daFUND – early stage VC fund powered by Business Angels of Slovenia and managed by Darko Butina
daFUND just launched in December 2021! It is domiciled in Slovenia, managed by Darko Butina from Switzerland, supported by Business Angels of Slovenia and a range of experienced founders and entrepreneurs from all over Europe. The fund will invest in promising start-ups from Europe (and beyond) – and will provide innovative additional investment opportunities for its limited partners (LPs).
Darko Butina, General Partner of daFUND commented: “We believe there is tremendous entrepreneurial potential in Europe, which still lacks support especially in the early stages and coming from experienced entrepreneurs. All the stakeholders in the fund have significant entrepreneurial experiences and have successfully invested in and decisively supported various start-ups in the past already individually. In order to support the best start-ups even better and with more impact, we joined forces and founded daFUND – by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.”
Nina Dremelj, President of Business Angels of Slovenia added: “Although significant part of daFUND’s investors are also members of Business Angels of Slovenia, we are extremely excited that we were able to build a true pan-European VC fund – with investors from around Europe (from Switzerland and UK to Spain and Slovenia). In today’s world there are no borders – and startup companies should strive to conquer their respective global markets – regardless whether they come from EU, Switzerland, UK or Serbia.”
The fund is looking for promising start-ups that solve challenges with the use of digital technologies and primarily tackling issues in the B2B environment. Start-ups can count on support from very early stages (pre-seed / seed) and can expect to receive an initial investment ranging from 50k EUR up to 100k EUR on average – with possibility for larger follow-on investment as well. Additionally, start-ups will be able to profit from access to daFUND’s broad stakeholder environment. Besides experienced GP (Darko Butina) and notable Investment Board, daFUND has a broad LP base (30 investors and counting). This enables the fund to bring lots of added value to its portfolio companies in addition to the financial investment itself.
What makes the fund stand out from others on the investors’ side are the additional investment opportunities that daFUND enables its LPs. These additional investment opportunities mean that daFUND agrees with start-ups for larger allocation of investment than the fund would invest on its own – and such additional allocation can then be provided by the fund’s LPs in addition to their initial investment in the fund. On one side the start-up profits from access to more financial resources, while at the same time, such additional investment does not mean a more fragmentized cap table, because it is still managed by the fund and not by the respective LP. Usually, such additional investments also mean that the LPs behind them are willing and able to additionally support the start-up and open new doors for them.
About daFUND
daFUND is a pan-European VC fund powered by founders and entrepreneurs, experienced managers and investors, and the Business Angels of Slovenia. The fund invests in (very) early stage start-ups that build their competitive advantage with digital solutions.
About Darko Butina
Darko is an experienced investor with a great track record from investing both his own assets (as angel investor) as well as on behalf of investing entities like Swiss based Netcetera. Among other achievements Darko was the first investor in successful start-ups like Cognism and Cleanshelf (with Cleanshelf recently acquired by LeanIX and with Cognism well on its growth path – in 5 years employing over 250 people).
Additionally, Darko has significant experiences in various companies in both executive positions as well as an entrepreneur and board member. Over the years, Darko also had a chance to lead, help and advise a number of different companies from around the globe – from US to UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darkobutina/
About Business Angels of Slovenia
Founded in 2007, Business Angels of Slovenia is the first and biggest exclusive club of angel investors in Slovenia. It provides a focal point between startups, companies, club members, international investors and experts in the field.
Business Angels of Slovenia connect with the most ambitious entrepreneurs in their early stages of company growth, and with the most qualified investors in Slovenia, the Central and Eastern Europe region and broader. Only during the current year 2021, Business Angels of Slovenia successfully invested in 11 different companies from all over Europe.