JIC Ventures Research
Identity note
The firm record pointed at jic-ventures.co.jp, which does not resolve and does not belong to this firm. JIC Ventures is the Brno, Czech Republic venture fund run by JIC, the South Moravian innovation agency. Its official page is https://www.jic.cz/jic-ventures and its pitch inbox is [email protected]. It is unrelated to Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) and its arm JIC Venture Growth Investments, which share the initials.
Investment Thesis
JIC Ventures is a Brno-born VC fund backing technology founders from pre-seed to exit, with a focus on CEE startup founders who have global potential. The pitch is capital plus deep expertise plus direct access to ambitious projects, both from universities and from the fund's own deal flow. JIC (the innovation agency) was founded in 2003 by the City of Brno, the South Moravia Region and Brno universities and has supported startups, spin-offs and innovative companies for more than 20 years. Companies it supported early include Kiwi.com, Y Soft and Flowmon, and JIC says companies it supported produced exits worth about EUR 640M in the last five years. The fund's argument is that most CEE-focused funds invest at Series A or later, so pre-seed and seed founders in the region rely on angels, grants or relocation. JIC Ventures is built to fill that gap, especially in deep tech.
Sector Focus
The site lists deep tech, SaaS and other advanced technology. Stated domain depth is in cybersecurity, software and hardware, space, dual-use and defence, semiconductors, and precision instruments. The portfolio also includes healthcare and medical technology (Carebot, HTG Medical), pharma (CasInvent Pharma), AI and voice software (Aiviro, Elredo Voice, Aiffinity), and developer and SaaS tooling (Localazy, Customerscore.io, Gina). Close ties to Brno universities are called out as a source of deep tech deal flow.
Stage Focus and Check Size
Pre-seed and seed. Tickets are up to EUR 1M. The fund plans around 20 startups over four years. It states that it leads rounds, sets the pace and stays hands-on, and promises to close deals in weeks rather than months. Before this fund, JIC made smaller co-investments from 2015, so JIC Ventures marks a move to a lead investor role with more capital.
Fund Status and Recent Activity
The fund targets CZK 400M (about EUR 16.3M). By April 2026 it had secured more than EUR 13M in its first close. It has about 40 limited partners, including CTP (Europe's largest industrial park developer), Ceska sporitelna, the South Moravian Region (as a public-sector LP, described as new in the Czech Republic), the Diocese of Brno, investor Jan Barta, and exited founders such as the owners of IDEA StatiCa (via family holding), Artin, Kinalisoft, Sewio founder Milan Simek and NenoVision founder Jan Neuman. Havel & Partners structured the fund, including the vehicle JIC Ventures 2 a.s. The fund is actively deploying; earlier lead investments by the managing partner include Groundcom, CasInvent and Customerscore.io. A reported pre-seed tranche for HTG Medical (ICU urine monitoring, EUR 450K total) was co-backed with Electron Capital Partners and Garage Angels.
Portfolio Highlights
The site shows 19 companies: Elredo Voice, Carebot, HTG Medical, Fourtly, FaceUp, Aiviro, CasInvent Pharma, Eterny, Symfio, Customerscore.io, Groundcom, Aiffinity, Yedem, Arbo Technologies, Localazy, Myco, Wereldo, NenoVision and Gina. Founder testimonials come from FaceUp, Eterny, Gina and NenoVision. The page does not give per-company rounds or dates, so stages are not recorded here.
Team and Decision Process
Managing partners are Radim Kocourek (20+ years supporting startups at JIC; led investments in Groundcom, CasInvent and Customerscore.io) and Milos Sochor (15+ years in startups, ex-banker, former Managing Partner of Y Soft Ventures with tickets up to EUR 1M, MBA, founder experience, scaling and exits). Fund advisors are Milan Simek (founder Sewio, SW/HW), Marek Polcak (founder Vrgineers, space and dual-use), Lukas Manasek (IDEA StatiCa, ex-Y Soft, B2B sales), Martin Zadrazil (ex-Tescan, JIC, precision instruments), Ondrej Krajicek (IDEA StatiCa, ex-Y Soft, HW/SW), Jan Neuman (founder NenoVision, precision instruments), Juraj Sabatka (founder IDEA StatiCa, SW) and Karel Obluk (ex-AVG, cybersecurity). Decisions look partnership-based with advisor input; the stated process is pitch deck, meeting, term sheet, due diligence, investment, growth partnership.
Founder Preferences and Geography
Founders with global ambition and strong technical teams. The pitch deck guidance asks for the problem, the insight or breakthrough, the vision and global scale, why the team wins, go-to-market and customer validation, and the financial model and needs. The site says the team values traction over slideware. Geography is CEE with Czech Republic and Slovakia as priority. Warm introductions are not stated as required; the firm takes decks through its site and email. An office is at Purkynova 127 (INMEC building), 612 00 Brno.
Gaps
No round dates, round sizes or per-company stages are published on the firm site. Only the HTG Medical round was confirmed through a third party. Fund size is a fund target, not AUM, so AUM is left empty.