VC firm KAYA has raised nearly €70 million for a fifth fund to continue supporting founders from the CEE region
The firm has so far primarily invested in Czech, Polish, and Slovakian startups, but as part of its new fund, one of Central Europe's oldest and most successful early-stage venture investors will also invest in the broader Central and Eastern European region.
The latest fund is expected to help up to twenty-five early-stage startups achieve global leadership, supporting them from the so-called pre-seed stage to the Series A investment round.
A typical initial investment from KAYA ranges from one to three million Euro. For companies that are on a good path to realising their potential, the fund keeps a capital reserve for follow-on rounds and, through syndication with select investors, it can allocate up to €20 million to a single company.
According to Tomas Obrtac, one of the four equal partners of the fund, the last decade has shown that there is a growing pool of technology talent in CEE that has contributed to a number of global success stories –- and KAYA has been behind many of them for almost fifteen years.
“We look for founders with big dreams and the courage to go global, and we want to be their first partners and long-term supporters: we enter at an early stage and stay on as the company grows into a truly global, impactful company.
We believe that the most interesting CEE stories are still only emerging.”
Since 2018, KAYA has been developing a data platform that monitors the global startup scene in real time and helps capture early signals from promising companies. It was this digitisation opportunity that brought Vaclav Ryslink, then a student of mathematics and physics, to the team. Today, he is an investor.
KAYA has two unicorns in its portfolio, Rohlik and Docplanner. There is a soon-to-be unicorn too – Poland's Booksy, which crossed €100 million in revenue last year.
Currently, KAYA has more than forty-five companies in its portfolio, including Jutro Medical, Better Stack, SensibleBio, Upheal, and Superlinked. The value of its holdings in these companies amounts to €350 million.
Alongside the new fund, former startup founder Karel Zheng, who has been with KAYA since 2018 except for a period when he ran his own startup, has been made a Partner:
"As a representative of Generation Z, I hope to bring a fresh perspective of someone who 'grew up online,' is connected to global communities, and intuitively understands how today's founders think about product, culture, and impact."
According to Zheng, KAYA wants to recognise emerging trends more quickly within the team without losing the discipline and experience of senior partners.
“It is the combination of these generational perspectives that I believe gives KAYA a competitive advantage and will help us find other exceptional companies.”
Lead image: KAYA. Photo: uncredited.
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