Fundraising in 2023 was not easy, for founders or VCs. Sifted tracked just 40 new first-time funds that announced a first or second close in 2023 — compared to over 60 in 2022.
Will 2024 be rosier?
We’re not too sure.
Limited partnerships are still waiting for more established funds to return capital, the public listing market is still on ice and the mood music remains muted.
But those dogged VCs who do succeed in closing a fund in 2024 we’ll list right here.
This article was first published on January 10 and last updated on May 30.
All the new first-time VC funds raised in 2024
Impact Shakers
HQ: Belgium
Fund size: Closed €5m, targeting €20m
Focus: Impact startups
Stage: Early-stage
Impact Shakers, which began as an organisation running incubator and accelerator programmes for diverse founders working on impact startups, announced a first close of its first VC fund in April. It will run one accelerator per year, for four years, and invest in six to eight companies from each cohort. It writes initial cheques of €150k and reserves up to €1.5m per company for follow-ons. It’s particularly focused on founders from diverse backgrounds working on climate tech, impact infrastructure and inclusion tech.
Openseed
HQ: London
Fund size: Closed “30% minimum fund size”, targeting $10m
Focus: Operator-led startups in Europe and Africa
Stage: Even earlier than pre-seed
Founded by Maria Rotilu, a former Octopus Ventures, Oxford Seed Fund and Hustle Fund investor, and Uber country manager for Nigeria, Openseed will invest in operator-led startups in Europe and Africa. Rotilu, Europe’s first Black solo GP, announced a first close in May 2024.
Identity.vc
HQ: Berlin
Fund size: Closed €15m, target €50m
Focus: LGBTQ+ led startups
Stage: Pre-seed to Series A
Identity.vc is focused on backing startups with LGBTQ+ representation in the leadership team — a first of its kind in Europe. According to the firm, an estimated 15% of startups in Europe have an LGBTQ+ founder. Identity.vc will write cheques of €250k-€1.5m into roughly 25 companies.
Rialto Ventures
HQ: Venice, Italy
Fund size: Closed €55m, target €100m
Focus: B2B tech
Stage: Series A
In May, Rialto Ventures announced its first fund to invest in ‘hard tech’ founders across Europe — and said it has done eight deals already. Its general partners are Simone Brunozzi, a founder and investor, and Stefano Quintarelli, who founded I.NET, Italy’s first internet service provider and invented Italy’s public ID system SPID. Alessandro Profumo, formerly the head of several Italian banks, is also a partner at the fund.
14Peaks Capital
HQ: Switzerland
Fund size: $30m closed
Focus: B2B SaaS startups
Stage: Pre-seed to Series A
Edoardo Ermotti joined Europe’s growing pack of solo GPs in April when he announced a final close of his first fund, 14 Peaks Capital. He invests in Europe and the US, with a specific focus on fintech and the future of work.
Isomer Secondaries Fund
HQ: London
Fund size: Closed £20m+, targeting £100m
Focus: Secondaries
Not a new investment firm — but a new type of fund. Isomer Capital, best known as a VC fund of funds, announced a new dedicated secondaries fund in April. The secondaries fund will primarily buy LP stakes in VC funds from existing LPs, but will also buy stakes in a small number of private companies.
JuneX Evergreen Fund
HQ: London and Nice
Fund size: Closed €100m
Focus: European startups, scaleups and VCs
In April, JuneX announced the closure of an €100m evergreen fund to invest in startups and VC funds. It offers equity, debt and bridge financings. Its founders, Régis Micheli and Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet, are former entrepreneurs turned investors.
Varsity VC
HQ: Paris
Fund size: Closed €75m, targeting €150m
Focus: Fintech, healthtech, climate tech and enterprise software
Stage: Seed
Banking veteran and ex-Société Générale deputy CEO Didier Valet announced a first close of his first fund to invest in seed-stage startups in February. Varsity VC plans to back up to 30 companies, and save two-thirds of the fund for follow-ons.
Kost Capital
HQ: Frederiksberg, Denmark
Fund size: Undisclosed amount closed in January, €25m target
Focus: Foodtech
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Kost invests in the “inputs” — think ingredients and manufacturing solutions — that will power next gen food startups. It writes cheques of €750k-1m. The team includes general partner Bodil Sidén, who was previously a partner at Stockholm-based VC blq invest, founding partner Mark Emil Hermansen, cofounder of flavour and drinks startup Empirical and former concept manager at Noma, and founding partner Kasper Hulthin, cofounder of Peakon. The fund has grown out of a food development studio, which helps turn ideas from universities into commercially viable products.
Prequel Ventures
HQ: Berlin
Fund size: Just over 10% closed late 2023, target €10m
Focus: Supply chain tech across Europe
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Born out of a research project to map supply chain tech startups in Europe, Prequel Ventures is a new (very specialised) early-stage fund announced in January 2024. It has two founding partners, writes cheques of €50-100k and has made three investments as of the start of 2024.
33N Ventures
HQ: Porto and Madrid
Fund size: Closed €50m, target €150m
Focus: Cybersecurity and infrastructure software startups
Stage: Series A and B
33N was set up by two investors with remarkably similar names — Carlos Alberto Silva and Carlos Moreira da Silva — in partnership with financial services firm Alantra. The fund plans to write cheques of around €10m into growth-stage cybersecurity startups. It’s backed by Caixa Capital, the VC arm of the Portuguese Bank and Portuguese investment firm Golden Wealth Management.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/new-european-vc-funds-2024/
