Budapest-based Lead Ventures has announced a €100m final close of their second fund. With the fresh money, the VC plans to back late seed and Series A startups from central and eastern Europe (CEE). This is one of the largest funds recently raised in the region, next to OTB Ventures’ $185m and Inovo’s €105m.
Lead Ventures invests in late seed and Series A startups, whose products and services have already been validated in the market and require substantial capital for growth. Its tickets range from €2m to €10m. It invests in startups across various sectors, including mobility, energy, fintech, and other B2B software verticals. It’ll look for opportunities across the CEE region.
With its first fund, Lead Ventures invested in Slovakia’s CloudTalk, a call center software provider, Hungary’s ecommerce messaging platform Recart, and Czech AI traffic analytics platform GoodVision. Its successful exits include Hungary’s biggest exit of AiMotive, an autonomous vehicles technology and Amodo, an insurtech. It’s coinvested alongside some of the region’s top VCs, such as Credo and Point9 Capital.
The main LPs include Hungary’s oil and gas giant MOL Group and the National Capital Holding, a Hungarian development fund.
