Visionary teams
Founders who channel domain expertise into ambitious product development.
Formerly Fortech Ventures · Romania & CEE
Backing innovative founders from first principles.
Nucleo Ventures backs early-stage teams that combine corporate experience, engineering excellence and deep market insight to build product-led companies that can disrupt traditional industries.
€34Mearly-stage fund target
€23.5Mcornerstone institutional commitment
46target startup investments
€6Minvested through the previous vehicle
Investment thesis
From corporate expertise to category-defining products.
We invest in founders who understand real industry pain because they have lived it from inside corporations, engineering teams and complex enterprise environments.
Our role is to help them move faster from concept to market-ready product, then from early traction to scalable go-to-market, follow-on financing and strategic exit optionality.
Engineering excellence
Teams that combine industry insight with technical depth and execution discipline.
Strategic acceleration
Support for market validation, customer access, hiring, follow-on rounds and exits.
Product-led shift
A bridge for talent and companies moving from services to scalable software products.
Thematic focus
Vertical software in markets ready for transformation.
We look for globally relevant companies built from Romania and CEE, with strong technical moats and clear commercial urgency.
Health
Digital adoption, clinical workflow innovation, diagnostics, treatment and health-data infrastructure.
Manufacturing
Underserved industrial software, factory optimisation, visual CPQ and Industry 4.0 workflows.
Energy
Software for resilient, sustainable energy infrastructure serving B2B and B2G markets.
Finance
Core fintech, payments and banking infrastructure as financial services continue to reshape.
Defence
Dual-use software, cyber-resilience, secure infrastructure and mission-critical systems.
Why now
CEE creates value with limited capital. That gap is the opportunity.
Romania remains underserved outside Bucharest, while universities, software agencies and global tech employers continue to create strong technical talent. Nucleo is built to convert that talent into globally ambitious companies.
Track record
Hands-on capital, validated by a previous portfolio.
Through the previous Fortech Investments vehicle, the team built a diversified technology portfolio across healthcare, energy, manufacturing, automotive, proptech and other sectors.
tech startups backed through the previous vehicle
invested in technology companies
reported IRR to date
reported current portfolio fair value
portfolio companies with board involvement
Clinical trials data
4× ARR growth from €500K to €2.3M and enterprise pharma/CRO customers.
Radiology AI
Operating in 120 hospitals, analysing 50K+ images per month.
Energy utilities software
2.6× YoY revenue growth and €4.5M raised from climate-tech investors.
Founder-market fit
Complementary team dynamics
Significant pain-killer problem
Large market, typically €1B+
Well-timed technical innovation
Early proof of scalable traction
Clear exit pathways
What we look for
A disciplined lens for early-stage decisions.
We evaluate founders, markets and products through a practical framework: urgency of the problem, depth of technical insight, commercial scalability, customer pull and credible strategic exit potential.
Team
Competence across venture, product and capital formation.
The Nucleo team combines the perspectives founders need early: enterprise software, venture building, financial discipline, legal structuring, brand, AI and go-to-market support.
Enterprise software
Product and engineering judgement for complex B2B environments.
Venture building
Hands-on support from idea validation to scaling and follow-on rounds.
Capital strategy
Fund, LP and financing experience for disciplined portfolio construction.
Legal & governance
Transaction, restructuring and governance know-how for resilient companies.
AI & data systems
Deep-tech pattern recognition and internal tools for faster investment work.
Brand & dealflow
Content, ecosystem presence and network-building for founders and co-investors.
Open position
The next seat at Nucleo is open.
No fixed role in mind yet. We are looking for someone rigorous, curious and high-agency who can add leverage across investing, founder support, platform, operations or ecosystem building.
Investment process
Fast, structured and founder-aware.
We reduce analysis paralysis with a clear timeline, combining expert review, data-driven screening and hands-on technical diligence.
- 01
Intro call
Problem, solution, market, team and funding needs.
- 02
Product demo
Technical depth, workflows and product differentiation.
- 03
Extended team call
Full investment-team calibration and open questions.
- 04
Decision
Internal debrief within one week of the last call.
- 05
Investment memo
Market, competition, customer and partner validation.
- 06
Due diligence
Legal, financial, technical and ESG review over 3–4 weeks.
- 07
Signing & funding
Finalize documentation and complete the investment.
- 08
Post-investment
Ongoing monitoring, support, follow-on and exit scouting.
Platform
Value creation scaled through technology.
We use in-house and third-party tools to screen faster, monitor better and unlock targeted introductions for founders.
Venture Explorer
Structured pitch-deck summaries for high-precision screening.
Investment AI Agents
Q&A access to investment knowledge and portfolio insights.
FounderConnect
Network mapping for highly targeted founder introductions.
Vestberry & CRM
KPI monitoring, forecasting and deal-status discipline.
Founders & co-investors
Building innovative software for a real industry problem?
Send us your deck, a concise note about your company, or reach out if you want to help build Nucleo.