ZAS Ventures 2022 Summary Newsletter
Hi, ZASV Community!
The year 2022 is a year of Ukraine fighting against unprovoked russian aggression. Ukraine is defending itself and the rest of Europe from russian nazis. It's a year of resilience, bravery, and protection of democratic values. However, amid every crisis lies great opportunities!
Our team members, Andrew Zinchuk (GP) and Artem Volkhonskyi (VP) are based in Kyiv. Being an active Ukrainian startup ecosystem players and in the heart of the crisis, we were approached by numerous startup founders asking for support and advice.
As a result, we have found the world's most resilient and agile startups! Despite losing traction in the home market due to the war, their founders managed to sustain operations, pivot, and get new traction in EU / US markets!
Therefore, we at ZAS Ventures decided to do something special!
Brave Ukraine Fund
ZAS Ventures is launching a $3MM fund to invest in war-proven Ukrainian-founded pre-seed startups and help accelerate their traction on the western markets (the deck is here).
Highlights:
Startups have product & proven traction and are registered as US C-Corps or EU equivalents;
Investments in startups will be deployed in tranches per reached KPIs;
The fund is domiciled in Delaware, with teams in San Francisco and Kyiv.
Based on our investment process, we screened 250+ startups in the last six months. As a result, we shortlisted 30 and identified six targets.
We provide a unique opportunity to invest in the fund that will back 30 of the most resilient and agile Ukrainian-founded startups at the earliest stage, where the opportunities for value creation are highest, and valuations are at their lowest.
First Close
We are collecting soft commitments as we are working towards the 1st close of the fund at the end of February. Min ticket on the 1st close is only $50K.
The best way to explore an investment is to schedule a call at a time convenient for you via Calendly with Andrew Zinchuk, Founding Partner. Andrew will be happy to share more about our investment strategy and address any outstanding questions.
Book a call
The Team
We have an ambitious plan to invest in and support 30+ startups in 2 years. Therefore, we strengthened our core team with stellar teammates!
Adeo Ressi and Mike Suprovici, founders of VC Lab and Founders Institute, loved the cause and opportunity and joined as Venture Partners providing strategic advice. In addition, VC Lab will perform fund administration.
Kal Deutsch and Jeff Wallace, Co-Founders of Silicon Valley in Your Pocket Accelerator, will be mentoring portfolio startups and preparing them to raise the next round from the US VCs.
Max Kusmierek, successful Polish founder of DJBox.pl (exited), WellServed and Fully-Verified, will help startups targeting the EU market to scale across the EU and raise a subsequent round from EU VCs.
Andrew Call will focus on helping portfolio startups with HR and recruiting. If there are weaknesses in the team, Andrew is the person who will see it and find a way to strengthen the team comfortably.
ZAS Ventures Syndicate
We are launching a syndicate to invest in the best startups from our dealflow!
Superscout became the first syndicate partner. It is a global network of scouts connecting outstanding undiscovered early-stage startups with venture capital. SuperScout community will be investing along with Brave Ukraine Fund.
Our first syndicate deal is a Ukrainian-founded mobile-first web store & ad builder startup that helps SMEs start selling online.
Traction highlights:
$42K MRR;
200% QoQ Growth Rate;
90% Gross Margin;
6K+ users from North America, the UK, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile;
80% Retention after four months
We have a $200K allocation in the round and will close the deal in early February via SPV through Sydecar. So don't miss the opportunity. Min check for this deal is $10K.
If you are interested in joining the ZASV Syndicate and getting prominent deals on Ukrainian-founded early-stage startups, please sign-up here.
ZAS Ventures on Podcasts
Andrew Zinchuk on ASIA TECH PODCAST discussed how to boost outstanding entrepreneurs from Central & Eastern Europe building SaaS & cloud startups and why Ukrainians are amongst the top 10 unicorn founders in the US. [ENG]
Andrew Zinchuk shares his operator & VC experience at StartUp Kitchen. Also, more about the new fund for Ukrainian-founded pre-seed startups. [UKR]
Andrew Zinchuk at Talks with Petri Kajander about what's happening in the Ukrainian startup ecosystem, how things have evolved over the years, and what's expected to happen next.
