Yordan Zarev

Yordan Zarev is an investment professional based in Sofia with roughly a decade of investment experience. He began his career at Forem Consulting, working on buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions, and completed an internship with the investment banking team at HSBC in London before returning to Bulgaria. He then joined EuroHold Group, a publicly listed Bulgarian financial institution, where he rose to become Head of Investment Banking at its subsidiary Euro-Finance. In that role he led a range of strategic acquisitions, capital raisings, public listings, divestments, and deal structurings across multiple sectors.

Before moving into venture capital, Zarev headed business planning and development at the Bulgarian affiliate of Philip Morris International, giving him operating exposure inside a large multinational in addition to his transactional finance background. He holds a BA in Business Administration from the American University in Bulgaria and is fluent in English.

At NEVEQ (New Europe Venture Equity) — a Sofia-based fund founded by Konstantin Petrov and Pavel Ezekiev that focuses on seed and early-stage technology investments — Zarev serves as Investment Manager, working alongside partners including Konstantin Petrov, Zlatolina Mukova, and Aleksandar Terziyski. The same team carried its work forward into New Vision 3 (NV3), a €23M fund co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds (Operational Programme for Innovation and Competitiveness 2014–2020), where Zarev is listed as a Partner.

• Backs seed and early-stage technology companies, typically writing equity checks in the €0.1M–€1M range through NV3, with larger participation in Series A rounds via NEVEQ.
• Looks for "innovative Bulgarian companies with global ambitions" that create economic value through scalable, market-ready solutions with a validated customer proposition (NV3's stated thesis).
• Core sectors: FinTech & blockchain, AI, shared-economy platforms & marketplaces, and IoT/big data, with additional interest in 3D printing, robotics, nano/biotech, cybersecurity, cleantech, and VR/AR.
• The NEVEQ II portfolio is deliberately balanced across enterprise software, analytics, vertical marketplaces, fintech, and internet businesses rather than concentrated in one vertical.
• Values founders who pair strong technology with commercial traction — a reflection of Zarev's own M&A and corporate-development background, which weighs deal structure, scalability, and path to growth-stage financing.