We’re fuelling up to switch gears with 3VC

Published on Jun 15, 2022

It’s been a great ride, and it keeps getting better!

That’s the short summary of today's milestone of our joint journey with 3VC. We have backed 12 companies, which are all in very good shape and contributing to the advancement of humanity in one way or another. Already 3 unicorns emerged: Picsart, Animoca Brands and Snyk. More companies are on track to follow soon.

With fresh funds, we will double down and continue to back a few, highly selected game-changing European Series A companies and we will have more money to support them throughout Series B and C. We will continue to focus on the DACH and CEE regions, our home turf so to say, and we will make good things even better: new team members and a growing network of venture partners and supporters.

For those who have another 5 minutes' time:
here is the full story by 3VC founders Peter and Roman.

3VC, on day one, had 3 team members, namely co-founders and partners Roman Scharf and Peter Lasinger and then-principal Eva Arh. The letter “3” is not part of our brand to commemorate those early days, but to emphasize the 3 ingredients of the venture capital approach we architected: the combination of (1) the very best founders and teams, (2) world-leading co-investors with a track record of building great companies, and (3) ourselves, a pro-active catalyst born out of the same cultural background as the teams we back, with a founder mindset and track record, and the determination to support our companies at all times and against all odds.

The ambition to support founders has been central to our team-building process. Since we started out, the team size has tripled to a total of 9 people. Eva has been promoted to partner as well as Sok-Kheng Taing, co-founder of NYSE-listed Dynatrace. All team members have been startup founders or were operators in start-ups before joining 3VC. Our team is diverse in many ways, with complementary skills and strengths, and different cultural backgrounds: we are Austrian, Latvian, half-Croatian, Cambodian, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian and Italian. This unique setup is the foundation of making smart team decisions, together.

3VC Partners from left to right: Sok-Kheng, Peter, Eva, and Roman

Our team works together with selected Venture Partners, who are renowned entrepreneurs and leaders, complementing the team and supporting 3VC portfolio founders on their journey with knowledge, experience, and valuable networks. Venture Partners include Marius Istrate, ex-Chief People Officer of UiPath, Alex Marktl, co-Founder and CEO of iTranslate, and Yair Goldfinger, co-founder of ICQ.

“After founding 5 companies with 3 exits, 1 write-off and 1 IPO, my role at 3VC taught me two things:
1. Founder DNA is really handy when you embark on building a venture fund. In many ways 3VC feels more like start-up #6 than like fund #1.
2. Our focus on just a few deals a year is golden: it allows us to really work with our portfolio founders and make sure they (a) won’t repeat all the mistakes I made and (b) benefit from our team’s experience and skills.”
– Roman Scharf, Founding Partner at 3VC

Together, we support founders along the way, all the way – and especially when things get tough. For example, our second portfolio company Gamee had a challenging time after being blocked in app stores twice. While other investors may have given up on the investment, we did not - but actively coached the team and facilitated a merger with Animoca Brands. Since then Gamee is truly thriving and 3VC is a proud Animoca Brands shareholder.

With a flat hierarchy where everyone has a say as we make joint decisions as one team, we have assembled a portfolio of companies that we are more than proud of.

Animoca Brands (through the acquisition of Gamee) develops and publishes mobile games and products based on popular intellectual property. They are the market leader in web-3, NFT and blockchain-enabled metaverses. Animoca Brands is backed by Sequoia Capital and George Soros, the latest round valued them at over $5B. Animoca Brands has raised a total of $1.3B, their latest funding was raised on Feb 3, 2022, from a Secondary Market round.

Assaia is the market leader in AI-based software to manage and optimize airside processes for airports, airlines and ground handlers, making the apron a more efficient, safer, and sustainable place.

Authenteq is a fully automated eKYC™ Identity Verification solution that allows organizations to verify a user’s identity in real-time, onboarding users in 35 seconds or less. Authenteq has raised a total of $8.2M, their latest funding was raised on Jun 18, 2021 from an undisclosed round.

Avi Medical is a digital healthcare company that provides telemedicine services, the most modern GP practice in Germany. Avi Medical has raised a total of $101.4M in funding, their latest funding was raised on Apr 6, 2022, from a Series B round.

Jodel is a hyperlocal community platform that enables its users to discover, follow, and participate in the most relevant conversations with people nearby. Jodel has raised a total of $6.4M, their latest funding was raised on Apr 21, 2017 from a Series A round.

Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics company that creates evidence-based treatments for a range of medical disorders. Kaia Health has raised a total of $123M in funding, their latest funding was raised on Apr 28, 2021, from a Series C round.

Lokalise is a translation management system built for agile teams who want to automate their localization process. Lokalise has raised a total of $56M in funding, their latest funding was raised on Dec 14, 2021, from a Series B round.

Picsart is an all-in-one photo & video editing app, powered by a creative community with over 150 million monthly active users and influencers. With over 1 billion downloads and backed by Sequoia, Picsart value exceeds $1 billion. Picsart raised a total of $195M in funding, their latest funding was raised on Aug 26, 2021, from a Series C round.

RapidCompact (by DGG) is the world's leading platform for 3D data optimisation, automating the conversion of high-quality compact 3D models ready for web, mobile, AR and XR platforms. DGG raised a total of €760K from a Seed round on Jul 29, 2020.

Snyk (through the acquisition of Deepcode) is a cloud-native application security provider that enables millions of developers to build software securely. Snyk is backed by investors like Accel, Boldstart, Blackrock, Addition and Tiger Global. Snyk is valued at over $8 billion and has raised a total of $1.4B in funding, their latest funding was raised on Sep 30, 2021, from a Series F round.

Storyblok is a Headless & API-based CMS as a Service. 78,000+ developers & marketers use Storyblok's CMS to deliver powerful content experiences on any front end: Websites, eCommerce, mobile apps, AR/VR or voice content. Storyblok has raised a total of $58M in funding, their latest funding was raised on May 17, 2022, from a Series B round.

Tatum is a blockchain development platform. Support for over 40 blockchain protocols and 2,000+ digital assets. The fastest way to build, test and run blockchain apps.

3VC artwork by Akira Sakurai

From this portfolio, 75% of companies have grown beyond $100M in market cap and 25% have grown to over $1B in market cap – this is the bar for ourselves and for the next chapter.

We will continue our high-conviction investment strategy of quality over quantity, only partnering with 3-4 new teams per year who bring humanity forward, solving huge problems through software technology, regardless of the industry or business model (B2B, B2C).

"It has been an exceptional ride since we started 3VC in 2018. I am extremely proud and thankful to our outstanding team and the amazing founding teams we have the privilege to back and support during their journey. I am excited to welcome Eva and Sok-Kheng to the partnership and thankful to our investors, who enable us to shape a piece of European entrepreneurship and the future. There is a lot of work to do and we will continue to devote all our energy to founders determined to make a difference.”
– Peter Lasinger, Founding Partner at 3VC

Note: This general information does not constitute an offer (or an invitation to make an offer) to buy or sell financial products.

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We’re fuelling up to switch gears with 3VC

From this portfolio, 75% of companies have grown beyond $100M in market cap and 25% have grown to over $1B in market cap – this is the bar for ourselves and for the next chapter.

5 Predictions for 2025: The AI Revolution Takes Shape

What to include in a pitch deck

Artworks by Akira Sakurai