The newly founded VC Outlast has closed its first fund of €21m to back early-stage founders across the Baltics and the Nordics.
The fund targets both serial and first-time founders, particularly those with niche expertise and global ambitions. Outlast plans 30–40 investments from the fund, with three-quarters of these in the Baltics. Initial pre-seed tickets will be up to €250k, and seed rounds up to €1.5m.
Whilst Stockholm has no shortage of early-stage VCs, startups in Riga have a harder time accessing a variety of funding options, according to Stockholm-based founding partner Kristaps Prūsis.
“Having spent a decade as an investor collaborating with founders and startups in Stockholm’s venture ecosystem, I recognise a remarkable resemblance between Riga’s current landscape and the early days of the Stockholm scene,” says Kristaps Prūsis, one of Outlast’s founding partners.
The idea is to build a bridge between Stockholm and the Baltic countries by investing in founders in, for example, Riga, and then introducing them to the experience and ambitious ecosystem of Sweden.
“Unlike, for example, Helsinki and Tallinn, which are quite close and have funds investing in both markets, this kind of bridge between Riga and Stockholm hasn’t existed at all. There’s no established connection. So, we’re trying to build and strengthen this bridge, because we have the same ambitions in the Baltics as people do in Sweden,” says founding partner Marija Rucevska.
The fund is backed by the Latvian sovereign fund Altum, the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERAF), family funds, and angel investors, including Davis Siksnans, CEO of Latvia’s first unicorn Printful, and Revolut operator Andrius Biceika.
The fund is sector-agnostic, but key areas include fintech, logistics, e-commerce, and biometric authentication.
It has already invested in five startups, including Latvian biometric authentication platform Handwave, Norway’s healthtech MIA Health, and Swedish healthtech Vitala.
