Five venture capital (VC) funds have applied at the pre-selection level for a 32.2 million euro portfolio set aside for the Enterprise Innovations Fund, which will be distributed by the national Fund of Funds (FoF). The procedure was announced at the beginning of September and should last between nine months and a year; that is, the money should reach the selected fund managers by the second half of 2025. The portfolio envisages investments in 40 companies with up to 1 million euros.
Four of the five participants in the procedure are also candidates for other portfolios of the Fund of Funds, as there are currently five open procedures for between 15 and 40 million euros of public resources. Three of them, announced at the beginning of the year, are in the negotiation phase. Another 16 million euros are planned for student startups.
A team can apply in several procedures, but cannot win more than one of them, which means almost all of the candidate funds will likely receive money next year.
The five candidates
Morningside Hill 2 consists of the team of the first Morningside Hill fund, which managed the largest venture capital portfolio in the last FoF mandate. The team applied for two more portfolios from the FoF worth 30 and 40 million euros.
Vitosha Venture Partners 2, the continuation of Vitosha Venture Partners from the previous term of the FoF, is seeing several changes in the team. Stoyan Nedin, Marin Iliev, Maxim Gurvitz and Robert Knyaz, also participate in the remaining three FoF procedures.
Planet 9 Ventures is Kamen Bankovski's new project. Bankovski was part of the Vitosha team during its first term. He is joined by Egita Polanska, Giovanni Houri and Slavomir Tuleja join Planet 9 Ventures has also applied for another FoF portfolio worth 30 million euros.
Innovation Capital 2 is the team behind the Innovation Capital fund, which in the previous mandate of the FoF managed the smallest portfolio, mainly aimed at micro-investments at the idea level. Only part of the original team is listed among the submitters of the current offer - Vasil Hristov and Dimitar Kostov.
The fifth candidate is Compound Capital - the only new name that is not found in other procedures. The application for candidacy was submitted by Yordan Zarev, who in the last mandate of the FoF was part of the New Vision 3 (NV3) fund, in turn a continuation of the NEVEQ funds. Other representatives of NEVEQ are applying for various FoF portfolios under the name New Vision 5, but Zarev is not participating there.
Five venture capital (VC) funds have applied at the pre-selection level for a 32.2 million euro portfolio set aside for the Enterprise Innovations Fund, which will be distributed by the national Fund of Funds (FoF). The procedure was announced at the beginning of September and should last between nine months and a year; that is, the money should reach the selected fund managers by the second half of 2025. The portfolio envisages investments in 40 companies with up to 1 million euros.
Four of the five participants in the procedure are also candidates for other portfolios of the Fund of Funds, as there are currently five open procedures for between 15 and 40 million euros of public resources. Three of them, announced at the beginning of the year, are in the negotiation phase. Another 16 million euros are planned for student startups.
