LAUNCHub, Bulgaria: Expands Portfolio With 9 New Investments in SE European Startups

LAUNCHub, a seed fund and accelerator fund from Bulgaria, EU, announced on Monday 10 investments to kick off 2014.

One of the investments was follow-on in EdHub, a LAUNCHub’s portfolio existing member, and the rest of them were in 9 new teams.

Each of the 9 teams will get seed funding of up to €200k. The selection of the 9 teams came after the Long Weekend Event held during November 28 – December 1, 2013 , in Sofia, where 14 teams in total competed in four days of intensive pitching, coaching and mentoring.

“The event proved that we are definitely facing a maturing startup ecosystem in the region, becoming more and more attractive to investors. In our latest selection run, most of the teams we met were in a more or less advanced early stage, with proved traction, some with first sales, having gained first customer feedback and showing good knowledge of markets and trends. Pitching skills are getting better and better”, according to LAUNCHub’s after-event blog post.

That was the fourth batch of selected startups for LAUNCHub. With 9 more teams funded, LAUNCHub’s portfolio increased to 35 teams from 7 countries in Southeastern Europe; Bulgaria, FYROM, Romania, Croatia, Greece, and Slovenia and Ukraine.

Following are more details on LAUNCHub’s recent investments:

Appticles  allows to mobilize web content creating great user experience. The platfrom targets publishers and is based on the Open Web concept & HTML5.

Greenpie  provides a cloud-based solution for nutritionists that automates nutrition counseling processes and connects nutritionists to their clients in real time.

Prefer.ly  facilitates social decision-making.by extracting online reviews for different products  and transforming them into purchase decision advice.

WPToolbox  is a marketplace for wordpress add-ons and pack of tools for bloggers and webmasters, including a unique platform for WP installation packs.

Equafy provides a multi-browser automated testing tool and service. The IaaS/SaaS solution allows for tests to be run on any browser and for automatic bug identification and analysis.

Mediately is a drug information mobile app and web application, which makes drug information easily available to doctors.

IQFriends Social brain training games on mobile that people can play and thus train their brain in a fun and social way.

GameMatch is a mobile game discovery platform that helps players discover great games and developers find their target audience.

BGMENU is an online platform for food ordering and delivery including over 250 restaurants in Bulgaria, which increase in number every day.  Besides delivery, the Take Out option allows ordering on the go and pick up at the restaurant.

(image credit: LAUNCHub.com)

ACCELERATORSAPPTICLESBGMENUBULGARIAEDHUBEQUAFYGAMEMATCHGREENPIEIQFRIENDSLAUNCHUBMEDIATELYPREFERLYSEED FUNDINGSOUTHEASTERN EUROPEWPTOOLBOX