InvestEU: European Investment Fund invests €25 million in Central and Eastern Europe-focused deep tech fund Radix Ventures

• The investment will help to close the funding gap for Central and Eastern Europe-based deep tech founders developing solutions to facilitate green transformation.
• Radix Ventures aims to raise at least €50 million — with a hard cap of €70 million — and expects to reach first close before the end of 2023.
• The EIF financing is backed by the European Commission’s InvestEU programme.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) — backed by the InvestEU programme — is investing €25 million into the Central and Eastern Europe-based deep tech venture capital fund Radix Ventures, with the goal of diminishing the funding gap for the region’s deep tech founders.

Radix Ventures was established by a group of experienced technology entrepreneurs and investors led by Paweł Bochniarz, Wojciech Ratymirski and Michał Urbanowski. Together they managed Valuetech Seed, one of Poland’s most successful early-stage deep tech funds known for investments in advanced material startup Noctiluca (WSE: NCL) and Lerta Energy, a next generation energy startup acquired by Photon Energy Group in 2022.

While its general partners are all Polish, Radix Ventures has also engaged several leading tech investors in Romania, Hungary and Ukraine as venture partners responsible for operations in the key regional Central and Eastern European hubs.

The track record of its founders, a proprietary pipeline and a strong network of partnerships with top research institutions in Central and Eastern Europe put Radix Ventures in a unique position to take advantage of deep tech opportunities in the region.

The investment is part of the EIF’s mission to support high-growth and innovative small and medium enterprises across Europe, to ensure that at least 16% of its activity is in climate and environment-related projects in 2022, with a goal of increasing this to 25% by 2024. It also reflects the ambition of the EIF and its mandators to back managers based across all EU Member States including in underserved moderate emerging innovator countries.

“Deep tech businesses are already playing a pivotal role in transforming every sector of the global economy. That is why it is key that the EU make every effort to facilitate and accelerate this progress. Backed by the InvestEU programme, we are happy to invest in Radix Ventures and thus boost support for deep tech development across Central and Eastern Europe.” – said Marjut Falkstedt, Chief Executive of the EIF.

Founder and managing partner of Radix Ventures Paweł Bochniarz added: “We are delighted to have the European Investment Fund onboard as our cornerstone investor. As Radix Ventures founders, we believe that it will be the deep tech startups that are at the centre of the next wave of industrial revolution, as so many key sectors of the economy, including energy, manufacturing and transportation need to transform to deliver on their net-zero targets and respond to strained supply chains and labour shortages. At the same time, we are keenly aware that new technologies that have the potential to transform entire industries, in order to be successfully commercialised need very comprehensive support in areas such as regulations, strategic IP management and business development — it is the support that Radix is ready to provide.”

Background information

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's long-term financing institution owned by its Member States. EIB financing supports the achievement of EU policy objectives.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the EIB Group. Its main goal is to support microenterprises and small and medium companies (SMEs) by helping them to access finance and venture capital. The EIF also actively supports climate fund investments with a strong focus on environmental sustainability. Its activities foster EU objectives promoting innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth and job creation.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investment for EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

Radix Ventures aims to become the venture capital firm of choice for Central and Eastern Europe-based deep tech entrepreneurs. With its team of experienced tech entrepreneurs and investors strategically located in the key Central and Eastern European hubs, Radix is responding to the need for funding in the region currently underserved by venture capital. Radix Ventures seeks to invest in early growth startups and support them in scaling up and internationalising their operations. Deep tech is already becoming one of the most dynamic segments of the venture capital industry, with deal volumes 12 times what they were a decade ago according to available market data.

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