Today, Trind VC announced the closing €55M second fund. The fund aims to invest in 30–40 startups with proven traction in four years. The new investment vehicle is backed by institutional investors such as European Investment Fund, Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), LHV Pension Funds, and Swedbank Investment Funds.
“We were targeting to raise €50 million, but as we already have more commitments, we will go slightly above that in the second closing. Most of our LPs from Fund I joined Fund II, a sign of trust we truly appreciate. We are honored to have top-tier institutions from the region investing in the fund, alongside our expanding angel investor community,” says Reima Linnanvirta, Partner at Trind VC.
“Estonia and Finland form one of the strongest startup ecosystems in Europe, and the region has produced excellent startups. While the funding environment has been getting tougher, we want to offer continuity in the availability of funding by investing through the cycle as we believe that great founders should get funded in all market conditions.”
Trind could be a lead investor, but the firm also seeks co-investment opportunities alongside other venture players. The team will actively look for startups with B2C and C2C business models and consumerized B2B software.
Trind ticket size ranges from €100,000 to €1 million, with follow-up options of up to €5 million in the future rounds. For the potential portfolio companies, Trind VC will conduct environmental, social, and governance (ESG) due diligence before investing and will continue to monitor to make sure that they are ESG compliant. A part of its newest fund would be invested in startups that positively impact the environment.
‘‘Our investment thesis is actually quite simple. We are looking for startups with clear traction from a big enough market – general hype or buzzwords won’t get us excited. We are using the data for both when making our investment decisions, but more importantly in developing the companies. There’s a clear bottleneck for funding for consumer startups in the area compared to B2B equivalents,” says Joel Aasmäe, Managing Partner at Trind VC.
“We have been investing with Trind VC for 4 years and are very pleased to continue our journey with them. Nordic startup community has produced a considerable amount of successful companies and exposure to Trind funds gives our pension clients unique access to exciting growth stories in tech,” commented Kristo Oidermaa from LHV Pension Funds.
Founded in 2018, Trind VC has built a strong reputation, scoring 36 investments among 22 portfolio companies so far, according to Pitchbook. In 2022 the company invested in Tartu-based agrotech startup eAgronom and Swedish data platform My Telescope. One of their latest successes is portfolio company Ready Player Me which received a B-round investment of $56M to become the leading avatar system in the metaverse. The investment was led by one of the world’s best-known venture capital firms, Andreessen Horowitz.
Trind was established by Joel Aasmäe, Kimmo Irpola, Taavi Lepmets, and Ivar Siimar who have been working together since 1999, investing as business angels and co-founders of LHV bank and New Economy Ventures, the first VC fund in the Baltics.
If you’re ready to make greener investments, use our comparison tool to see how investment opportunities in Estonia measure up to other European countries.
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