FlyCap

FlyCap

FlyCap was founded by partners Jānis Skutelis, Jānis Liepiņš, and Ģirts Milgrāvis, building a Riga-based private-debt platform that has since raised three successive fund vintages stretching from 2016 into 2026. The firm began with FlyCap Investment Fund I, which blended convertible loans and equity instruments, before pivoting decisively into mezzanine and senior private-debt structures with Fund II and Fund III. FlyCap self-identifies as a private-debt and mezzanine provider, not a pure venture-capital or buyout house, targeting firms too large for microfinance but too small for pan-European senior lenders. The current portfolio strategy centers on FlyCap Private Debt Fund III, a 2026-vintage vehicle that deploys loans sized €1 million to €4 million with annual interest rates starting at 12%. The fund writes bullet or scheduled-principal instruments, often subordinated to a commercial-bank loan, and imposes a 2.5-year lock-in and a maximum 5× EBITDA leverage ratio. FlyCap allocates roughly 75% of its capital within Latvia, with the remaining 25% directed to other EU countries, chiefly across the Baltic and Central Europe. Its preferred sectors include healthcare, B2B services, IT and technology, and export-oriented manufacturing, while it also favors companies with verifiable CO2-reduction profiles. Confirmed investments include a debt facility to JSC Smiltenes Piens, a Latvian dairy processor, and a €2 million debt commitment to Mintos, the pan-European marketplace for investing in loans, supporting Mintos’s continued expansion. The firm operates with a lean team of six professionals, anchored by partners Skutelis, Liepiņš, and Milgrāvis, plus investment manager Kārlis Ziemelis. In March 2026, FlyCap launched its third private-debt fund and simultaneously announced the Smiltenes Piens financing, signaling continued appetite for Latvian mid-cap enterprise lending. The firm previously won a government procurement to manage growth-stage venture capital funds, underscoring a hybrid public-private mandate in its earlier vintages, though the third fund marks a clean consolidation around pure private credit. FlyCap’s structural differentiator lies in its product-market fit: it is a dedicated Baltic sub-institutional lender at a time when regional banks have retreated from unsecured or subordinated mid-cap exposure. Its funds routinely layer debt below senior bank facilities, effectively acting as a mezzanine bridge for export-oriented manufacturers and tech exporters that meet strict cash-flow and revenue-growth hurdles. That narrowly defined credit box — positive cash flow, >€1 million revenue, >10% year-on-year growth — distinguishes it from both early-stage venture-debt providers and mass-market alternative lenders.