy, Malaga, Spain, and Bilbao, Spain. Also, it has been conducting an online programme for Africa, and it is currently aiming to increase its physical presence there.
The majority of SWG’s funding comes from startup founders and business owners, but recently it has also come from angel investors, venture capitalists, family offices, and fund of funds.
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Founders from startups like Lithuania’s Vinted, Estonia’s Nortal, Britain’s Fractory, and Estonia’s Stebby, as well as Uniqa Ventures, the venture arm of the Austrian insurance group, Multiple Capital Germany-based fund of funds, and Uniqa Presto Ventures, a Czech VC, have participated in this round (the latter two are SWG portfolio companies).
Startup Wise Guys Africa
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard