From Stockholm to Riga, Outlast Fund launches €21M fund to back founders in it for the long game

• With HQs in Riga and Stockholm, Outlast Fund to invest early in outlying gems in the Baltic-Nordic region

• Combatting hype in favour of backing founders building solutions that will still matter a decade from now

• Sector-agnostic, investing up to 250,000 EUR pre-seed and 1.5M EUR seed rounds 

Outlast Fund, a Baltic-Nordic VC fund, has closed its first fund at 21M EUR to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups from the region. The fund is based in Riga and Stockholm, and aims to be the first cheque in backing founders building solutions that are built to last, with initial pre-seed tickets of up to 250,000 EUR and 1.5M EUR seed rounds.

The fund goes against the grain in the investment environment, eschewing typical VC advice to prioritize quick exits. Rather, they look to scour the edges to uncover the most promising founders in the Baltics and Nordics, and are prepared to invest in them at the earliest stages to help them build enduring companies. 

The fund is particularly keen to keep an eye out for serial entrepreneurs with a proven track record, ready to back them as early as the idea stage. Outlast Fund also invests in first-time founders who possess unique and specific insights within their chosen verticals. However, a trait that they look for in all cases is an obsessive drive to solve their customers’ most pressing problems. Regardless of whether the founders are better suited for building lean teams with the help of angels, microfunds, and syndicates, or if they are eyeing large rounds from the get-go, Outlast Fund is ready to support from the first cheque, rather than jumping in at the middle.    

“At Outlast Fund, we believe that the real breakthroughs happen at the edges. This fund is built for the outliers. Rather than competing in the crowded middle, the focus is on being the very first cheque – either assembling a syndicate around an overlooked gem or partnering early with founders chasing global scale.” - Marija Rucevska, Outlast Fund co-founding GP

With Stockholm as home of some of Europe’s most exciting startups at the moment, the decision to bridge the Baltic countries, one of the world’s fastest-growing startup hubs and a veritable treasure trove for future success stories, makes sense to infuse the up-and-coming region with the experience and ambition of Sweden.

"Having spent a decade as an investor collaborating with founders and startups in Stockholm's venture ecosystem, I recognize a remarkable resemblance between Riga's current landscape and the early days of the Stockholm scene." – Kristaps Prūsis, Outlast Fund co-founding GP

Outlast Fund is founded by four GPs with extensive founder, operator, and investor experience. The team is made up of Egita Polanska, operator leveraging investor experience at leading accelerators TechStars (Seattle, USA), and Startup Wise Guys, Marija Rucevska, founder at Helve and TechChill, Mikaela Pedersen, an experienced operator and a founder with an exit under her belt, and Kristaps Prusis, founder with exits and investor who previously founded VNTRS (50 investments, 5 exits). The founding GPs’ extensive experience lends itself to supporting startups at the critical early-stage of their growth, providing support in navigating the pre-seed and seed period, GTM craft, and strategic positioning through an iterative process. 

“Startups at pre-seed deserve more than capital; they deserve conviction, and partners ready to stand by them through seed and beyond. A first-check fund validates founders early, helps shape product and story, and opens doors to hires, customers, and future investors,” says Egita Polanska, Outlast Fund GP, who has supported hundreds of startups in the early stages working with some of the world’s most renowned B2B accelerators.

While the fund is generalist and industry agnostic, the GPs’ networks and expertise can act as multipliers in some sectors in particular, which they are keen to place a focus on. Those include B2B SaaS, digital health, and fintech, supporting founders who are obsessed with solving real-life problems for their customers, often by leveraging the latest technologies.

The fund has kickstarted its activity by investing in 5 startups even before the fund was closed. Those include Handwave (Latvia), a biometric authentication platform, Convershake (Latvia), an AI powered SaaS for contact centers, MIA Health (Norway), a data-driven digital health companion turning heart-rate data into lifelong cardiovascular fitness, Aggregate Markets (Estonia), a next generation marketplace for construction aggregates, and Vitala (Sweden), reimbursable exercise prescriptions for chronic care management.

Outlast Fund is backed by anchor LP ALTUM, the Latvian Development Finance Institution, the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERAF), and various high-net-worth individuals and family funds, including the likes of such operators as Davis Siksnans (CEO of the first Latvian unicorn, Printful), Andrius Biceika (who scaled and built Revolut, member of the Supervisory Council at Revolut Europe Holdings), and Gravity Team (one of the top algorithmic market makers and liquidity providers in the crypto space globally).