Vestbee has compiled an extended list of venture capital funds launched in the first quarter of 2024. The collection encompasses VCs originating from the CEE region, which invest regionally and in the broader European startup ecosystem, as well as firms headquartered in European countries. We have also included global firms with offices in the US and the UK that back founders worldwide.
New VC funds from CEE
- OTB Ventures has closed its second $185 million deeptech fund. It will be used predominantly for Series A investments, with up to a 10% allocation for seed ones.
- Lithuanian Practica Capital has closed its third and largest fund at €80 million. It will target seed-stage investments in tech startups in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, offering up to €3 million initially and ongoing support up to €8 million.
- Romanian-foundеd GapMinder has launched an €80 million venture capital fund, GapMinder Fund II. It will invest in seed and late seed stages tech companies from Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Bulgaria.
- Estonia-based 2C Ventures has launched its initial fund, with a target size of €50 million. The fund will support early-stage startups in the Baltic and Nordic countries, focusing primarily on the Estonian market, that develop renewable energy, waste reduction, water management, circular economy, and other cleantech solutions.
- Full Speed Ventures, a European VC firm co-founded by Polish investors, has launched its second €50 million technology fund. The fund will invest €1-2 million as a first ticket and continue supporting the company across CEE with a strong connection to Poland.
- Poland’s SMOK Ventures has closed its second $25 million fund, with plans to support up to 35 pre-seed and seed startups from Central and Eastern Europe and the region’s founders abroad. The checks’ amounts that the VC usually writes range from $100,000 to $1 million
- Ukrainian-founded 1991 Ventures launches a £15 million industry-agnostic fund for Ukrainian and CEE early-stage startups. It aims to invest in more than 40 companies.
- In January, Warsaw University of Technology Investment Factory (WUT IF) was launched. It is the first Polish VC, created by the public university. The fund is targeting $5 million, aiming to back 18 deeptech startups originating from universities across Poland.
New VC funds from Europe
- Norwegian private equity firm Verdane has closed its newest fund, Edda III, at €1.1 billion. Verdane will further invest in European companies working in the fields of digitalization and the decarbonization of the economy.
- Venture capital firm Plural has secured its second fund, amounting to €400 million. The new fund will continue the strategy it has chosen from the beginning, in June 2022, — each of the partners makes two investments into early-stage European companies per year, with checks ranging from €1-15 million.
- Vienna-headquartered venture capital firm Speedinvest has announced the final closure of its latest fund at €350 million. It is €50 million above target. It will continue to invest in deeptech, fintech, health and techbio, marketplaces and consumer, climate and industrial tech, and SaaS and infrastructure early-stage startups.
- Berlin-based World Fund has closed a €300 million first fund, aiming to make 25–30 investments into European climate tech startups over the next few years.
- 3TS Capital Partners, a European technology-focused growth capital investor, announced the final closing of Fund IV with €111 million. 3TS investment strategy identifies key investment areas across ICT and tech-enabled service sectors, and the fund typically leads investment rounds of €5-€20 million.
- Dutch venture builder DeepTechXL has raised €110 million to invest in photonics, complex mechanical engineering, semiconductors, and quantum computing.
- London and Dublin-based Frontline has closed a $100 million growth fund to invest in US B2B startups from Series B onwards who want to launch in Europe.
- Swiss pre-seed venture capital firm Founderful has announced the raise of €78 million for its new fund, aiming to reach a final close at €110 million in the upcoming months.
- London-based VC firm, Episode 1, announced the closure of its third fund at £76 million. Ticket sizes are expected to range from £250,000 to £3 million, with the firm focusing on AI, TechBio, open-source, software infrastructure, healthtech, and marketplaces startups.
- German VC Earlybird has closed its €173 million second healthtech-focused fund. It invests in biopharma, medtech, and digital health startups between €3-8 million at Series A and B.
- UK-based Ada Ventures has closed its £63 million second fund. It plans to invest between £250,000 and £1.5 million in pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
- Nordic Science Investments (NSI) of Finland has closed a €60 million fund to support deeptech spin-out startups emerging from universities across the Nordic region.
- Early-stage VC Delin Ventures has closed a new £46 million fund targeting future of work, education and learning pre-seed and seed-stage startups in Europe, with a focus on the UK and the DACH region.
- Early-stage fund VIVES IUF has raised €38 million in capital, bringing its total funding to €70 million. It plans to invest up to €7 million per portfolio company, ranging from pre-seed to Series B, focusing on human health, agtech, and engineering projects from Belgium and neighboring countries.
- Pieterjan Bouten, Showpad co-founder, has launched an early-stage VC fund Entourage, raising over $30 million. It is aimed to invest in B2B SaaS businesses.
- Barcelona-based VC firm Encomenda has made the first close of its second fund at €15 million. It aims to invest in early-stage startups, with a focus on companies based in Southern Europe and Latin America.
- Belgian angel investment group Syndicate One has completed an initial €4.8 million close of its debut fund, with more than 70 investors joined. The second closure is planned for early 2024.
New VC funds investing globally
- IVP, a US and UK-based venture capital firm, has raised $1.6 billion to support European tech companies during their Series B and Series C stages.
- Horizon Capital, a US and Ukraine-based private-equity firm, has closed its Ukraine-focused fund, Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV, that has reached $350 million in commitments. The final closing boosted the firm’s AUM to $1.6 billion.
- Giant Ventures has launched two funds, totaling $250 million in value. A $100m seed fund will back companies across climate tech and healthtech, a $150 million growth fund is dedicated to the climate tech startups in Europe and the US.
Related Posts:
New VC Funds Investing In Europe (by Sofia Drobychevskaya, Vestbee)
New VC Funds Investing In Europe - 2Q 2023 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
New VC Funds Investing in Europe - 1Q 2023 (by Ilya Mikhalchyk-Kananenka, Community Builder, Vestbee)
