Bucharest-based Underline Ventures closes debut fund at USD 20 mln to support early-stage startups

Bucharest-based Underline Ventures, the first solo general partner venture fund in Eastern Europe, announced recently that it has finalized the closing of its first fund at USD 20 million. The fund wants to invest in 20+ early-stage Eastern European startups, offering an average investment ticket of USD 500,000.

Romanian investor Bogdan Iordache, best known as the founder of the How to Web conference, launched Underline Ventures in July 2022.

"We are lucky to partner with investors who have a deep conviction that Eastern European founders can build significant technology businesses despite the current macro environment. We know founders fundraising in this climate have to show a lot of resilience - while this may be a difficult start, in the long run, it can be a great way to start," said Bogdan Iordache, the General Partner of Underline Ventures.

The fund's capital has been raised mostly from tech founders and operators, along with other business leaders and international fund-of-funds. It plans to double down its efforts to further develop an impactful platform for its portfolio companies.

Backed by 30+ founders and early-stage operators from companies such as UiPath, Telerik, Green Horse Games, Bitdefender, FintechOS, MultiversX, MorphL, and Smartbill, as well as family offices and funds-of-funds, Underline Ventures has finalized seven investments so far in Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and the broader Eastern European diaspora. Their activities range from big data & AI and cybersecurity to ecomm infrastructure.

Iordache commented: "We are focused on supporting exceptional founders to build solutions for hard problems that can scale globally. Founders come first, and we are vertical agonistic, but we're paying extra attention to enterprise automation, AI, cybersec, industrial tech, defence, and climate-related startups."

At this moment Underline Ventures invested founders can benefit from recruitment services (with the help of Ioana Patran, ex-Microsoft), communication management (with the help of Adriana Spulber, ex-How to Web & Pago), growth advisory (with the help of Vlad Ionescu, ex-UiPath), financial planning and fundraising (with the help of Mihai Faur, UiPath) and integrated marketing strategy (with the help of Ioana Serban, ex-FintechOS), along with Bogdan Iordache's help on venture strategy and fundraising. Founders and operators from companies like UiPath, Telerik, Bitdefender, and others also advise the portfolio startups regularly.

Bogdan Iordache was also the founder of Conectoo (exited in 2013) and a former investor for Gecad Ventures, 3TS Capital Partners, and MVP Academy.