ULTRA.VC

Funding Round Announcement: our portfolio startup, GIFTD, has raised €535,000 in angel funding! 🥂🎉 GIFTD is a revolutionary clothing gifting app that transforms unsold brand stock into exclusive marketing giveaways for brands and retailers, while also enabling users to share secondhand items within the platform’s community. We are happy to co-invest with quantumr and Thies Network in this round and share with them our confidence in the GIFTD team. Fantastic work, Michael Gegg and Hannah Kromminga — we’re proud of you! Read more about the round in comments 👇

🥷 It was a REAL competition..... within the team for spots at these November events! 😄 Rest assured, you’ll see plenty of ULTRA team faces there: 🗓️ 6-7/ 11 Impact Week by Norrsken📍 Barcelona 🗓️ 11-14/ 11 Web Summit📍 Lisbon 🗓️ 16/ 11 #BelTechGlobal 2.0 by ZPP | Belarus Business Center – Белорусский бизнес в Польше и Европе📍 Warsaw ( how could we forget to mention this one? 🙈 ) 🗓️ 20-21/ 11 Slush📍Helsinki 👇 Tag in the comments if you’re attending too—let’s connect 🌎

You can’t deny the impact of this startup in today’s world 🤔 🌎 Discover Diluu, our portfolio startup offering immersive language courses tailored for children in expat families. Shoutout to the founders Daniel Garoz Solís Laura Núñez Fernández Lucía Marín Fabián 👏 💡 Do you know any Spanish or French expat communities in non-Spanish or non-French-speaking countries? Tag them in the comments — Diluu could be a game-changer for them!

👻 THIS SCARES THE LIFE OUT OF FOUNDERS! 🎃 Not ghosts or Mercury in retrograde... but SALES! If it haunts you too, you’re in good company. To ward off the sales jitters, here are 5 Trick-or-Treat Tips from ULTRA expert Ivo Dimovsky, Sales Magician with a career spanning Vodafone, Adidas, Medallia, Qualtrics & Startup mentor: 🎃 Build your sales engine first before you expand your reach—it’s your foundation! 👻 Follow the 70/30 rule during qualification calls: let the customer do 70% of the talking, and use your 30% to pitch with impact. 🕸️ Your website is your 24/7 salesperson—make sure it’s optimized to work its magic. 🧛♂️ Avoid hiring “corporate-heavy” profiles too early. Look for candidates with high energy, proactivity, and resilience to rejection. 🕷️ Turn every rejection into insight—each “no” is a valuable clue to help you improve. Stay brave and get into the right mindset! 🚀 Got your own tricks for handling this spooky topic? Share in the comments👇

🍁 October was packed with events! Check out the ULTRA team’s highlights from some of them: 🔴 Lena Pishchuk on Ethical Assembly in Lisbon: “The Ethical Assembly was such an inspiration! I was particularly touched Lily Cole's Impossible work with Impossible and her collaborations with Global Optimism, which highlighted the importance of staying positive and inspiring people by bringing hope, not blame. The panel discussion featuring impact-sector experts João Pedro Machado, Yonca Braeckman, Nuno Comando, Alice Segre provided me with valuable insights. The main takeaway is that we should work on making impact sexy for traditional investors — because it truly is. And the big bonus: reconnecting with friends (hi Pedro Rocha and the 351 Portuguese Startup Association team) added a personal touch, making me feel like I'm finally integrating into the local ecosystem — a sweet feeling for an immigrant. Thank you, Patricia Imbarus, for creating this special space!” 🟡 Yury on the Emerging Founders event in Warsaw: “Thrilled to be part of such a well-organized event! Huge shoutout to the EF team. Warsaw’s startup scene is brimming with ambitious founders, and it was inspiring to learn about their projects. Great discussion with colleagues from the VC panel Magdalena Olczak - Nowicka, PhD, Dr. Marcus Erken, and especially Bartosz Lipnicki for expertly moderating!” 🔵 Daria Reutovich on the Zero One Hundred Conferences in Milan: “Great discussions with LPs and VCs on: 1) regional market outlook and current PE/VC trends; 2) early relationship-building with potential LPs; 3) the role of ESG metrics in creating resilient, long-term value. Catching up with familiar faces Pedro Santos Vieira, Maurice Beckand Verwee, Nicklas Pavoncelli, and meeting new ones Laura Iriarte Zabalaga, Rosario Sciacca, and Dr. Gesa Miczaika was a bonus! Thanks, Alena Hloba, for the invite!” 😈 Can November top this? We’ll see soon!

New month, new #ULTRARECOMMEND post! This time, our amazing COO, Daria Reutovich, has curated a list of top resources just for you:  1. Sifted Newsletters – Focused primarily on the EU startup/VC scene, Sifted offers a wide range of topics and opinions, providing timely reactions and insights on market trends.  2. TNW Newsletters – Each issue opens with "a letter from Boris," the founder, sharing inspiring life principles and insights. Content leans toward the tech scene, with engaging updates and analysis.  3. Benedict’s Newsletter by Benedict Evans – This weekly digest highlights major tech news, with the author providing thoughtful analysis and perspectives that often resonate with me.  4. Morning Brew – Covering business, economics, and tech from a global perspective, Morning Brew strikes a balance between being technical and reader-friendly, offering a comprehensive view of what’s essential to stay informed.  5. Sunday CET by Dragos Novac – A curated digest of investment news, with added coverage on government topics and policy changes that impact the investment landscape. P.S. Check the comments - it's where all the subscription links are waiting for you 👁

Attention, please ☝ Our friends from ZPP | Belarus Business Center – Белорусский бизнес в Польше и Европе are hosting the largest offline conference for Belarusian tech businesses abroad — BelTech Going Global 2.0! And our very own Yury Shlahanau will be joining it as a speaker, along with such stars as Kiryl Valoshyn Valery Astrynski Andrey Lappo Yury Melnichek Nikita Krivelevich. What a constellation to watch. 🌌 🔭 Save the date and be ready to hug a lot: 📅 Saturday, November 16 🕑 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM (Followed by a Networking Party) 📍 CIC – Cambridge Innovation Center, Warsaw Use the promo code ULTRABELTECH to receive 10% discount 👉 https://lnkd.in/e6B54t-P

“Building health innovation takes time. That’s why Femtech projects need investors who truly believe in their mission,” says Juan David Giraldo Rodriguez, co-founder of Evie. At ULTRA.VC, we believe, and we invest. Learn more about our portfolio startup Evie - a mobile app that helps women improve pelvic floor health. And if you share Evie’s mission as well, here’s how you can be part of it: tag your company’s HR team in the comments to introduce Evie as a valuable support service for women before, during, and after maternity leave. 👈 Tatiana Chavarriaga Arteaga Juan David Giraldo Rodriguez

🎙 Podcast Break! 🎙 In the latest episode of Innovation Conversation, our COO Daria Reutovich shares her personal journey in the VC and startup world. Daria dives into the challenges founders face and emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment that prioritizes both well-being and financial success. 🎧 Tune in to episode 58 on your favorite platform 👉 https://lnkd.in/es5c9jZJ A special thanks to The Startup Events and Ricardo Pascual for featuring us! #podcast #vc #startup

The Stage Gate for #Batch_Fall24 has just wrapped up, and we’re thrilled to announce the startups that ULTRA.VC is backing! 🎉 Addie AI-powered, hyper-personalised productivity and lifestyle management platform, designed by leading clinical specialists for people with ADHD. Cogs AI Reimagining mental healthcare for neurodivergent people using software, data and AI. Diluu Immersive language classes for expat children, where they learn naturally through fun activities. Evie | Women's Health Empowering women through comprehensive pelvic health. Evolve - Most effective corporate learning platform An interactive learning platform that turns static materials into engaging, memorable experiences, backed by in-depth analytics and insights. Expio Innovative platform for trade/regulatory consultancy for international expansion from the local practitioners. Nevergiveup AI inspirational audios that talk about you. RightHands Online platform offering on-demand cleaning and household services for seniors. SiriusGame Game-based app that supports learning for secondary school students. Vibes LGBTQ 🏳️🌈 The LGBTQ+ Social Network to make friends or find love in a safe community for people of all genders, sexualities and origins. Stay tuned—we’ll be introducing these incredible teams to our community in the coming weeks. For the startups that didn’t move beyond the 4-week Stage-Gate, we wish you every success in finding the perfect-fit investors to achieve your amazing goals. Remember, we’re always here to support you on your journey to the top! #VC #startups #impact #accelerator #Investing