ex-Digital East Fund, Bek Ventures, unveils $250M Fund III

The fund, raised from a mixture of global international financial institutions, insurance companies, funds of funds, corporate investors, family offices and established entrepreneurs predominantly from the US and Europe, was three- times oversubscribed. Bek quickly hit its aim for a maximum raise amount of $200m, but subsequently increased this to $250m to enable a few, long-time investors to participate. The fund will continue to focus on backing startups at Seed and Series A.

Over the last decade, the Bek team was behind some of the most commercially successful investments from the region, including unicorns like UiPath and Payhawk.

To date, as a firm Bek has achieved realized returns of $2.4 billion thanks to its disciplined approach to managing exits, and has been recognized by HEC as the top performing VC firm globally since 2010. 

Bek has already backed five companies with transformative potential in Fund III. These include Zeta Labs, where a team of Meta-trained developers has built a market-leading AI agent, and Proofs, which is using AI to overhaul the time it takes to build proof-of-concept apps.

Commenting on today’s launch, Managing Partner, Cem Sertoglu said: “Early-stage venture needs to stay small and focused to be successful because at the earliest stages, the most valuable thing we can provide our founders is time and attention. We, unfortunately, had to turn down LPs for this fresh fund because of our belief in discipline in fund size and strategy. Our strategy has helped us maintain top performance for the last decade, and we intend to double down with this fund and our new identity.”

On Bek Ventures’ next steps, Managing Partner, Mehmet Atici said: “Another thing that sets Bek apart from other VC firms: 90% of our companies get a second check from us. We are selective about the number and nature of founders we back and the quality of investors we hire, which makes us relentless in supporting our founders’ success. That comes not only through expertise and talent support but also by being there to ask the right questions and connect them to further investment from other top investors. Our focused engagement with them is how we help them as more and more European founders build from the US.”

The firm backs founders with their roots in dynamic Europe, referring to technical-talent-rich Central and Eastern Europe, which continues to produce hardworking, ambitious tech talent with its eyes on global success. 50% of the firm’s companies are operating from the US.

The firm has offices in London, New York and Istanbul.