Romania’s Underline Ventures closes first fund at €18.4M to back early-stage Eastern European founders

Bucharest-based Underline Ventures, the first solo general partner venture fund in Eastern Europe, announced that it has closed its first fund at $20M (approximately €18.4M).

The VC aims to back the earliest stages of Eastern European founders building high-growth startups with global ambitions. 

Additionally, Underline Ventures will continue to leverage its network and develop its platform services to support the development of its portfolio companies.

The fund has been raised from tech founders, operators, business leaders, and international fund-of-funds.

The company plans to double down its efforts to develop a more impactful platform for its portfolio companies.

“We are lucky to partner with investors who have a deep conviction that Eastern European founders can build significant technology businesses despite the macro environment. We know founders fundraising in this climate have to show a lot of resilience – while this may be a difficult start, in the long run, it can be a great way to start,” says the General Partner of Underline Ventures, Bogdan Iordache.

So far, the fund has finalised seven investments in Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and the broader Eastern European diaspora, ranging from big data & AI and cybersecurity to ecomm infrastructure, and it is actively investing.

Currently, Underline Venture invested founders can benefit from:

• Recruitment services (with the help of Ioana Patran, ex-Microsoft)
• Communication management (with the help of Adriana Spulber, ex-How to Web & Pago) 
• Growth advisory (with the help of Vlad Ionescu, ex-UiPath) 
• Financial planning and fundraising (with the help of Mihai Faur, UiPath) 
• Integrated marketing strategy (with the help of Ioana Serban, ex-FintechOS), along with Bogdan Iordache’s help on venture strategy and fundraising. 

Additionally, founders and operators from companies like UiPath, Telerik, and Bitdefender, among others, advise the portfolio startups regularly whenever the startup’s need arises.

Underline Ventures: Supporting earliest-stage startups

Underline Ventures partners at the earliest stages with Eastern European founders building high-growth startups with global ambitions. 

The Bucharest-based fund is committed to developing an extensive, hands-on platform that allows founders to get relevant support for some of the core operational issues founders face: recruitment, marketing, sales, comms, finances, and fundraising.

“Our platform is not a checkbox but part of our core strategy at Underline. We want to help founders address some of the key operational hurdles they face, on their terms, either with the support of our team or by leveraging our extensive network.”, adds Bogdan.