This week, Tensor Ventures launched a new €50 million fund. The fund aims to give investors access to the most attractive deep tech startups in the Czech Republic and beyond in sectors such as quantum technologies, biotech, security tech, Software 2.0, energy, and climate tech.
Founded by Deep tech specialists Roman Smola, Martin Drdul, and Petr Ulvr, the Czech-Luxembourg technology-focused fund has so far invested €20 million in 20 startups worldwide over the last four years, each with unique, advanced technologies.
These technologies often don’t receive traditional investment due to their complexity, which makes estimating their potential challenging.
Thanks to this fund, Tensor Ventures opened doors to technologies in quantum (QC82, Quantagonia, and Beit), biotech (Anari, Solvemed, and HeartBeat.bio), industry security (Veracity Protocol), decentralized technologies (Blockmate and Tatum), Software 2.0 (Pointee, dstack, Stacktape, and Contember), and energy and climate technologies (Bioo).
Two promising startups from this portfolio were acquired by multinational giants: the Czech startup UltimateSuite was acquired by the U.S. company ServiceNow, and the US-Israeli startup Neuronix AI by the U.S. corporation Microchip Technology.
Tensor Ventures is also expanding its team, welcoming Ondřej Ptáček (ex-PwC) as CFO and Jan Faflík (ex-RSJ) to lead biotech investments.
“Initially, investors joined because they trusted our expertise. It was something new for them, and they knew it was beneficial to invest early in this fast-growing segment,” explains Roman Smola of Tensor Ventures.
He adds:
“More recently, investors have been motivated by the sector’s resilience to fluctuations in global investment trends, with year-over-year stable growth in deep tech investments.”
The new fund will allocate half of its resources to the Czech Republic's best projects, with the remaining half dedicated to promising startups worldwide.
These funds will primarily support early-stage startups, with the first agreements with promising startups already in the pipeline.
Lead image: Founders Tensor Ventures No.1 - Petr Ulvr, Roman Smola and Martin Drdúl. Photo: uncredited.
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