Venture Guides

Breega is one of the fastest growing VC funds in Europe with more than €500M AUM. We built Breega to provide founders with the help we wish we’d had. Breega propels pioneering and purpose-driven founders from idea into impact. We closed our first fund in 2015 and now have €500m AUM and 70 trailblazing portfolio companies. Crafted for founders by founders, we built Breega to provide start-ups with the help we wish we'd had. And we’ve created an investment proposition that’s purposefully designed. We call it full stack funding: providing capital and connections, expertise and experience, support and solidarity for entrepreneurs at every step of their journey. We invest across Europe through our 3 offices in Paris, London and Barcelona, focusing on pre-seed to Series B stage. We believe in a future where tech entrepreneurship has catalysed universal prosperity – so we decided to build a different kind of VC. Build by Founders. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we’ve been through the highs and lows of founding, failing, fundraising and flourishing. We built Breega to provide founders with the help we wish we’d had. For Founders. We wanted to “Bridge the Equity and Experience Gap” (hence the name Breega) – and fulfill the lack of operational expertise we saw in VC at that time. Breega began investing in 2015. We now have 70+ trailblazing startups in our portfolio. Our purpose today. To propel pioneering and purpose-driven founders from idea to impact.

We’re EQT Ventures, a VC built by former founders and operators ready to support the next generation of global winners. Building a global tech company is challenging. We know because we’ve done it too. Without the right people around you, getting to great is almost impossible. That’s why we decided to create EQT Ventures, a new kind of VC, the VC we always wanted on our own startup journeys. A VC that is accessible, supportive and fully committed. A partner that knows what it takes to put everything on the line. A VC built to serve the founders it backs. From offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin, Paris and San Francisco, we invest in and support entrepreneurs building the next-generation of global winners. Entrepreneurs will always be at the core of everything we do. We’re entrepreneurs at heart and there’s nothing we thrive from more than working with founders. No matter where you are on your journey or the challenges you face, chances are we’ve been there too and can overcome them together.

As a venture house, our mission is to clear the path for founders who build companies that matter. Our hybrid setup, comprising PSV Foundry, PSV Lab, and two unique venture funds, PSV Tech and PSV Hafnium, sets us free from adhering to a singular method. Rather we rethink existing ways and models to maximise our impact beyond any individual firm or investment. Together, we can punch above our weight.

Contrary is a venture firm, backed by the world's most iconic entrepreneurs, that identifies and invests in exceptional talent. We invest up to $2M in a small number of startups each year, and work closely alongside them to build enduring businesses. We're built like the startups we serve. We combine sophisticated software, a world-class talent team, and scouts to identify and invest in the world’s top talent – first – and then relentlessly support them from seed to scale. Because at the root of every category-defining startup are exceptional people.

Lewis & Clark Ventures was founded by former founders and operators to support the tech ecosystem. We’ve built venture-backed companies and have navigated the terrain of going from idea to exit multiple times. We are excited to partner with dynamic founders them on their journey to build successful companies. What We Look For Stage | Sectors Late seed through Series A and are sector agnostic technology investors. Investment We typically invest between $2M - $3M in our initial investment, but have flexibility in either direction. Between The Coasts We seek to fund companies in geographies that are overlooked by coastal venture funds Market Large opportunity, with high growth potential. Founder | Team We look for founders that have a big vision, a bold idea, and a strong ability to build and lead a great team - an exceptional founding team with either previous startup experience, domain expertise, or are very close to the problem they’re solving. Role We prefer to lead investments, but this is not always a requirement. Market-Fit We look for rapidly accelerating growth metrics and lean toward a minimum of $500K - $1M in revenue. Customers Companies that are establishing strong product-market-fit through close customer relationships, and are beginning to demonstrate a consistent go-to-market process. Mission To partner with visionary founders to build iconic companies between the coasts. Our Ethos Empathy As former founders, we are rooted in understanding and supporting the founders’ journey. People who embark on this journey command our respect. Execute We take pride in doing great work and care about the details. Initiative is in our DNA and we always have a bias towards action. Navigate The path to success and significance is rarely a straight line and decisions are rarely black and white. We believe in navigating the complexity of startups with our experience to accelerate growth. Shoot Straight As partners for the long term, we believe an open, transparent and candid communication style, based on mutual respect and trust, is the best way to communicate and achieve the best results. Smart Growth We believe in smart growth, not growth at all costs. We work with founders to build sustainable, enduring companies, combining rapid growth built on a foundation of strong fundamentals. True Partners We believe that the people you surround yourself with make the difference in life. We work with people we respect, that challenge us to dream bigger, and that we enjoy spending time with. We support each other and win as a team.

Positive Sum helps founders build their companies and tell their stories. We devote time to meeting the most talented entrepreneurs and investors in the world, and we strategically deploy our network on behalf of our portfolio companies. What we look for in companies The creation of new businesses, especially those fueled by technology, can lead to Positive Sum outcomes: where companies, customers, and investors all win together. Our team searches for such companies, with the following criteria guiding our way. Life’s Work: We look for founders doing their “life’s work.” We always ask how the founding team came upon the problem they are solving and assess the alignment between that problem and their own path in life. We find that these founders tend to be driven and obsessive, they tend to build domain knowledge quickly, and they tend to be disagreeable, with their own clear point of view for how things ought to be. We love these qualities. Ultimately, we find that founders doing their “life’s work” become magnets for talent and have the perseverance necessary to survive and thrive in difficult periods. Synchronized Team: Speed is an unbelievable advantage for young companies. Teams that communicate well ship products faster. We look for smart and efficient team communication, chemistry, and the right mix of business and technical talent. Market Signal: We can evaluate teams directly, but markets help us evaluate products. We look for clear signals from customers that a given idea or product is valuable. We deeply respect a market signal even if we don’t yet understand what is behind it, but then seek to understand the customer’s motivation in a deep way. A Compounding Customer: The question “will customers use this product often, and will the product get better and more valuable as they do?” is at the center of our investigation. Products that get embedded in their user’s lives or workflows tend to be more defensible. Compounding has to start somewhere, and our experience suggests that companies focused on “one thing” early on maximize the odds they can do more things in the future, because the customer grows to love them for the original solution. Profit Persistence: We want to invest in companies that can earn enormous profits over time. The odds of this happening go up when 1) a business demonstrates (or we can foresee) positive unit economics, 2) the business model can scale with demand and 3) the product gets harder for others to copy as it grows. We look for all three components. Timing, Alignment, and Impact: We focus intently on why now is the right time to build this company. New technologies, changes in regulation, cultural shifts, and other enabling factors create opportunities for unnatural growth in a business. We always look for alignment between a company and the world at large. We also want great alignment between our two teams. We hope to have decades-long relationships with the companies we support, so the fit between Positive Sum and the founding team is paramount. We make fewer investments than many comparable funds so that we can be closer with portfolio companies and spend more time with each of them.