Metavallon VC launches € 32 million fund

With the break of the new year, at Metavallon VC we announce the launch of our venture capital fund activities, having secured 32 million Euros with the participation of the European Investment Fund (EIF).

Metavallon VC is the evolution of Metavallon.org, which began its activities 6 years ago as an accelerator for tech startups in the very early stages, in Greece and Europe. In this new era, Metavallon VC takes very early stage investment to scale. Our new founding team has now raised an impact-capable size of funds from the EIF as part of the Equifund initiative, the National Bank of Greece and several private investors, to be invested in the most promising, cutting-edge technology startups.

So who are we? The four Partners that are at the heart of the fund, namely Alexandra Choli, Myrto Papathanou, Yorgos Mousmoulas and George Karantonis, have come together through a joint ambition to bring technology to the market and see model businesses thrive. Our plan is to support Greek companies at their very early stages with the funds, guidance, and targeted network necessary for their rapid growth and success. We believe that, with these foundations, the inherent talent and expertise that lies within the country, and even that which has spread across our borders, will be enabled to build internationally competitive solutions and significant commercial value.

Our team distinguishes between and targets two tiers of investment, pre-seed and seed, with initial funding reaching up to 400.000€. At their core, both tiers address proposals comprising three elements: first, strong technology or defensible intellectual property; second, a sizable and growing market; and third, global outlook for business growth from the onset of operations.

The pre-seed stage is the fund’s main focus, with minimum requirements being a functional prototype initially tested in the market and a team of committed founders.Here we look for and invite first-time entrepreneurs with the drive to execute and the zeal for product excellence.  Our setup itself is particularly geared towards these founders: we start our investment with our proprietary acceleration process, which includes 10 weeks of market traction boosting followed by 3 weeks mission to San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. And this is simply the beginning. The applications for this tier are to be announced on March 1st, 2018.

In the seed stage, we aim to engage and enable experienced entrepreneurs, who have a proven track in business management and achievement. Minimum requirement, apart from the founder’s background, is the existence of a successful pilot in the market. As part of our work together with the entrepreneurs, we build on two elements that we recognize as critical for success at this stage: corporate alliances that facilitate market traction and access to an international network of businesses and investors that catalyze expansion.

To the latter, we apply ourselves in and grow partnerships particularly within the high-growth and -value industries we target, such as energy, fintech, transportation, space and aviation, maritime, healthtech, and telecommunications and networks. We also collaborate with multiple investment funds in Europe and the US, as well as with leading domestic and international players of the global startup ecosystem. The goal is to cultivate and make available to our portfolio companies a growing platform of resources and opportunities for both the businesses and the founders to grow.

All in all, our fund and offering are shaped for talented, resolute decision-makers and committed entrepreneurs, who develop state-of-the-art services or products and target primarily other businesses (B2B). Our mission is to invest in their companies, which will operate at the forefront of business and technology innovation, and provide the resources and network they will need to achieve their market potential.