Seedstars International Ventures I

Seedstars International Ventures I is the inaugural emerging markets seed-stage venture capital fund of Seedstars, a Switzerland-based venture platform that builds and invests in early-stage technology companies across the developing world. Launched in 2018, the fund represents Seedstars' transition from a global startup competition network — active across more than 80 countries since 2013 — into a dedicated institutional venture vehicle. Seedstars International Ventures I closed with approximately $29 million in commitments and deployed capital across a portfolio of over 100 pre-seed and seed-stage companies spanning more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe.

The fund's investment strategy targets B2B technology companies in three core sectors: financial services (payments, credit, banking, insurance, and infrastructure), market enablement (marketplaces, e-commerce enablers, supply chain, and cross-border trade), and productivity (vertical SaaS, workflow automation, data and analytics, and AI tools). Initial check sizes average $150,000 to $350,000, with follow-on capacity of up to $500,000 and target ownership of 3 to 5 percent per company. The fund's emerging markets focus reflects Seedstars' belief that the largest untapped venture opportunity lies in technology companies serving populations in markets that remain largely ignored by mainstream VC firms concentrated in Silicon Valley, London, and East Asia. The blended finance approach — later formalized in subsequent Seedstars vehicles — allowed institutional and development finance capital to access the emerging market pre-seed segment at scale.

Seedstars International Ventures I has a portfolio NPS of 81 among founders, reflecting the quality of operational support and mentorship provided through Seedstars' value creation platform, which includes access to over 1,300 mentors globally. The fund achieved 52 percent allocation to pre-seed stage investments and supported 139 portfolio investments in total across the Seedstars platform. Fund I established the investment framework and network infrastructure that enabled Seedstars International Ventures II — closed in 2022 with $30 million and anchored by IFC, Visa Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation — and Seedstars Africa Ventures I, a dedicated Africa vehicle targeting $80 million.