startups

Balderton to invest $400m in European tech start-ups amid ‘unprecedented momentum’ – LearnBonds


British venture fund Balderton Capital has raised $400m to invest in tech start-ups amid “a backdrop of unprecedented momentum” among young European firms.

The investment house, an early backer of digital bank Revolut and payments service GoCardless, said its fund would back early-stage European firms looking to raise their first significant rounds of funding from institutions.

The firm said the number of Series A rounds in Europe each year has quadrupled since 2012. It added the total amount of venture capital funding flowing into European start-ups hit record highs last year, rising to €24.6bn from €11.5bn in 2014.

Balderton managing partner Bernard Liautaud said: “We believe Europe has the potential to build the next generation of technology giants, and we are focused on helping brilliant founders fulfil that ambition.”

 

Start-ups, stepping up

Balderton partner Suranga Chandratillake (pictured) added that firms stepping up for Series A funding need to dramatically grow their operations.

Chandratillake said: “Generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue requires you to straddle multiple markets, selling across time zones to different sorts of customers at a variety of internally consistent price points. That’s a complicated change – a Series A change.”

Balderton said it expects to make around 12 investments a year. It added its new fund will be run by an investment team of 15 working as a single team across Europe. The business also has offices in Paris and Berlin. This new fund is $25m larger than its previous fund.

This is the seventh fund Balderton has raised since it was founded in 2000, raising a total of $3bn over that time.

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