With almost 30 highly promising pre-seed startups from across Europe already in its portfolio, Pioneers Ventures has long understood the importance of staying close to communities of pioneering entrepreneurs. That’s why it has committed to organising a series of events in the CEE region, which will see the Pioneers Ventures team connect with local ecosystems in various capital cities throughout 2018. Office Hours with Pioneers Ventures aims to empower the most promising startups with our global network of corporates, industry experts and entrepreneurs.
The Office Hours roadshow kicked off at ABC Accelerator in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana last week. In the city that’s already home to portfolio company Blub Blub, Pioneers Ventures’ Philipp Stangl met with ten startups working in a variety of industries. Laurenz Simbruner and Lukas Püspök of PUSH Ventures joined him to see the entrepreneurs showcase their concepts in 10-minute pitch slots followed by 20-minute Q&A sessions.
“It was a great opportunity to connect with the local ecosystem and meet with very interesting pre-seed startups,” said Philipp. “I learned that Slovenia is a very crypto-friendly country, also I met quite a few marketplaces: we’ll be back in Ljubljana again for sure! The excellent development of our existing portfolio company, BlubBlub, has already shown that a good team based out of Ljubljana can be successful internationally, especially in the US.
“Such examples are the reason why we’re constantly keeping a close eye on the CEE region and have close collaborations with relevant key partners in local ecosystems. I’m looking forward to meeting more talent throughout CEE at the upcoming stops on our roadshow.”
Next stop on the Office Hours schedule comes next month in Budapest, where Pioneers Ventures already has two portfolio companies in the shape of Codeberry and Shapr3D. The Hungarian capital is also the place where our investment arm’s first successful exit story began, when our team saw the early potential of playable advertising technology startup Atmosplay and decided to support them.
The roadshow will then visit Bratislava in Slovakia (where another existing Pioneers Ventures portfolio startup, Cloudo, is based) in March, followed by Warsaw in April, Sofia in May, Bucharest in June and Prague in July. The pitching format will be the same as it was in Ljubljana.
If you’re a founder we need to meet in the Office Hours series, then please click here to apply for one of the limited spaces as soon as possible. And mention ‘CEE Office Hours’ and the name of your city in your application. If you have an account already, simply update it accordingly.
