Startup Wise Guys Raises $27M to Invest in B2B Startups

Startup Wise Guys has raised 25 million euros (about $27 million) to invest in startups.

The Estonia-based global accelerator fund for B2B startups said in a post on LinkedIn that it is looking to invest in 200 founders over the next two years, and it is focusing on the software-as-a-service (SaaS), FinTech, cyber, sustainability and extended reality (XR) verticals.

“In terms of geography — we already have 60+ nationalities in our portfolio, and we are ready for more — no country, no founder too small or too far,” Startup Wise Guys said in the post.

The firm has an established market in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), recently expanded to Italy and Spain and has launched an online program covering Sub-Saharan African countries, Startup Wise Guys said on LinkedIn.

Sifted reported Thursday (Feb. 16) that Startup Wise Guys aims to invest in “overlooked” markets, including southern Europe, Africa and Latin America.

“[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,” Startup Wise Guys Global CEO Cristobal Alonso said in the report.

The fund generally invests between 65,000 euros (about $70,000) and 100,000 (about $107,000) euros, sometimes adding up to 300,000 euros (about $321,000) in follow-on investments, according to the report.

This news comes about a month after venture capital (VC) firm Partech issued a report saying that total money invested into African tech startups hit $6.5 billion in 2022, up 8% from the prior year.

Partech General Partner Cyril Collon told PYMNTS at the time: “If you look at the different types of [key performance indicators (KPIs)] and compare them with Southeast Asia and LatAm, Africa is [way ahead of the curve]. It took twice less time there to get to 500 first deals in a year [and] twice less time to get the first five unicorns.”

The announcement also comes about a month after Highland Europe, the European arm of global VC investor Highland Capital Partners, closed a $1 billion-euro (about $1.09 billion) fund to back growth-stage digital-focused businesses.

The firm said it would “double down on its strategy of backing the Continent’s most outstanding founder-led teams in software and internet businesses.”