First startups were supported by Business Angels and Public Authorities

Start-ups are key drivers of innovation and therefore future prosperity of Central Europe. Despite the availability of new financing schemes, there is still a financial gap, which is between 3Fs (Friends, Family Founders) and VC (Venture Capital). This gap is usually from 75.000 € to 1.000.000 € for a single investment to the start-up. Good practice (i.e. from U.K.) shows, that one of the best responses is the establishment of a public-private co-investment scheme, where Providers of public leverage invest together with the groups of Business Angles to startups. Such schemes are called Angel Co-Investment funds (ACIFs)

Such schemes are being created by project partners. CE-Connector consortium members from Germany, Hungary, and Slovenia connected seven startups with investors from their network. 

At the moment there has been invested 2 362 399 EUR and we are not done yet. By the end of the project, we are planning to pass 2,7 million EUR on total. At the moment, other project partners such as Croatia, Czech Republic and Poland are negotiating with Business Angels, Public providers and startups and they are all working on more deals to be done by the end of June 2022.