Page 12 - bne_Tech_07_2018

Investment
July 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 12
Hungarian venture capital fund to invest €100mn in Central Europe
Hungarian venture capital fund Lead Ventures
is ready to invest CZK2.5bn (€97mn) in Central Europe, especially in Czech and Slovak start-ups, Czech business website E15.cz reported.
The fund launched in Czechia on July 24 with the first large investment due to be made in October. Investors include Hungarian oil company MOL, Hungarian Investment Bank and Exim bank.
“The typical range of investments will be between €500,000 and €3mn,” Lead Ventures founder
and CEO Abel Galacz is quoted as saying. Over the next five years, the main areas of investment will be in energy, particularly renewables, and property.
“Czech start-ups are able to do business in other
United Group announces €100mn investment in local content in the Balkans
Telecoms and media provider United Group, owned by US investment firm KKR and
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), announced it plans to invest €100mn in local content production in Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia.
sectors than only mobile apps. The development of a start-up environment is rather quick and interesting for investors,” Petr Lemoch, head of the Czech branch of global investments vehicle Keiretsu Forum, told E15.
Czech start-ups are relatively young, and the own- ers prefer a loan from an investor. “Most of the companies are younger than three years and the owners are not going to a bank for money,” said Perfect Crowd analyst Martin Bocek.
Czechia is also a good country for testing the vi- ability of a company, so investors are ready to risk money in the country.
Besides Central Europe, the Lead Venture fund is interested in Russia, Turkey and Israel.
The company has increased the percentage of owned content on its channels from 5% to 30% in five years.
“In the era of global media players such as Netflix, local audiences still value shows and movies that