The venture capital firm that has supported FinTech success stories like Klarna, Qapital and MarketFinance is gearing up to support another round of startups.
Northzone has been supporting promising ventures since 1996 and plans to keep doing so after announcing a new $500m fund.
The investor’s ninth round will be used to invest in early-stage startups across Europe and the US. It will focus on enterprises looking to raise their Series A or Series B rounds.
“The startup ecosystems beyond Silicon Valley have seen a step change in recent years in quality, scale and an abundance of experienced founder and operator talent, along with deeper pockets of capital,” said Paul Murphy, partner at Northzone. “There has never been a better time for tech entrepreneurs in Europe.”
Particularly, it is going to put a special emphasis on supporting startups in sectors saddled with legacy technology. Northzone is in other words looking at startups disrupting industries like financial services, healthcare, education, mobility and construction, in B2B as well as in consumer applications.
Jessica Schultz, partner at Northzone, said, “We have always stood behind strong-minded founders with the ambition to think big and the conviction to build transformative businesses. This latest fund puts us in a strong position, together with our collective experience as investors, founders and operators, to back early-stage founders with the greatest potential.”
Rumours about Northzone IX first began to circulate in May 2019, saying that it would be eyeing to raise roughly $500m.
Northzone raised its eight round in 2016. Back then, it collected $335m to invest in promising ventures.
Klarna, one of the investor’s biggest success stories to date, arguably became Europe’s most valuable FinTech unicorn in August when it reached a $5.5bn valuation after finishing a $460m investment round. Northzone invested in Klarna in 2015.
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