Lithuanian Contrarian Ventures raised €25M from the European Investment Fund

Lithuanian fund Contrarian Ventures has raised €25M from the European Investment Fund (EIF) to back European startups. The deal was closed in December 2022.

Other investors, which already backed Contrarian, include the Polish sovereign wealth fund PFR which invested at the end of 2022 with a total investment of €55M divided among the other 3 European funds. 

In August 2022, it was the first closing of Fund II from Korys Investments, Molten Ventures, and the Grantham Foundation. The fund plans to close the second fund by the end of 2023. As the venture company commented they need to raise approximately €25M to reach the target of €100M. One investment has been already made through the second fund, but the name of the company is not disclosed.

The main shareholder of EIF is the European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union. In 2022, the EIB allocated nearly €303M to support Lithuanian projects, including startups. EIB has an office in Vilnius, and one of its purposes is to support startups that contribute to Europe's green transition initiative (making Europe climate neutral by 2050, boosting the economy through green technology, creating sustainable industry and transport, and cutting pollution).

Contrarian Ventures is a seed-stage venture company focused on investment in climate startups from Europe and Israel. The fund usually invests around €1,5M to €4M. Contrarian VC was established in Vilnius in 2017 by Rokas Pečiulaitis and Tomas Kemtys. Currently, it has offices in Berlin and London.