TechCrunch May 13, 2014
Earlybird, the Berlin-based VC, turned a spotlight on Central and Eastern Europe earlier this year when it announced the launch of a new $130 million fund dedicated to tech startups specifically from the region — an area full of talent but often lacking the instant magnetism that areas like Silicon Valley, New York or London afford entrepreneurs in need of financial backing. Today it’s announcing the first three investments made out of that fund: video app Flipps, job site Tjobs and real estate portal Metrekare.
“These are high technology ventures, with brilliant entrepreneurs,” Earlybird partner Cem Sertoglu says. “The region has a very strong legacy of science and technology education, with strong entrepreneurial drive. Until recently, the biggest impediment to creating world-class tech companies in Turkey & CEE was the lack of an ecosystem, and local, committed Venture Capital. We are here to solve that last piece of this puzzle.”
The three speak to the geographic spread of the new fund: Flipps was founded by engineers in Bulgaria but is now based in Silicon Valley; Tjobs is from Romania; and Metrekare is Turkish.