WHO WE ARE
Iskossala Capital is a Cyprus based, early stage venture capital company, established in 2010 and headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. We mainly partner with founders and entrepreneurs seeking to invent new market categories or disrupt and transform large, existing industries.
We like taking risks on brilliant people and their ideas and products and believe our professional calling is to be the very best partners for entrepreneurs who want to change the world. We strongly believe that if you can’t invent the future, the next best thing is to try to fund it, creating it on solid foundations and sound business principles.
We are not bankers nor are we simply lead investors. Our partnership which is made up entirely of a multitude of business professionals including web developers and graphics designers, IT programmers and specialists, qualified accountants and lawyers, HR managers etc, all of which have contributed to the start-up, management and growth of companies in a wide variety of industries from software development to international trading.
We strongly believe that if you can’t invent the future, the next best thing is to try to fund it, and create it on solid business grounds.
PORTFOLIO
We were pleasantly surprised by how quickly Iskossala Capital understood our vision and intended direction. We are very much looking forward to working with the team and putting our plans into motion.
Thomas Engstrand – CEO of PVAC
WHAT WE DO
Our preference is to be the first venture investor and we typically aim to hold our positions for 5 – 7 years. We invest as little as US$1m to finance a seed company and as much as US$20m to lead a round. We aim to partner with founders and entrepreneurs who are either technical or domain experts in their industry.
We set the bar high and believe that venture capital is best suited for start-ups that have the potential of generating asymmetric returns. We only invest when we think a start-up has the potential to scale upward of $100m.
A good value prospect isn’t enough for us to get excited. We strive to be part of industry disruptive ideas that will open new roads, that will disrupt the underlying landscape and industry norms and that will have the potential to create unique successes.
Our thinkers/genius persons, count on us for seed capital at the early stages, but also they count on us for properly setting-up their company, and we provide continue advise on all operational issues:
- HR Management
- IT set-up and infrastructure
- Financial Control
- Legal & Tax Compliance
We have extensive and in-depth experience on how to set-up and operate businesses in a wide range of sectors and jurisdictions. We firmly believe that great minds should be left to work their magic unhindered and free of the shackles of all of the regulatory, operational and administrative constraints involved in running companies. We are of the opinion that these situations are rare and disruptive industry break-through ideas are only experienced very rarely. Thus we may make only a handful of investments over a particular year. There were occasions that we had only made one investment over a period of two years.
WHAT WE LOOK FOR
We understand and accept that market changing ideas and concepts are few and far between. But as the saying goes “if you do not look, you will not find”. We are focused and committed to identify these exceptional companies and ensure that they have all the tools they require to be exceptional.
We like investing in startups either creating new industry categories or disrupting a large existing market with a 5X better product or service that wasn’t possible before.
We’ve found the universal hallmark of great companies is the ability of founders to attract and hire the best candidates, raising the bar of the company with each successive hire.
TEAM
Andreas studied in the UK and is a holder of a BSc degree in Accounting & Finance from the University of Warwick. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
He began his career as an external auditor working for KPMG in Cyprus for 6 years being engaged in a diverse array of client assignments, both in Cyprus and abroad. He was also involved in a number of due diligence and IPO projects for the listing of large, multinational groups of companies in the London and Warsaw Stock Exchanges.
Since leaving KPMG, Andreas decided to specialise in the structuring and running of investment holding companies. He has since held a number of high-profile directorships in the field with investments ranging from real estate, private equity and private equity funds, intellectual property and other intangibles. He was also appointed as Financial Controller to an international group specialised in software development and maintenance services for the information and communication technology industry. He is a hands on leader who has wide ranging expertise in corporate structuring and administration, financial reporting, consolidations and taxation.
Evdokia has graduated from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom obtaining a Bachelor degree with upper second class honours (2:1) in L.L.B Law, obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Financial Law and she has successfully passed her Legal Practice Certificate (LPC) in the United Kingdom and specialized in Commercial Disputes, Banking and Debt Finance Law.
Evdokia has begun her career during her studies as she voluntary worked at the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) as Legal Administrative Assistant. She significantly contributed to finding solutions to any legal case of the organisation (related to Regulation on Structure and Terms of Employment, Administration and Finance).
Evdokia has begun her professional career as a Legal Executive/ RTA Paralegal at Forseti Law in Manchester. She gained work experience in Insurance Law and practiced in medical injury claims.
In 2018, Evdokia returned to Cyprus and completed her Legal Practice and since then works as Corporate Legal Advisor having gained significant experience on corporate legal, financial, compliance and tax matters. Moreover, she is eligible for advising on the AML, KYC and Due Diligence procedures according to the applicable law.
Evdokia is native in Greek and fluent in English.
Vassilis has graduated from the Business School of the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom obtaining a Bachelor degree with honours in Accounting and Finance and subsequently qualified as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant.
Currently Vassilis is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Vassilis has begun his professional career as an external auditor, under the employment of KPMG Cyprus, for a period 4 years, during which he was given the opportunity to gain significant experience within the audit profession, enabling him to grasp knowledge within various sectors and industries, including those of real estate, investment, financing, trading and shipping.
Following his departure from KPMG, Vassilis undertook different roles through his employment as Chief Accountant of a medium sized Corporate Services and Fiduciary Company for a period of 4+ years and as a tutor for the ICAEW qualification, achieving outstanding results.
Since then, Vassilis has acquired significant knowledge in areas of corporate reporting, corporation tax, VAT, consolidated reporting and in the administration of Companies, primarily engaged in the acquisition and holding of securities and the provision of loan financing to group Companies.
Vassilis is native in Greek and fluent in English, and has basic knowledge of French and Lebanese Arabic.
CONTACT
| Tel: | 00357 22 232833 | |
| Fax: | 00357 22 232833 | |
| Address: |
|
Idalion Business Centre, Centaur House Complex A, Suite 5 2 Apostolos Varnavas Street 2571 Nicosia, Cyprus |
| Website: |
|
www.iskossala.com |
| Email: |
|
info@iskossala.com |