Early Game Ventures, a Romanian venture capital fund focused on CEE, recently reported the outcomes of its Early Game Fund I, which has invested in 28 startups since its inception in 2018. The fund’s portfolio companies collectively generated over €43M in annual revenue as of 2024 and now employ more than 400 people.

According to Managing Partner Cristian Munteanu, Early Game Ventures has consistently focused on early-stage investments and values founder commitment as a priority. 

“We learned a lot from our experience with EGV Fund I. For example, we learned to invest only in industries of interest. With Fund II we focus only on cybersecurity, dev tools, enterprise software and other “hard” industries. Another example is that we should never compromise on founders’ commitment and aligned interests. Lastly, we learned that startups need time, even more than money. Investing at the early stage is an exercise of patience.”

Early Game Ventures portfolio companies

The diverse portfolio of Early Game Fund I includes companies making impacts in various global markets and sectors. Examples include Kinderpedia, which supports parent-teacher communication in 2,400 schools; Questo, offering travel experiences across 500 cities; and Druid, which provides information systems to over 200 corporations. Other investments were made in MeetGeek, operating in more than 100 countries and 30 languages, and Milluu, which manages real estate relationships valued at €140M in Romania and Poland.

Since launching Fund I in 2018, Early Game Ventures has completed four exits, achieving a 45% yield. Recent portfolio highlights include Ogre.ai, which secured a €3M investment and a partnership with Austrian energy firm Verbund, and OxidOS, developing a new operating system for automotive safety. Progress was also made by Tokinomo, signing clients across five continents, and Youni, which has facilitated $50M in scholarships for Romanian students studying abroad.

CEE is still playing catch-up with Western Europe

Reflecting on the fund’s progress, Munteanu noted the rapid evolution of Romania’s startup ecosystem, which has seen significant growth since Early Game Ventures’ launch. 

“It feels like 2018 was 100 years ago. Everything has changed in the meantime. The investors have learned a lot, the founders have grown more sophisticated, and the startups have become more socially accepted. We have more success stories to inspire newcomers, and we also have failures to serve as warnings to those who think startups are easy.”

Munteanu acknowledged that although the CEE region has seen fast-paced growth, it still faces challenges with limited available capital and infrastructure compared to Western Europe. Nonetheless, he expressed optimism about the region’s potential.

“The CEE ecosystem evolved faster than Western Europe, but it is still playing catch-up regarding available capital and infrastructure for startups. But the future of tech in CEE is bright—I remain a firm believer.”

Building on the insights from Fund I, Early Game Ventures has launched its second fund, Early Game Fund II, with €60M raised in May 2024. Fund II has already made four investments in cybersecurity, AI, and healthtech startups—CogniSync, The Health Cat Company, Relock, and Pentra—in alignment with the firm’s refined focus on “hard” industries and early-stage innovation.