BlackPeak Capital hits €125 million first close on new SEE fund
Bulgarian private equity firm BlackPeak Capital has reached a €125 million first close for its second Southeast Europe growth fund, backed by the EIF, EBRD and IFC.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesBulgarian private equity firm BlackPeak Capital has announced a first close of €125 million for BlackPeak Southeast Europe Growth Equity Fund II (BPSEEF II). The fund will back fast-growing companies in Southeast Europe, with Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia as primary markets.
Who is backing the fund
Anchor investors from the first fund have returned: the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EBRD, Erste Asset Management and the IFC. The EIF has committed €35 million, made up of €10 million under the Romania Recovery Equity Fund and €25 million under the Bulgaria Recovery and Resilience Plan. The EBRD has pledged €30 million and the IFC €20 million. New investors include Croatian development bank HBOR and Universal Pension Fund Doverie, Bulgaria's largest pension fund, alongside regional private investors.
At first close, the vehicle has almost matched the €126 million final size of its predecessor, BPSEEF I. That fund, launched in 2021, invested in 11 companies and completed 16 add-on acquisitions, with revenue growth of 34% a year over five years. It has reportedly returned a significant part of invested capital after selling euShipments.com to Austrian Post and making two partial exits from GenePlanet and Wiser Technology.
Strategy and targets
BPSEEF II targets €150 million, with a hard cap of €200 million, and expects a final close in 2027. It will invest €7 to 20 million per deal, taking significant minority or majority stakes, and aims to build a portfolio of 10 to 12 companies. Opportunistic deals are possible across wider Central and Eastern Europe. The fund is generalist, with themes including e-commerce, healthcare, digitalisation and sustainability.
Managing Partner Ivailo Gospodinov said the region's success stories now make the investment case themselves, but that growth-stage companies still lack capital at scale and international expertise. Fellow Managing Partner Niklas Pichler said the firm pairs capital with practical help on market entry, acquisitions and management hires.
Founded in 2014, BlackPeak has raised over €280 million across three funds and has offices in Sofia, Bucharest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Ljubljana and Vienna. It expects to make its first investments from the new fund at the beginning of 2027.
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