7 most active pre-seed and seed investors in Europe

Raising capital from investors is up there as one of the most difficult things founders will do while starting and running their company. It is even more difficult for first-time founders trying to raise pre-seed and seed rounds.

The recent economic downturn has affected early-stage investing as much as it has affected companies raising later rounds and while it may not be the greatest time ever to raise seed rounds, there are still players who have remained active despite the downturn.

Seedrs

Launched in 2012 and headquartered in London, Seedrs is an online investment and crowdfunding platform and has been named the most active investor in private companies in the UK.

Seedrs has been involved in close to 300 investment deals since being founded and most recently participated in Nevomo’s €5 million convertible note raise.

BPifrance

French based investment bank BPifrance is closing in on 1000 investments at different stages and in the month of November last year, they invested in 3 seed and pre-seed rounds.

Their most recent diversity investment was in Interstellar Labs $5 million seed round in March.

They have participated in over 2000 funding rounds since being founded.

Kima Ventures

With companies like Transferwise and Payfit in their portfolio, Kima ventures is one of the most active investors in the world with their website claiming they invest in 2 companies per week. The Paris based firm has made over 600 investments and 50 diversity investments in companies from 24 countries. They are also closing in on 100 exits.

As stated on their website, Kima ventures try to make funding as smooth as possible for founders as they believe it is only one step in the company’s journey.

Haatch

Haatch is an award-winning seed to exit investor that invests between £100k-£500k into the next generation of digital disruptors from their tax-efficient SEIS and EIS funds.

Haatch leverages business relationships to provide their portfolio businesses with support from product development to marketing and sales. Despite investing in many sectors, they focus on transformative digital companies.

Vitosha Partners

Launched in June 2021, Vitosha Partners is a Bulgarian based $30 million fund dedicated to backing Bulgarian-related early-stage startups.

Since being founded, Vitosha Partners have made 10 investments (8 as lead investor) with their most recent investment being in 5G and cloud computing deeptech company QuarkXR’s seed round in November.

High Tech Gruenderfonds

Hightech Gruenderfonds is a German based seed investor with €886 million in assets that invests in tech-driven startups. Hightech Gruenderfonds have raised 5 funds worth €1.6 billion, made over 750 investments and crossed 100 exits.

According to their website, they support the best founders whose ideas can revolutionize entire industries and improve people’s lives.

They invest in digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry, etc.

SeedCamp

With over 500 investments and 50+ exits, Seedcamp is a London based seed investor that invests in companies targeting global markets.

As per data from Crunchbase, Seedcamp invested in over 60 funding rounds in 2022 with over 40 of them being pre-seed and seed rounds.

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