Practica Capital announces €22m first close of Practica Venture Capital II fund, which will invest in the Baltic innovation- and technology-driven ventures. Invega has committed €15m of public funds with the rest committed by Practica Capital team and a number of other local and international investors. The fund will make several investments soon after the closing. Over the next 3-12 months, Practica Capital will hold the subsequent closing of the fund targeting €40m (max €50m) in total commitments.

The new fund will focus on early stage venture capital (“VC”) investments in the Baltics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and Baltic-origin (e.g. Baltic diaspora, other Baltic connection) ventures in Europe. Selectively, it will also invest in the neighbouring EU and ventures from non-EU neighbours relocating to the Baltics. The fund will invest from €200k to €2m+ in seed, early and select growth stage ventures as cross-industrial investor focusing on backing great teams behind the innovation- and technology-driven businesses.

Invega¹ will invest through the Business Financing Fund, a fund of funds managed by Invega, established by the Ministry of Economy together with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania and financed by the EU Funds.

„The growth and strengthening of venture capital funds are one of the main drivers of the start-up ecosystem growth. Besides funding needed for business launch and development, the young and innovative enterprises will also receive additional knowledge and investor advice necessary for their growth. We expect this investment of public funds will encourage the venture capital fund to be less conservative and make bold investments into young and innovative businesses, especially in Lithuania“, – said the Minister of Economy Virginijus Sinkevičius.

“This is our third fund under management with a natural evolution towards regional Baltic-focus VC investment strategy and Lithuania as one of our prime target markets. We are excited to see Invega, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance as a cornerstone investor in the new fund. Also, we would like to thank both Ministries for their long-ranging policies aimed at supporting innovative businesses, modern VC fund initiatives and for being the main investor in all of our funds under management”, – said Silvestras Tamutis, partner at Practica Capital.     

The Baltics are Emerging Nordics with dynamic economies outgrowing the rest of Europe over the past two decades, rapidly converging with advanced economies and the Nordics. With their governments supporting innovative businesses, proactively improving business and investment environment, the region is becoming an emerging hub for technology businesses with favourable ecosystem, top quartile rankings in indexes globally (e.g. 2019 World Bank Doing Business Ranking: #14 Lithuania, #19 Latvia, #16 Estonia) and one of the centres of gravity for talents in Europe.

“With an established platform and the local team of experienced VC professionals, we are well positioned to tap into this attractive market opportunity as a trusted Baltic VC partner both for investors into our funds and entrepreneurs seeking to build scalable technology-driven businesses by investing and supporting them across stages. We are happy that more than 40 teams chose us as their partner”, – said Tomas Andriuškevičius, partner at Practica Capital.

For more details regarding the opportunity to invest in the subsequent closing of the fund or receive an investment for the fund, please get in touch with Practica Capital team.

About Practica Capital:

Established in 2011, Practica Capital is a dedicated Baltic VC focusing on investments in the Baltic and Baltic-origin seed, early stage, select growth stage technology ventures. The firm also manages Practica Seed Capital and Practica Venture Capital funds from the 2012 vintage with €24m under management, 40+ investments and 12 realisations to-date. The funds were launched under the JEREMIE initiative, which is administered by the European Investment Fund (EIF), the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and financed by the EU Structural Funds under 2007-2013 Economic Growth Operational Programme of Lithuania. Practica Capital has been recognised with several international industry awards and nominations. For more information visit http://practica.vc.

About Business Financing Fund and Invega:

Risk capital financial instrument Practica Venture Capital II fund is one of the several risk capital financial instruments, which uses public funding and leverages additional private sector financial resources. This financial instrument is implemented from the Business Financing Fund, a fund of funds established by the Ministry of Economy together with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, financed by the European Union (EU) Funds under the 2014-2020 Operational Programme for the EU Funds’ Investments in Lithuania and managed by Invega¹.    

Investment and Business Guarantees (Invega) was established by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania in 2001 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Economy and acts as a national financial institution promoting funding for business. Invega implements and manages a range of financial instruments aimed at enhancing financing available to businesses, using funding available from the EU Funds programme, the national budget and funding already used and repaid to national or other funds. For more information visit http://invega.lt.

¹Invega is advised by the EBRD, for more information visit: https://www.ebrd.com/news/2016/ebrd-and-invega-join-forces-for-risk-capital-funds-in-lithuania.html