Pan-European seed investor Seedcamp has hit a £41m first close for its fourth fund, already making it more than double the size of its predecessor vehicle.
The latest fund is backed by 60 corporates, venture capitalists, fund of funds and high net worth individuals including Investec, Unilever Ventures, Thomas Cook Money, MassMutual Ventures, ADV, Index Ventures and Atomico.
Idinvest Partners, Underscore Ventures and Speedinvest have also committed capital to the fund, as has the UK-government backed British Business Bank.
Seedcamp said it plans to use Fund IV to invest in up to 100 startups from across the continent, and will maintain the sector-agnostic approach of its predecessors. FinTech is an area the firm sees as having a huge potential and is targeting around 15 per cent of this fund to be deployed into FinTech startups. With the overlap of the sector into other spaces, like PropTech, it could see a higher percentage.
MassMutual Ventures managing director Doug Russell said, “We are very excited to be making an investment in Seedcamp’s fourth fund, which represents MassMutual Ventures’ initial investment in Europe.
“Seedcamp’s proven track record of partnering with – and backing – interesting and promising pre-seed and seed stage companies across the continent, as well as its success in working closely with other limited partners in the investment selection process, makes this an especially significant addition to our already strong investment portfolio.”
Seedcamp co-founder and managing partner Reshma Sohoni added, “Seedcamp continues to grow as Europe’s seed startups enter an unprecedented era of growth themselves.
“We believe our fund is a perfect size to support the most ambitious of founders both initially and now for a longer part of their journey, helping build a new group of not just $1bn-plus businesses but the $10bn-plus and $100bn-plus.”
Seedcamp has invested in more than 250 startups across 41 countries since it was launched a decade ago, including the likes of TransferWise, Revolut, UiPath, wefox and PropertyPartner.
The firm has been very active in the UK FinTech space, with it being the third most active investor in the country. Since 2014, Seedcamp has been responsible for 27 transactions, which is only one deal behind second spot. The top 10 investors in the UK FinTech space have taken part in a quarter of the total deals in the area.
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