The first investments in the Estonian startups through the new 15 million euros Business Angel’s Co-Investment fund of EstFund will likely happen around mid-2017, officials said on Wednesday.
“Optimistic estimate would be Q2, conservative Q3,” Kirsjanis Zarins, Mandate Manager at European Investment Fund (EIF), which is one of the founders of EstFund, told ArcticStartup on the sidelines of EstFund Market Seminar in Tallinn.
The fund is expected to make investments over 4-5 years, and for all investments, it will need other partners to make at least 50 percent of total sum invested.
These EstFund-linked investments, totalling at least 6 million euros on average per year, are set to have a massive impact on early-stage investments in the country as Estonian business angels invested in total just 6.7 million euros last year.
The angel investment fund is part of 60 million euros EstFund, which was created in March by EIF, Estonian state investment firm KredEx and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
EstFund will finance small and medium-sized firms via three selected risk capital funds, allocating half of the capital for Venture Capital Fund and splitting the other half between Expansion Capital Fund and Business Angels Co-Investment Fund.
The first investments from VC fund and expansion fund will happen later as the funds need to also raise additional capital from the private investors.
