We invest in early seed and pre-seed stages, offering tickets of up to €200k alongside co-investors. Our sector focus is broad, encompassing any industry, with a geographic emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
FAQ
At what stage do you invest? What do you mean by pre-seed?
Ideally, we want to lead the first investment round in your company. Sometimes this is also referred to as an angel round. As for product development, we will generally want to see the MVP and some go to market story or traction. It is great if you can get those first five clients or sell the very first batch of your product prior to our investment. If getting traction is impossible, you still should have a story of progress and achieving goals in your startup.
I feel like my company is too early/too late for you. Can we still talk?
Sure, you’re welcome to reach out at any point. A lot of startups that we’ve invested in came to us too early, but because we could start those relationships and develop a mutual understanding, it was a lot easier to make the investment decisions later on. If you are too far down the road for us, but you believe we could add some value, feel free to reach out to us as well. We’ll definitely look into what we can do together.
What is your USP?
- Pre-seed investment focus – we are the biggest pre-seed VC fund in Poland and in the CEE region.
- Competence Hubs – we provide our portfolio companies an unique model of support in the way of 8 Competence Hubs, which are focusing on the following areas: Marketing, PR & Growth; AI & Technology; Finances & CFO on Demand; Legal; Next Rounds & Co-investors; People & Culture; Grants; Exits.
- Co-Investors – to every investment round in a seamless, efficient process we add co-investors – business angels with a unique background specifically matched with your needs.
- 120+ investments – we have the unique experience with the largest amount of investments in the CEE region.
- 100% private capital – we are fully private VC fund, which gives us and our portfolio companies a lot of flexibility.
How are you unique?
- Timing: we are likely the earliest possible institutional investor due to our focus on pre-seed.
- Acceleration model, built on four pillars:
- the in-house team ready to help founders all hands in if needed
- adding co-investors to every investment round in a seamless, efficient process
- 8 Competence Hubs
- unique experience from 120+ investments.
You mention co-investors. Are they absolutely necessary? Do we have to bring them, or do you help us connect with prospective investors?
We believe that adding co-investors at this stage is super helpful for the startup, and we have got a number of cases to prove it. Co-investors will most often be experienced business angels, and we make sure to find the best possible fit.
If you bring someone to the table, that’s great. We are also happy to dig through our network.
How do you work with portfolio startups?
We believe that adding co-investors at this stage is super helpful for the startup, and we have got a number of cases to prove it. Co-investors will most often be experienced business angels, and we make sure to find the best possible fit.
If you bring someone to the table, that’s great. We are also happy to dig through our network.
Where do you stand on diversity and inclusion
We welcome teams and founders from all backgrounds. AIP Seed has also enjoyed great success with a number of female-led startups like GLOV, SiDLY or EduCat.