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 option to attaining a last shut of €100 million by mid-2026.
LPs backing the fund embody the European Funding Fund, PFR Ventures, and European household workplaces, founders, and personal buyers from around the globe. Balnord counts LPs in three continents and 12 international locations. Most prior-fund LPs have reinvested in Balnord Fund I; amongst new LPs, many are founders of its exited portfolio corporations.
“We’re investing within the spine of European industrialisation. We now have already invested round €13 million in 10 corporations. The primary 4 of them raised €40 million in subsequent funding rounds, producing revenues of €35 million this 12 months,” commented Marcin P. Kowalik, Common Accomplice at Balnord.
Balnord’s oversubscribed first shut situates it inside a 2025 European funding panorama more and more oriented in the direction of industrial resilience, dual-use know-how, and regionally anchored DeepTech ecosystems. Throughout Europe, a number of funds introduced this 12 months replicate related strategic priorities:
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Suma Capital (Barcelona) closed a €210 million ClimateTech car to again industrial decarbonisation ventures.
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Eager Enterprise Companions (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 accomplice 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 corporations. We’ve by no means seen a extra important and liquid alternative to create and construct applied sciences that may 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 corporations which can be laying the muse for Europe’s re-industrialisation in the true financial system throughout sectors equivalent to area, healthcare, industrial resilience, and extra.
In accordance with the agency, Europe is present process probably the most important wave of industrialisation in many years, and European frontier-tech dual-use know-how corporations are poised to outline the subsequent technology 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 spend money on at the least 22 corporations 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 corporations throughout the Baltic Sea Area – the place we will make a GDP-level influence. We’re not simply investing in corporations – we again founders and assist them construct actions,” added Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, Common Accomplice at Balnord.
The Balnord group consists of Common 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 help 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 equivalent to defence and area, immediately supporting the EU’s dedication to addressing urgent challenges. Investing in Balnord permits us to additional contribute to the EU’s strategic goals, making certain that Europe stays on the forefront of technological innovation and able to assembly future calls for,” stated Marjut Falkstedt, EIF Chief Government.
Balnord Fund I has already invested in 10 corporations, 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, making certain communications when radio is jammed or denied (as reported by EU-Startups)
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ATMOS House Cargo: Enabling entry to microgravity via reusable reentry capsules utilizing superior inflatable warmth defend know-how. Atmos is allegedly the fastest-moving non-public 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 corporations working throughout area, industrial resilience, and tech bio.
Sebastian Klaus, CEO of ATMOS House Cargo, stated, “Working with Balnord looks like having a accomplice 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.”
To this point, Balnord has co-invested alongside main DeepTech funds, together with Enlargement, 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 venture 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 corporations.
“We’re additionally seeing the fund’s robust dedication to fostering the regional DeepTech ecosystem, going effectively past its funding exercise. I imagine that founders will actually profit from this strategy, 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
