Balnord, a Luxembourg-based early stage investor for the Baltic Sea Area, has introduced this morning that it has oversubscribed its €70 million fund goal and is effectively on its solution to reaching a ultimate shut of €100 million by mid-2026.
LPs backing the fund embody the European Funding Fund, PFR Ventures, and European household places of work, founders, and personal buyers from all over the world. Balnord counts LPs in three continents and 12 nations. Most prior-fund LPs have reinvested in Balnord Fund I; amongst new LPs, many are founders of its exited portfolio firms.
“We’re investing within the spine of European industrialisation. We have now already invested round €13 million in 10 firms. The primary 4 of them raised €40 million in subsequent funding rounds, producing revenues of €35 million this yr,” commented Marcin P. Kowalik, Normal Companion at Balnord.
Balnord’s oversubscribed first shut situates it inside a 2025 European funding panorama more and more oriented in direction of industrial resilience, dual-use know-how, and regionally anchored DeepTech ecosystems. Throughout Europe, a number of funds introduced this yr mirror comparable strategic priorities:
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Suma Capital (Barcelona) closed a €210 million ClimateTech car to again industrial decarbonisation ventures.
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Keen Venture Partners (Amsterdam/London) launched a €40 million DefenseTech fund aligned with Europe’s strategic-sovereignty objectives.
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Iron Wolf Capital (Vilnius) unveiled a €100 million DeepTech fund for early-stage founders throughout the Baltics.
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IDC Ventures (Copenhagen) established a €150 million fund-of-funds investing in future-growth sectors.
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C4 Ventures (Paris) launched a €100 million fund supporting AI, robotics, and quantum innovation.
Balnord’s positioning – backing frontier and dual-use applied sciences throughout the Baltic Sea Area – aligns intently with these themes, notably the Baltic-region DeepTech focus seen at Iron Wolf Capital.
Its inclusion of the EIF as a restricted companion additional mirrors institutional exercise supporting strategic sectors; notably, the EIF additionally backs Suma Capital’s ClimateTech car.
As EU-Startups lately noticed in its broader evaluation of policy-driven capital flows, the European VC panorama is shifting “from local weather to resilience,” with new devices reinforcing safety, defence, and industrial innovation priorities (EU-Startups, Oct 2025). Inside this context, Balnord’s fund contributes to a continental motion directing capital towards Europe’s re-industrialisation and technological sovereignty — areas now drawing sustained investor and public-sector consideration.
“There has by no means been a stronger time for Europe to construct resilient and enduring tech firms. We’ve by no means seen a extra important and liquid alternative to create and construct applied sciences that can form the fashionable world within the coming decade,” added Kowalik.
Based in 2024 and centered totally on founders from the Baltic Sea Area (Nordics, Baltics, Poland, Germany), Balnord backs firms which are laying the muse for Europe’s re-industrialisation in the true economic system throughout sectors reminiscent of area, healthcare, industrial resilience, and extra.
Based on the agency, Europe is present process probably the most important wave of industrialisation in many years, and European frontier-tech dual-use know-how firms are poised to outline the subsequent era of winners. It’s estimated that €1 trillion is able to be invested yearly throughout the continent, fixing probably the most complicated issues and tackling reindustrialisation –
The brand new fund will put money into at the very least 22 firms and may make important follow-on investments. Preliminary investments will vary from €500k to €3 million, with follow-on investments as much as €12 million per firm.
“As a group, we’ve been working collectively for 9 years already, placing collectively a like-minded group of mission-driven buyers and operators with the only intention of serving to founders with their hardest challenges.
“We’re backing resilient entrepreneurs who’re elevating the bar on ambition, aiming to construct billion-dollar firms throughout the Baltic Sea Area – the place we are able to make a GDP-level affect. We’re not simply investing in firms – we again founders and assist them construct actions,” added Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, Normal Companion at Balnord.
The Balnord group contains Normal Companions Marcin P. Kowalik and Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, in addition to Working Companions Jarosław Pilarczyk, Wojciech Drewczyński, Hubert Szczołek, and Gabriele Poteliunaite. Balnord’s group is break up between Gdansk, Luxembourg, and Berlin.
Balnord has additionally created a founders board to assist its investments, which incorporates Peter Bialo, co-founder of DocPlanner, the primary Polish firm to be valued over $1 billion, and Davis Siksnans, former founder & CEO of Printful, the primary Latvian unicorn, and now CEO of Mapon, a number one B2B telematics firm.
“This fund will assist drive innovation in key sectors reminiscent of defence and area, straight supporting the EU’s dedication to addressing urgent challenges. Investing in Balnord permits us to additional contribute to the EU’s strategic aims, guaranteeing that Europe stays on the forefront of technological innovation and able to assembly future calls for,” stated Marjut Falkstedt, EIF Chief Govt.
Balnord Fund I has already invested in 10 firms, together with:
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Astrolight: An area-to-ground laser communication supplier that lately demonstrated an undetectable laser hyperlink between NATO ships at sea, guaranteeing communications when radio is jammed or denied (as reported by EU-Startups)
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ATMOS Area Cargo: Enabling entry to microgravity by way of reusable reentry capsules utilizing superior inflatable warmth protect know-how. Atmos is allegedly the fastest-moving personal area logistics firm in Europe to conduct an orbital return mission.
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VitVio: Leveraging AI, laptop imaginative and prescient, and ambient sensing applied sciences to digitise working rooms in 3D, in real-time, to know surgical workflows.
Different frontier tech and dual-use investments embody firms working throughout area, industrial resilience, and tech bio.
Sebastian Klaus, CEO of ATMOS Area Cargo, stated, “Working with Balnord appears like having a companion who actually will get it. Their group’s entrepreneurial expertise means they perceive the ups and downs of constructing an organization. They’re not simply buyers – they’re firm builders and supporters.”
Thus far, Balnord has co-invested alongside main DeepTech funds, together with Growth, Matterwave, APEX Ventures, Seraphim, OTB, Inventure, Voima Ventures, and Bek Ventures (previously Earlybird Digital East).
“Balnord is already placing its raised capital to work, supporting entrepreneurs. Amongst them are the Polish founders of Microamp, a DeepTech challenge centered on 5G connectivity that beforehand took half in NATO’s DIANA accelerator, and SATIM, which has lately established partnerships with ICEYE and native armaments firms.
“We’re additionally seeing the fund’s sturdy dedication to fostering the regional DeepTech ecosystem, going effectively past its funding exercise. I imagine that founders will actually profit from this method, and it’s one of many causes we felt assured allocating our capital to Balnord Fund I,” says Rozalia Urbanek, Board Member of PFR Ventures
