Bek Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Bek Ventures (formerly Earlybird Digital East Fund, rebranded November 2024) is an early-stage venture firm now in its second decade of operation. The firm's stated philosophy is "anti-mediocrity, pro-principle": a reaction against what it sees as an industry that has drifted from discipline toward hype and overcapitalization. Bek backs a deliberately small, concentrated group of founders per fund (around 20 companies), makes only 4-5 new investments a year, and writes second checks into 90%+ of its portfolio. The firm frames its geographic focus as "Dynamic Europe" -- Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey -- while explicitly backing founders who build global from day one; more than half of Bek's portfolio companies build out of the US.
Sector Focus
Bek is a generalist early-stage investor across AI, cybersecurity, B2C/consumer, developer tools, infrastructure software, and SaaS/enterprise software. Recent portfolio activity skews AI-heavy (Viktor, Capsa AI, Interloom, Lace AI, LogicStar, Omnim), alongside cybersecurity (Picus Security, Binalyze, Trickest, Cerbos), fintech (Payhawk, Midas), legal tech (DraftWise), and consumer/marketplace plays (Dolap, Hiccup, Vivense, Obilet).
Stage Focus
Per Partner Oguzhan Ozer (Vestbee interview, November 2025): investment tickets run $500K-$10M, "mostly seed and series A, but we can selectively invest in pre-seed and series B." UiPath was a seed investment in 2015 (10 employees at the time); Payhawk's seed round was led by the firm in 2020.
Check Size
Typical ticket: $500,000 - $10,000,000, spanning pre-seed through Series B, with seed/Series A as the core focus.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. The firm has led marquee seed rounds historically (UiPath, Payhawk) but shows up as a participant/co-investor in several recent, larger rounds (Viktor's $75M Series A led by Accel; Capsa AI's $18M Series A co-led by TX Ventures and Pivot Investment Partners).
Recent Activity
Fund III ($250M, announced November 2024 alongside the Earlybird Digital East -> Bek Ventures rebrand) was three times oversubscribed, with an LP base 60% Europe-based and 20% each US and Asia. Named investments from the new fund at launch included Zeta Labs (AI browser-task assistant "Jace"), Proofs (AI-generated proof-of-concept apps), and Grand Games (Turkish mobile gaming studio), plus two undisclosed deals. In 2026 the firm has been actively deploying: it participated in Viktor's $75M Series A (May 2026, AI "coworker" platform, led by Accel) and Capsa AI's $18M Series A (June 2026, AI operating system for private capital, co-led by TX Ventures and Pivot Investment Partners).
Portfolio Highlights
Marquee outcomes: UiPath (Bek's seed investment in 2015; IPO'd in 2021 at a $36B valuation) and Payhawk (Bek led the 2020 seed round; now Europe's leading spend-management fintech and, per the firm, the first unicorn out of Bulgaria). Minit, a process-mining portfolio company, was acquired by Microsoft. The firm states realized returns of $2.4B across its first two funds and has been ranked the top-performing VC globally since 2010 by the HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Rankings, and PitchBook has separately ranked the firm 1st in Europe and 3rd globally in its 2025 Global Manager Performance Score League Tables.
Team
- Cem Sertoglu, Managing Partner (with the firm/predecessor since 2013)
- Mehmet Atici, Managing Partner (since 2013)
- Roland Manger, Partner (since 2013; also a Board Member at Minit)
- Baturay Kaya, Partner
- Arda Kirkagac, Principal
- Selin Anil, Associate
- Oguzhan Ozer is described as a Partner in a November 2025 Vestbee interview representing the firm's investment strategy, though he was not listed on the current bekventures.com/team page at the time of this research.
Decision Process
Multiple Managing Partners and Partners are named across the firm's four offices, consistent with a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo GP.
Founder Preferences
Per Ozer: the firm weighs team first (A-level, agile talent with deep customer/market understanding and global ambition, plus the ability to hire and manage similarly high-caliber talent) and market size second. The firm explicitly says fintech/domain experience is not required if the founding team demonstrates unusual customer insight (cited example: Payhawk's team lacked a fintech background). The firm passes on deals that don't work from a fund-economics/ownership perspective even when the team and market otherwise qualify.
Geographic Focus
"Dynamic Europe" (Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey) as the founder-origin thesis, with an expectation that portfolio companies build and scale globally, especially into the US (50%+ of the portfolio builds out of the US). The firm operates offices in London, New York, Luxembourg, and Istanbul.