In a Nutshell
- Czech ZAKA VC has announced the establishment of its first fund, sized at €15M.
- Fund I is launching with a €10.5M first closing in June, this year. The minimum LP ticket is €130K.
- The fund is aimed at supporting early-stage startups across the US and EU markets.
Get the Details
ZAKA VC, founded in 2020 by Jan Kasper and Peter Zalesak, began as a family office investing private money into pre-seed and seed startups.
Previously, ZAKA VC primarily focused on the CEE market but over time, it expanded its presence to the UK and US. Their aim is to explore and fund the European diaspora in US, US-based teams, or CEE-based teams with the ambition to scale to the US.
The demand from external investors to co-invest alongside ZAKA led to creation of its first venture capital fund.
The venture capital fund aims to invest in pre-seed and seed-staged startups across Europe (predominantly Central Europe, Baltics, UK, DACH) and the US, acting as a co-investor. The main focus is on B2B software, cross-sectional application of AI in B2B and biotech and health tech.
Over the years, the firm has invested over €11M in 55 companies in its portfolio.
About the Investor’s Mission and Vision
Entrepreneurs Jan Kasper and Peter Zalesa have built and co-own over 60 companies, with a turnover exceeding €1.4B in multiple sectors like retail, media, mobility, energy, development, agro, leisure and hospitality.
Jan Kasper shared more on his motivation to create ZAKA VC: “The trigger to create ZAKA was my daughter Valentina who has introduced me to the emerging startup ecosystem. I recognized this opportunity as an exciting way to invest the capital we generated in our family businesses. I suggested this idea to my friend and fellow entrepreneur Peter who has always been a tech and innovation enthusiast.”
Peter Zalesak added: “Even before founding ZAKA, I invested and helped startups, but I realized that it was full-time business. After conversations with Jan, we decided to do it professionally – to hire the right team and establish rules and processes for selection, evaluation, approval and managing the best companies that are emerging around us.”
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