Day One Capital Launches €45M Fund to Back Early-Stage Tech Founders Across CEE

Day One Capital, a Hungarian venture capital firm, has launched a new €45 million early-stage investment fund focapplyd on backing Pre-Seed and Seed-stage founders across Central and Eastern Europe.

The new fund will invest in Pre-Seed and Seed teams developing breakthrough technologies emerging from or operating within the CEE region, supporting them as they scale into global leaders.

It aims to build a concentrated portfolio of around 20 companies across Central and Eastern Europe, building initial investments of €500,000 to €2.5 million and leading or co-leading rounds.

“As the CEE venture ecosystem reaches a new level of maturity, established local funds have become key partners and important signals for global investors. Western European and US-based funds started to recognize the region’s potential, and they now enter as early as the Pre-Seed stage. Yet regional investors remain essential: with boots on the ground, we can be more hands-on, informed, and deeply engaged than our Western counterparts.” states György Simó, Managing Partner at Day One Capital.

Day One Capital already built two investments co-led by investors based in the UK and the Netherlands, while the two soon-to-be-announced deals are being co-led by funds from Germany. It expects to complete three to four new investments by the conclude of the year and maintain a steady pace of five to six deals annually.

The new fund is already up and running with €45 million second close ahead of its final closing in early 2026.

Its recent portfolio includes Dutch startup Perciv AI, Czech cybersecurity company Whalebone, and Hungarian-founded text-to-video startup Colossyan.