Invest Nova Scotia

We invest in early-stage, scalable ventures with exceptional founders. We focus on discovering early-stage, tech-enabled startups with significant growth potential in key industries that are reflective of our region and network, with a bias to those in Wisconsin and the Midwest. Investment VerticalsSPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT DIGITAL HEALTH AGRICULTURE, WATER & ENVIRONMENT MANUFACTURING & CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAIN & LOGISTICS CROSS-INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY Investment CriteriaSTAGE: We invest in early-stage companies that range from pre-revenue to Series A. INDUSTRY: We focus on digitally transforming industries core to the strengths of our partners and region. CHECK SIZE: Our initial check size ranges from $200K to $2M. We are happy to lead deals or co-invest. GEOGRAPHY: We have a bias toward founders based in or connected to Wisconsin and the Midwest. We exclusively invest in the U.S. and Canada. NETWORK: We invest in opportunities where we can add value with our networks and partnerships.

As a member of the Nemzeti Tőkeholding group, MFB Invest Befektetési és Vagyonkezelő Zrt. invests capital to support the growth of companies facing expansion and capital-intensive investments, as well as to development projects that are particularly important to the national economy, especially energy and green field projects. It operates within the group of the Hungarian Development Bank and Nemzeti Tőkeholding. Its aim to increase the integration of the Hungarian economy into Europe. In collaboration with market investors and international organizations, it establishes and oversees registered capital funds in Hungary, directing investments towards domestic companies. Through this, it efficiently allocates state resources, while catalysing the engagement of Hungarian private and international co-investors to ensure the successful implementation of numerous projects. It is also involved in traditional industries but places particular emphasis on the green economy, real estate development and achieving energy independence. It engages in tight professional and economic collaboration with the Hungarian Development Bank. Our investment operation in capital funds MFB Invest follows an indirect investment strategy. It establishes capital funds and guides them through their 5–15-year trajectory, securing resources within the funds with co-investors. It delegates the allocation of funds to private fund managers with a focus on various sub-markets so that: capital is distributed more efficiently in the economy, leading to improved aggregated success and returns on investments, with the addition of co-investor capital, state resources can offer amplified financing to enterprises for their development and growth, projects with the goal of correcting or eliminating market deficiencies and gaps, while contributing to the development of the economy, are successfully implemented. Investment areas Real estate investments: The growth rate of infrastructural and real estate investments significantly impacts overall economic growth. Through our investment funds focused on real estate development, we are dedicated to supporting developments and greenfield investments targeting domestic industrial, logistics and service facilities. Energy and innovation: Our investment funds, with a focus on energy efficiency and prioritizing renewable alternative energy sources, network development, and the country's innovation performance offer long-term capital financing through a predictable business model. Green investments: Apart from adhering to ESG compliance and strict regulations, our investment funds dedicated to green investments concentrate on renewable energy, green transport, sustainable cities, eco-friendly construction industry and real estate development, environmental protection, and on those agricultural areas which are particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture: Our agriculture-focused investment funds are designed to support and develop the entire value chain of agricultural activities, including related supply, processing and distribution processes. International cooperations: Capital funds that strengthen the Hungarian economy's international relations system effectively support the inflow of foreign capital into key domestic industries. Collaborations, such as .the capital fund jointly established by the European Investment Fund and MFB Invest, accelerate the inflow of international capital. Traditional industries: Fortifying traditional industries is not merely an option; it is an economic and sustainability necessity. Through strategic capital funds, we support companies engaged in traditional sectors, including the machine industry, automobile industry, pharmaceutical and chemical industry, process manufacturing, tourism, and the food industry. About the Nemzeti Tőkeholding MFB Invest operates under the coordination of Nemzeti Tőkeholding Zrt., which is responsible for establishing a harmonized and predictable operational framework and norm system for capital funds with partial or full state backing. Additionally, it defines a unified strategic direction for the sufficient capital financing of domestic enterprises. The collective mission of the group members of Nemzeti Tőkeholding is to contribute capital to achieve the goals set by the Ministry for National Economy. In pursuit of this mission, they possess both direct and "fund of funds" investor competencies.

We focus on a small number of high conviction opportunities each year and support a select group of visionary entrepreneurs working to create breakthrough technologies and transform industries. Our investors include families who control the most iconic businesses across media, fashion, luxury, hospitality, healthcare, telecom, automotive, financial services, food, beverage, construction, and education. Green bay’s mission is to connect the most innovative and important companies of this generation with flagship customers from our investor ecosystem.

Launch Africa is a leading Pan-African VC fund solving the significant funding gap in the Seed and pre-Series A investment landscape in Africa. With a decade-long track record of venture building alongside some of the smartest founding teams in Africa, we back startups across multiple sectors, regions, and products that tackle the most meaningful challenges on the continent. Target Investments We invest our capital, time, intellectual resources, and global networks into leading B2B and B2B2C early-stage, technology-driven startups with strong management teams and scalable solutions. Investment Type We invest up to $300k per transaction, primarily through S.A.F.E. notes or convertible notes. We expect our portfolio companies to be ready for their Series A round within 18 months of our investment. Investment Process Our process is efficient. It gives us the ability to invest in a few startups each quarter and allows founders to focus on their entrepreneurial pursuits. We actively co-invest alongside leading regional funds. More than capital We use our diverse global advisory networks and unique access to corporate distribution channels across Africa to unlock value for our startups through strategic partnerships and regional networks. Tackling the most meaningful challenges on the continent In Africa there is a unique commercial “need-to-have” vs. “nice-to-have” focus on investment sectors with the opportunity to improve the quality of life of hundreds of millions by using technology. Financial services Enterprise Solutions Education & Skills Climate & Green Tech Telecom & Media Health Tech Smart Cities & Energy Food & Water Digital Transformation

We believe that the best technology investment opportunities arise from the emergence of new enabling technologies. Enabling technologies are platforms for innovation – they offer a set of new capabilities, which entrepreneurs can leverage and combine to create applications and experiences that could not previously exist. The quintessential modern enabling technologies are the computer, the internet, and the smartphone, which have created tremendous value and changed the world. These technologies are now mature, and the time is ripe for a new revolutionary platform. We believe that crypto is the next great enabling technology. Like all great enabling technologies, crypto offers unprecedented capabilities. These include automated trust, fair and open platform design, native incentivization, privacy protection, censorship resistance, and community governance. Bold startups are building the infrastructure and applications to deliver these benefits. Recently, more people have come to agree with our thesis, as the big ideas in crypto have started to materialize; over the past few years, open blockchains have processed trillions of dollars of payments (stablecoins), developers have deployed automated software that abrogates the need for financial intermediaries (DeFi), millions of consumers have interacted with novel digital assets (NFTs), and passionate communities have sprouted digitally-native organizations (DAOs). We believe these early products represent mere proof-of-concepts, and that more advanced infrastructure and better users experiences will push crypto beyond experimental and speculative use cases in the coming years. Over the longer term, we anticipate an internet of invisible, interoperable crypto networks, facilitating the seamless and secure exchange of value across national and institutional borders. We anticipate a convergence between the currently segregated crypto universe and established industries, including finance, gaming, social media, entertainment, science, and beyond. We believe that crypto’s unique capabilities can be harnessed to rearchitect these markets, thereby producing novel organizational forms. The nascent crypto industry is extremely volatile and faces massive challenges, and there is no guarantee that it will live up to the hype. Nonetheless, we believe that crypto has the potential to solve some of our world’s most pressing economic, social, and technological problems, and we are honored to support the great entrepreneurs bringing these solutions to life.

Bold. Brave. Brilliant. Brazen. The founders we back are all this, and more. They are unreasonable, they are crazy ambitious, obsessed with solving hard, gnarly problems. Problems whose solutions transform lives and impact society. And, it takes a revolutionary founder, and a transformational company to solve these problems, and effect change. We back these transformational companies, and their revolutionary founders early, and remain lifelong partners. How does Blume evaluate early stage startups? In our framework, we look at three criteria to evaluate startups – size of market or opportunity, team quality and finally, investability or probability of the next round of capital. Our approximate weightage for Opportunity : Team : Investability is 40 : 40 : 20. Let us double click on these three criteria. Market size or opportunity: Pick too small a market and even the best team can’t build a large scalable business. The best founders know how to reshape a market opportunity and build solutions to fit the largest of the market opportunities. That said, one has to begin with the aggregate opportunity being very large. For example, are Ola and Uber a ride hailing app or a large scale urban transportation business? The market size expands 5-10x when the latter is applied. At Blume, we try to find a portfolio balance between founders who can chase a large market opportunity domestically or build a tech-led differentiated product for global markets (which increase Founding teams: These are the most important variables for us or even most VCs at our stage. In every decision, once the other two factors are seen as a go, the clincher element in a yes/no decision boils down to the founding team – their expertise in solving for this space, as well as the integrity, mission, passion and persistence that one can gauge at this early stage of business. Investability or probability of next rounds of capital: The reality of how the later stage funding market is shaped to take risky bets in the ecosystem is important to consider while funding, especially in young and concentrated ecosystems like India, and that’s why we attribute 20% weightage to this element in India. We force ourselves to evaluate how much capital may be required to build to exitable scale and how challenging it is to raise that capital. As the funding ecosystem matures, we may shrink weightage of this in the future. Great founders overcome all of this but if we can select such that we have better odds at the starting point, why not? The above framework helps us shortlist but finally, it is a (increasingly improving) trained gut call that ends up building out the portfolio. What is Blume's investment criteria? Blume prefers ventures that have achieved some degree of customer validation, where the product is already launched in market and we are getting customer signups and feedback. We do make exceptions on the above for seasoned operators and second-time founders, but typically with first-time founders, we do not do idea stage or pre-MVP investments. If you are a B2B startup or an ecommerce / consumer transaction play, an annualised revenue rate (or revenues) of $375k (₹3cr) and above is a good milestone to reach out to us. If you are a marketplace startup, then reach out to us when you are nearing or have crossed a monthly GMV of ₹50 lacs a month. If you are a consumer app that isn't monetising yet, then ping us when you near or cross MAUs of 25k / DAUs of 5k. The above are broad guidelines, and not hard rules. We do make exceptions. If in doubt, reach out! How much does Blume invest? We are a seed / pre-Series A fund. While we are fairly flexible on the investment quantum, typically we have seen our investments range across from $1.5 to $3m (₹12 to 24 crs). We do optimise however for a stake of anywhere from 12 to 20%. These stake requirements reflect the depth and extent of support we provide to the startup – from fundraising and hiring to business development etc. We also anticipate the rounds of dilution that every successful startup will undergo, and the desired holding that we need to hold at the point of exit. Does Blume invest in international startups? We invest in startups that are Indian at heart or origin, but are willing to conquer the world market if needed to build scale. About a third of our portfolio is of this nature – taking Indian engineering skills to build products for global markets. Unfortunately, We DO NOT invest in startups that are international and have NO strong Indian connection / founders. We are also strong believers that to invest as a ‘generalist tech VC’ as we are, we need to be more and more focussed on a particular geography. We need to see as much of the available annual pipeline to know that we’ve truly picked 10 great founders / startups to invest in. We have no such advantage when we are looking outside the country; which is why we stay away from the temptation of looking at pipeline from international markets. What kind of sectors does Blume invest in? With our new Fund, our fourth since inception, we are looking to invest about 60-65% of the new fund in domestic-heavy sectors such as healthcare, financial services, commerce and brands, jobs and education, and digital media and gaming. The other 35-40% of the fund will focus on SaaS, and DeepTech (including CleanTech, manufacturing, blockchain) companies, typically in B2B, that can innovate and engineer with local talent pools, and yet scale globally. Does Blume have a preference between B2B and B2C? We like both. India is a consumer market that is poised to explode, as people move to the digital economy to spend an increasingly larger share of their wallet’s purchasing power. That makes it attractive to build a strong consumer proposition in India. And thus our B2C portfolio. We are also now very good at taking our science and engineering skills in software and other areas, and building commercial applications at scale, often for the global market. These constitute the majority of B2B ideas in our portfolio and we like this space a lot. Where do I send my pitch? How do I reach out to Blume? We get anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 ideas pitched to us annually, across the team, across all formats. This includes referrals, cold mails, DMs on social channels etc. We have given up counting :) We invest in about 10-12 of these per year. As Blume has grown, we've looked at the empirical data and discovered that the vast majority of our investments were referrals from our contacts in the ecosystem. You can count the exceptions to this rule with one hand in every cycle, and still have a few fingers to spare! These referrals come from our own founders we have backed, other founders who know that we will do right by their angel investments and our extensive set of friends, investors and well wishers in the ecosystem. The exceptions, while not impossible, are indeed rare. Ceteris paribus (all things considered), you are better off reaching us through a trusted common friend. In a highly networked startup ecosystem, it is not that hard to reach us through the strongest possible mutual connection. But if that is not possible, do reach out to us cold. Your email will certainly be read, even if it is not always responded to. We have ensured that our internal systems catch every pitch - cold or warm or hot. When writing in cold, a considered and researched mail (much like a quality college application) is the only way to attempt such a reach out. Please check out the team page, find the best person in the Investment team who has invested in and / or covers the sector you're building in. Do check out their social profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter) to access their contact info. Our email ids are not hard to guess as well! Preferably write to one person at a time, in the firm. The above are good principles for you irrespective of which firm you approach / pitch to. Nothing works better than a warm, referred introduction - it always gets the rightful attention. Please note that we have done away with a pitch form, or a common email id. From our experience, we found that the volume of inbound traffic was indeed high, but not always relevant, and thus almost impossible to assign a resource to just monitor these inbound gates.