It’s been five years since Breega first started investing in startups. Five years of meeting, vetting and investing in the best and brightest founders who will go on to shape tomorrow’s economy. As we reach this five-year milestone, we’re taking stock of our progress, failures and successes and checking in with the founders we’ve invested in to see what they think of Breega’s investment model and how it has impacted them and their companies. Before doing so, let’s just flashback to the reason Breega began investing in early-stage startups in the first place.
Remembering our Why.
Breega’s Founding Partners, when launching Breega, were looking to bridge what they saw as an “equity and experience gap” in venture. As serial entrepreneurs themselves, they wanted to help boost companies by investing not only money but also time, help and support. They already had some experience of accompanying and advising startups. What they didn’t know when starting to invest in 2015, was how well this model could scale or of the value-add they and their future team could bring.
Reflecting on our progress: a few Key results
Firstly, let’s take a look at our results. Since 2015, Breega has invested on average in around 11 early-stage investments per year. Our portfolio now features fifty great high-tech startups from a whole range of sectors from fintech to robotics and autonomous vehicles. If we breakdown our sectors and investments by type, it looks like this:
Breega investments by sector
As shown below, the majority of our startups are progressing well. If our initial investments are mostly in seed, as part of our new platform strategy, we’ll be accelerating the number of later stage investments in the coming months. There’ll be more to come on this soon, so watch this space!
Breega initial investment round Where our startups are now
So far, 44% of our seed investments have gone on to raise Series A rounds within, on average, 17 months of their Seed round. According to a study published a while back by Dealroom and Localglobe, on average 19% of all European Seed investments went on to raise a Series A round within 36 months. This figure rose to 40% for seed investments in top quartile funds. We are proud to note that so far our investment track record places Breega in the top quartile of European investment funds.
The study also points to evidence that increased investor collaboration is associated with better conversion rates to Series A. This further supports our theory at Breega that working actively with our startups leads to better results.
% of our startups successfully completing a Series A after a Seed round
European average Breega average
Seven of our early-stage investments have also gone on to raise Series B rounds, the majority within two years of their previous round. And two of our early-stage investments went on to raise Series C rounds, with one of them, Exotec, speeding from Seed to Series C in just under four years. Since 2015, we’ve also carried out three exits: Food Chéri, Way Konect and Lylo.
Five of our earliest investments sadly didn’t make it, but we’re happy to report that overall, our portfolio companies are meeting and even exceeding our expectations which is good news both for our startups and our investors.
If our startup’s progress is mainly thanks to their hard work, sound business models and strong founding teams, we also like to believe that Breega’s “hands-on” model and collaborative approach contributes to their success. With this in mind, we decided to check in with our startups to find out whether they would agree and if so, how working with Breega has helped them to accelerate.
Founders feedback
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be providing you with the feedback of our portfolio founders, how they’re doing and what they say working with Breega is like on a daily basis, starting next Wednesday with Gojob. Stay tuned!