Polish fund bValue eyes Romania, CEE for investments in software, IT, and e-commerce

Polish growth private equity fundbValuehas recently raised its third fund of EUR 90 million and is now seeking investment opportunities across Central and Eastern Europe. With a strong focus on software, IT services, and e-commerce, bValue is particularly keen on exploring the Romanian market, it said.

The fund plans to invest EUR 5 to 15 million per project, preferring to hold minority positions.

Over the past seven years, bValue has made over 40 investments and achieved more than 15 exits in the CEE region, targeting fast-growing and scalable companies across various sectors, including enterprise software, B2B SaaS, healthcare, and D2C e-commerce.

Apart from Poland, where the fund originates, bValue led a EUR 1 million seed round in Rayscape (formerly XVision), a Romanian AI/ML radiology platform, and invested EUR 650,000 in Aggero, a Social Media AI video listening tool.

The bValue growth fund aims to position itself as a new asset class - growth equity - filling the gap between Venture Capital and Private Equity. The investment focus is on scale-ups, which include companies that have received early-stage funding from VCs and have shown significant development.

“We are looking for growing but already EBITDA profitable businesses with revenues of at least RON 10 million, which do not have many options for raising capital today. We primarily compete with PE funds. Our advantage is allowing the entrepreneur to retain control of the company. Something like this has not yet existed in the Polish reality; we are creating a new market,” Maciej Balsewicz, the founder and managing partner of the fund, explains.

By 2027, the fund aims to reach a portfolio of 8–12 companies, investing EUR 5-15 million in exchange for 15-40% equity. Exceptionally, it can take a majority stake. This was the case of Hostersi, a company the fund invested in in 2023. It specializes in cloud migration and infrastructure maintenance services.

This year, the fund invested in Sportano, an online sports store offering equipment, clothing, footwear, and accessories from over 800 brands for all types of activities in 12 European countries, including Romania.

bValue will allocate about EUR 15 million for two new transactions in 2024 and EUR 25 million within the following year.

“We see several particularly attractive areas. The first are companies operating at the intersection of services and products that help traditional businesses to digitize. The second important trend for us, in current geopolitical conditions, is cybersecurity. We are interested in both services for companies and the public sector, as well as products for securing data, servers, or end-user devices. We also see promising niches in the e-commerce sector, which has returned to a growth rate close to 10%. Furthermore, we are looking for local leaders with international ambitions, rapidly developing organically, or having the potential to build a platform for market consolidation,” Balsewicz said.