SMOK Ventures is a US venture capital fund that invests in early stage software startups in Central & Eastern Europe. They focus on investing between $100k-1M USD in startups with a preference for simple business models like SaaS, marketplace, and straight-to-consumer. They have a particular interest in startups where CEE diaspora founders are located in the US, with a Delaware C-Corp already created and an offshore team in Poland, Ukraine, or elsewhere in the CEE. SMOK Ventures has made 10 investments in (pre)seed startups from Central & Eastern Europe and diaspora in 2024 and is looking to increase that number. They have a network of 50+ founders from Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, US, and other countries as their investors.

SMOK Ventures

We are a US venture capital fund investing 100k-1M USD in early stage software startups in Central & Eastern Europe.

With four investments in Southeast Europe (Croatia🇭🇷, Bosnia🇧🇦, Serbia🇷🇸 and Bulgaria🇧🇬) we've become one of the most active VC funds in the region. We're looking to invest more in SEE in 2024 and beyond!

https://lnkd.in/drsazbMj

We led the seed round of Gotiva, a new company by Huuuge Games co-founder Sebastian Szczygiel. Gotiva produces mobile games with unique content delivered by artists who get a cut of the revenue. Excited to be invited to this round which also marks our first investment in Bosnia! 🇧🇦 

https://lnkd.in/djfZmZ2S

We made 10 investments in (pre)seed startups from Central & Eastern Europe and diaspora in 2024.

We are looking to beat this number in 2024 with already 3 new investments committed.

We especially love the setup where CEE diaspora founders are located in the US, with a Delaware C-Corp already created and an offshore team in Poland, Ukraine or elsewhere in the CEE. We feel this gives early stage companies a competitive edge in access to engineering talent and leanness od early operations.

If you know of such a startup looking for $100-1M USD, let us know at smok@smok.vc!

https://lnkd.in/daVCQHiD

Our investments into Ukrainian 🇺🇦 startups Masthead Data, Workee | Simplest personal website builder and Finmap.online are among the top deals of 2023 by AIN.Capital.

We are planning more deals in 2024. Stay tuned!

https://lnkd.in/dbAZSFS2 

#ceevalley #ukraine

Our founding partner 🌈 Borys Musielak gave an interview to The Recursive on the AI hype and how it affects investing in Central & Eastern Europe and globally.

Read the article to learn:
- what are some of our portfolio companies that are AI companies at its core?
- are we riding the generative AI hype or generating our own?
- what do we think of the European AI Act?
- and more :)

https://lnkd.in/gXW7iuAt 

#ai #articialintelligence #emergingeurope #ceevalley #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital

And the VC of the month is.... SMOK!

Read the article by Vestbee to learn:
1. What are the 5 main things we look for in a startup?
2. What disqualifies a startup as your potential investment target?
3. What differentiates the best founders from the rest?
4. What startups should take into account before making a deal with a VC fund?
5. What is our approach to startup valuation and preferable share in the company?
6. How do we support your portfolio companies?
7. What are the best-performing companies in your portfolio?
8. What are your notable lessons learned from investments that didn’t work out as expected?
9. What are the hottest markets you currently look at as VC and where do you see the biggest hype?
10. What are the key trends that will shape the European VC scene in the coming years?

https://lnkd.in/dweTxH6m

We're proud to announce that we've teamed up with Emerging Founders for their next upcoming event in Warsaw: Think Global S01E02 Scaling your B2B Sales Machine! 🚀🤝

🌎 Secure your spot now:
https://lnkd.in/dzKFdVb4

#ThinkGlobal #StartupSuccess #EmergeWithUs

101 Fellowship is back! 

We are looking to for young talented interns who dream of exploring a venture capital path to work with us during the Winter at SMOK. 

The selected interns will become a 101 Fellow and will be able not only work with us at SMOK, but also benefit from 10 weeks of workshops with top venture capitalists globally who participate in our 101 network.

Apply or tell your friends, the more people see this, the better!

We're back for another batch! 📢 

ReaktorX will soon open it's application process once again 🤩 Who are we looking for?

👨🏫 Early-stage founders from CEE (and a bit beyond)*
🌎 Startups that want to go global 
🎇 Ambitious and resilient teams 

For our last batch, we had 245 applicants from 12 countries, but we only ❗ accept 5 startups into the program❗so make sure to apply as soon as we open our applications to get yours reviewed as soon as possible.

New mentors have joined our ranks👨💼 and you'll have a chance to know them over the next couple of weeks. Our most recent alumni👩🎓will also join us for short online sessions talking about the ReaktorX experience and how it helped them.

So... Get your pitch decks ready and stick close! Only 19 days until we open applications 💥 

*Startups can apply from any of the following countries:
- Romania
- Poland 
- Hungary
- Serbia 
- Croatia 
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Kosovo 
- Ukraine
- North Macedonia 
- Albania 
- Moldova 
- Montenegro 
- Bulgaria 
- Slovenia
- Slovakia 
- Czech Republic 
- Lithuania 
- Latvia 
- Estonia 
- Azerbaijan 
- Armenia 
- Georgia

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