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ZAKA launches €15M fund
July 19, 2024·2 min read

Lisa Palchynska

Editor-in-Chief, Vestbee

Czech ZAKA VC is raising €15M fund for early-stage startups across Europe and the US

Prague-based ZAKA VC has achieved the first close of its €15 million ZAKA VC Fund I, raising €10.5 million, as Vestbee was told. The fund will support pre-seed and seed-stage startups across Europe and the US.

  • ZAKA was founded in 2020 by Jan Kasper and Peter Zalesak as a family office investing purely private money in pre-seed and seed startups. Since then, it has backed over 55 companies with more than €11 million, including Miros.ai, Supliful, Lime Therapeutics, and Webel. 
  • Starting with a focus on the CEE market, ZAKA has expanded its presence to the UK and US, and supports the European diaspora in the US, US-based teams, along with CEE-based teams with the ambition to scale to the US.

“US ecosystem remains in our interest, and we plan to enhance our presence there. It produces highly competent and motivated founders and offers a huge market to conquer. This is why the investment returns are extremely compelling, despite higher valuations compared to the CEE region,” states Jan Kasper, Managing Partner of ZAKA.

  • Now, ZAKA VC is raising its first fund, targeting €15 million. In June 2024, the firm made its first closing at €10.5 million. LPs include the founders' families as anchor investors, as well as LPs from the Czech and Slovak startup ecosystem, with a minimum LP ticket of €130,000. 
  • ZAKA VC aims to invest in up to 50 startups from its Fund I. The main investment focus is on B2B software, the cross-sectional application of AI in B2B, and biotech and health tech. Its investment geography includes Europe — predominantly Central Europe, the Baltics, UK, DACH, and the US. Ticket sizes will range from €250,000 to €300,000. 

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