e2vc Research
Investment Thesis
e2vc is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in Istanbul that backs "global-from-day-one" founders emerging from Turkey, Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), and the Baltics. The firm's public positioning leans on community and network effects — it calls its founder network "the Tribe" and frames itself as "an extension of your team" rather than a purely capital-first investor. e2vc invests across gaming, AI/ML, health tech, developer tools & infrastructure, enterprise software, and fintech, with a strong and recurring presence in gaming (multiple studios, including a unicorn exit) and AI/ML-enabled companies across health, dev tools, and enterprise categories. The firm operates from three time zones — San Francisco, London, and Istanbul — reflecting its bridge positioning between emerging-market founders and global capital/customers.
Stage Focus
e2vc invests from Pre-Seed through Series A, with the bulk of activity at Pre-Seed and Seed. Third-party aggregators (Inaco, PrivateEquityList, VentureCapitalArchive) consistently describe e2vc as pre-seed/seed/Series A focused, with average check sizes in the low hundreds of thousands to low millions.
Check Size
Reported check size range is roughly €250K–€2M (per Inaco and VentureCapitalArchive), with PrivateEquityList citing an average around $0-1M. This is consistent with a fund that writes both small pre-seed checks and larger, more concentrated seed/Series A checks.
Lead Tendency
Not clearly disclosed publicly. e2vc's own GP commentary (January 2026) describes "warehousing and committing to" new companies under Fund III, and the firm has participated in rounds like Cypher Games' $30M Series A alongside other investors — evidence points to a mix of leading smaller pre-seed rounds and co-investing at seed/Series A, but there is no explicit statement of typical lead behavior.
Recent Activity
e2vc announced the first close of its third fund, a €100M ($116M) Fund III, in January 2026, focused on continuing to back early-stage, globally ambitious founders from Emerging Europe. The first close was backed by more than 50 limited partners. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved an equity investment of up to €15M into Fund III as an anchor/cornerstone commitment. By the fund's first-close announcement, e2vc had already warehoused and committed to more than 10 new companies under Fund III. Recent disclosed portfolio activity includes Cypher Games' $30M Series A (2025), Circle Games' $7.25M round, and — per PitchBook — an investment in Monogram (AI) as recently as July 2026, indicating the firm is actively deploying capital.
Portfolio Highlights
e2vc's public portfolio ("friends") page lists 84 companies across three funds (Fund I, Fund II, Fund III/First Fund). Notable outcomes include BillionToOne (NASDAQ: BLLN, IPO, cancer/prenatal detection), Loom Games (acquired for ~$1.2B, one of Turkiye's fastest unicorns, puzzle games), Carbon Health (unicorn, healthcare), fal (unicorn, generative media infrastructure), and Insider One (unicorn, AI-driven marketing). Additional exits include Kondukto, Permify, Ango, Cloudpipes, FxCubic, Inofab, Parasut, Peoplise, Rakam, and StructionSite. The portfolio skews heavily toward gaming (Circle Games, Bold Games, Heron Games, Mission Control Games, Cypher Games, Pine Games, Agave Games, Wonder Games, Elyzio) and AI/ML-enabled companies across health tech (Aspect Health, Forithmus, Peak Health, Patientdesk, Massive Bio, Gesund, Vivoo) and dev tools/infrastructure (Daytona, Ubicloud, Axoflow, DiffuseDrive, Refine, Gurubase, Synnada, Kubeark).
Team
- Arın Özkula — General Partner
- Enis Hulli — General Partner
- Kaan Eren — Partner
- Serra Alkoçlar Alp — Partner, Growth
- Başak Zorlutuna — Principal
- Esat Acar — COO
- Dilan Sisu — Associate
- Zeynep Güngör — Talent Associate
- Nazlı Cam — Analyst Intern
- İpar Kurt — Analyst Intern
- Gülbin Atlı — Analyst Intern
- Enes Çelep — Analyst Intern
Decision Process
Multiple General Partners (Özkula, Hulli) plus a Partner and Partner, Growth suggest a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo GP structure. No public disclosure of a formal investment committee timeline.
Founder Preferences
e2vc explicitly targets "global-from-day-one" founders with ambition beyond their home market, frequently with Turkish/CEE roots. The firm also runs a distinctive "NextGen" program — a 6-week incubator that backs high-school-age founders with direct investment, mentorship, and credits, suggesting an unusually broad founder-sourcing funnel that starts before traditional company formation.
Geographic Focus
Primary geography is Turkey, Central & Eastern Europe, and the Baltics ("Emerging Europe"), with a stated ambition to help founders scale globally. The firm maintains a physical/operational presence across San Francisco, London, and Istanbul.
ESG / Impact
e2vc publishes an annual Impact Report and maintains an ESG policy with a four-step process (Screening, Assessment, Categorization, Reporting). Reported portfolio stats: 22% women founders (56% of those firms also have additional women leaders in executive roles), 16% of portfolio companies have impact policies in place, and 5,756 jobs created across the portfolio over nine years.