The Bulgaria-based venture capital fund Eleven Ventures announced it plans to invest a total of €1.3 M in eight new startups. These are the first investments of Eleven’s second fund of €6 M, that closed entirely with private capital in February this year. The investee companies are selected among more than 200 candidates from Bulgaria and the region and are mainly B2B focused with SaaS (Software as a Service) products.
With its new investment policy, the fund will provide long-term development capital. Portfolio companies will no longer participate in an acceleration program of a limited duration but instead will gain access to an infrastructure of knowledge, capital, global partnerships and a cohesive community of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors close to Eleven. Based on the individual needs of each company, this infrastructure shall mobilize the necessary resources in the right moment. Eleven hopes to create a direct dialogue between startups and private investors to help develop the entire ecosystem.
Daniel Tomov, Partner at Eleven, commented in a press release: “The startup environment in Bulgaria is developing rapidly. The entrepreneurs we meet are getting more and more experienced. There are already many examples of successful and less successful practices for growing a company that the founders share with each other and learn from others’ experience. Thanks to this, the focus of startup companies is getting directed more towards the customers and their respective needs, which contributes to the proper product development.”
The New Eight
The new eight companies are at an early stage and for most of them, this would be a first investment. They are based in Bulgaria, with their products targeting international markets.
Colibra, develops a platform based on blockchain that eliminates the conflict of interest between a client and an insurer in the processing of insurance claims. The company receives the largest investment of €250,000.
eBag.bg, an online supermarket that supplies food products to over 12,000 households in Sofia, receives €200,000.
Noble receives €200,000 for its recruitment platform based on recommendations and rewards for each employee hired.
SMSbump is a sms marketing platform, where the fund invests €200,000.
BeeSmart Technologies digitizes beekeeping by developing a combination of hardware and software solutions that are deployed in the hive and helps beekeepers get information about bees’ condition. Eleven invests €150,000.
Gtmhub, which develops a corporate and personal goals management system under the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology for creating and developing a company structure, will receive €100,000 from the fund.
NitroPack receives an investment of €100,000 for its software project, which helps optimize and speed up the loading of web pages.
Havelock, a platform that facilitates the management of manufacturing and supply processes in the fashion industry, receives an investment of €50,000.
