BlackPeak Capital successfully completed first closing at EUR68.5 million of its target EUR120 million BlackPeak Southeast Europe Growth Equity Fund.
The Fund targets growth equity investments of EUR5-10 million in dynamic SMEs in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. The Fund focuses on partnering with the region’s outstanding entrepreneurs who have the ambition to build world-class companies on the basis of continued innovation, organic growth, and add-on acquisitions. The Fund has a generalist sector approach with strong preference for IT/software, niche manufacturing, business services, healthcare, and consumer sectors. BlackPeak Southeast Europe Growth Equity Fund is backed by the European Investment Fund under the COSME and JEREMIE programs, the EBRD, the IFC, and other European private institutional investors. The Fund builds on the successful track record of BlackPeak Fund I, which invested in 12 companies, including in global innovation leaders such as Walltopia, International Power Supply, Software Group, Bulpros, and others. BlackPeak Capital was established in 2014 by Rossen Ivanov, Ivailo Gospodinov, Kiril Ivanov, and Angel Stefanov. The team is expanded with Niklas Pichler, previously at Mezzanine Management, joining as Managing Partner and Dorian Macovei, formerly at EMSA Capital, joining as Managing Director. Rossen Ivanov and Ivailo Gospodinov say: “This is a major milestone for BlackPeak Capital and for the regional private equity ecosystem. Southeast Europe is already home to entrepreneurs who have built global or European leaders in specific niches and we are very excited about the opportunity to be able to partner with some of them and help them grow both organically and via add-on acquisitions.” Niklas Pichler says: “The Fund provides investors with an opportunity to tap into a largely underserved market where demand for growth equity far outstrips available supply. The regional economy has a combined GDP of more than EUR420 billion, is likely to grow faster than the rest of the EU, is dominated by SMEs, and yet there are only a few private equity funds providing growth equity in our target ticket size.” BlackPeak Capital remains committed to making a significant positive economic, social, and environmental impact in the region. BlackPeak Capital will operate from four regional offices in Sofia, Bucharest, Ljubljana, and Vienna. The Fund benefits from the support of the European Union under the Equity Facility for Growth established under Regulation (EU) No 1287/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council establishing a Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and small and medium enterprises (COSME) (2014-2020) and from the support of the Invest BG.
