iMocha raises $14 million Series A
Today we’re thrilled to announce two senior promotions in our Europe team. Alston Zecha and Vytautas Balsys have been promoted to Partner, as we continue to strengthen our platform to be a partner of choice for ambitious entrepreneurs across the region.
The news follows a year where we launched a new $450 million fund for European and Israeli scale-ups, made 13 new investments, completed 10 follow-ons and had two successful IPOs in our portfolio – which now includes nine unicorns such as AppsFlyer, Hibob, Fireblocks, Fever, Spendesk, Owkin and Neo4J. Across our global platform we now manage more than $8bn of capital, made 55 new investments in 2021, completed 75 follow-ons and nearly 40 exits.
Alston Zecha joined us in 2015, after time spent as Co-Founder and COO of leading mobile payments provider Payleven – the first pan-European provider of mobile chip & pin services. Prior to that Alston also spent time at Apax Partners, Travelex and Bain & Company. At Eight Roads, Alston has led investments in Duco, Funnel, Juro, Mention Me, SenseOn and Tibber. In his new role as Partner, Alston will continue to focus investing in scale-ups across Europe and Israel, with a specific interest in cybersecurity, fintech and SaaS companies.
Vytautas Balsys joined us in 2014 and leads portfolio management and business operations. As Partner, Vytautas will oversee our fund’s key processes and continue to work closely with our portfolio to help it scale and develop. Prior to joining Eight Roads, Vytautas worked at McKinsey & Company and held a variety of roles across software engineering, general management and strategy.
Davor Hebel, Head of Eight Roads Ventures Europe, commented on these promotions: “Following an excellent year for our portfolio, it’s great to be expanding our senior team and rewarding exceptional talent. Alston and Vytas have been with us for several years and have demonstrated an impressive commitment to supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs. Along with the rest of our team they will help deploy our latest fund and assist our portfolio to become global champions.”
To get know them and their areas of interest a little better we asked our new Partners a couple of questions:
Alston, congratulations on your promotion to Partner, going forward are there any specific sectors that you’ll be looking to invest in?
Although our team looks to invest across a wide range of sectors and predominantly in European or Israeli tech companies that have reached product market fit and ready to scale, because of my previous experience I do have a particular interest in Cybersecurity, FinTech – capital markets, crypto, payments and regtech and SaaS - dev tools and martech.
How are you feeling about 2022 and what it holds for European tech?
Whisper it, but the European tech sector has never had it so good. During my decade in European startups first as a founder and now venture capitalist, the ecosystem has continued exponential growth. With growing numbers of repeat entrepreneurs and technical founders, Europe and Israel now have world-beating companies across multiple sectors not least consumer marketplaces, cybersecurity, neo-banks, payments and remote working platforms.
2022 promises to continue where the prior year left off, after a record-busting €100 billion of fundraisings in 2021. Market valuations always have ups and downs, and after the longest bull run in history who’s to say where in the economic cycle we currently are. But Europe is seeing a structural shift of digitalisation in society that will run for at least the rest of this decade and perhaps another generation. So, anyone who is in this for the long-haul, like we are, should be confident about another exciting year ahead.
Vytautas – a big congratulations to you also – as you have a unique Partner role, can you tell us a bit more about your focus?
While I started my career at Eight Roads in an investment role, I found myself spending a good amount of time on our portfolio development and fund operations from early on, as this aligned well with my expertise and interests. As our portfolio grew, I chose to focus on these areas full time. We now have around 40 active investments, and this number is growing quickly. As Partner, I will continue to oversee the fund’s portfolio and will work on improving how we operate across the investment lifecycle – from strategy and investment execution, to portfolio development and exits.
And how are you thinking about the year ahead?
European technology had a break-through year in 2021. The best companies are now scaling faster than ever and invariably attract not just local but also top tier global investors. At Eight Roads we’ve also never seen a stronger pipeline of opportunities or had a better year for our portfolio, where we saw eight new unicorns created. We’re proud of the positive experience that our entrepreneurs have when partnering with us. Looking ahead to 2022, I will focus on scaling our platform further and serving the entrepreneurs we back as they look to build globally leading businesses.
And finally, when you’re both not hard at work what are we most likely to find you doing?
Alston: In my younger days I was a club level tennis player and one of the world’s worst but most passionate surfers. Now my kids are reaching double digits I’m trying to get them into these great sports. I’m also a geopolitics geek, Nietzsche and Monty Python fanboy and (somewhat) functioning FIFA addict…
Vytautas: Spending time with the family brings the most joy to me. With a two-year-old daughter and a five-month-old dog at home, there is never a dull moment! I love our walks in the woods and parks. I am also re-discovering the pleasure that a semi-DIY project around the house and garden can bring. Stepping away from the laptop occasionally can bring fresh ideas and energy.
