Establishment

New Europe Venture Equity LP (NEVEQ I) is a venture capital fund with eight investments in seed and growth stage technology companies. Based in Central and Eastern Europe, our companies are focused on delivering products and services to customers worldwide. NEVEQ Capital Partners, the investment manager of NEVEQ I and NEVEQ II, has over 40 man-years of investment experience, and its team members have built and/or exited five industry leaders in the region, such as:

• Orbitel, an ISP, acquired by Magyar Telekom, a division of Deutsche Telekom
• Sofica Group, largest local business services provider to IT multinationals,
  acquired by TeleTech (NASDAQ: TTEC)

Our original backers in 2006 included the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), as well as private investors from the United States, Switzerland, Austria, UK and Bulgaria, with significant emerging markets private equity investment track record. As of 2010, EBRD has deployed over EUR 50 billion of capital, with EUR 2.7 billion invested in private equity funds in the region since 1991.

Important milestones

In 2010, NEVEQ I portfolio companies achieved important milestones:

• FinAnalytica, a financial technology provider, grew to over 50 global clients, which include an university endowment fund, a sovereign wealth fund, and a hedge fund manager, all of which being among the global top 3 in their industry segment;
• Vayant, an airfare pricing and search company launched its core solution and signed its first commercial agreement
• Ontotext, an advanced semantics technology company gained high-profile customers such as BBC and Astra Zeneca and launched US operations in Connecticut
• 3DC became the first carrier independent Tier 4 data center in the region

NEVEQ's involvements

NEVEQ Capital Partners supported the launch of The Balkanski-Panitza Institute for Advanced Study (BPIAS) in Forges, France. The institute is an international non-profit body dedicated to the promotion of excellence in sciences.

It seeks to make a lasting contribution to the advancement of sciences and technology in Bulgaria and its wider region. This is carried out in partnerships with academic institutions, including other advanced studies’ centers, the NGO sector, government agencies, businesses, international and EU bodies, and programs supporting scientific research.

BPIAS convenes a wide range of research events and hosts visiting senior and junior fellows. Co-founders include Philippe Aghion from the Department of Economics at Harvard University; Jean-Pierre Massue, Secretary General of the European Federation of Scientific Networks Europe; Gocha Chogovadze, UNESCO Chairholder and Member of Georgian Academy of Sciences, Georgian Technical University and many other prominent academics.

NEVEQ II

NEVEQ entered its seventh year of supporting leading entrepreneurs from around the world with the launch of our second venture fund, NEVEQ II.

We were backed by successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and repeat NEVEQ investors, who joined our new partner and cornerstone investor, the European Investment Fund (EIF).

The EIF is a specialist investor in private equity and venture capital funds across Europe, with active commitments of over 5.6 billion euro in capital to more than 350 funds.

We continued our partnerships with three investee companies in our first fund, NEVEQ I, helping them to grow further and raise capital from co-investors.

Simultaneously, we made the first commitments from our new fund, enabling more entrepreneurs to pursue their goals on the global markets.

Now

We have invested EUR 15 million in 14 companies in growth, early and seed stages. Portfolio split in terms of verticals is balanced among enterprise software, vertical marketplaces, fintech, analytics, internet and other.