Portfolio companies include Revolut, Dream Games, GoCardless, Contentful, Wayve and PhotoRoom.
Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s leading investment firms based in London, has unveiled two separate early-stage and growth funds for European founders.
In an announcement today (12 August), the VC firm said it has a $615m Early Stage Fund IX and a $685m Growth Fund II to back ambitious European entrepreneurs from seed stage through IPO. This means the combined value of funding announced is $1.3bn – one of Europe’s largest funds aimed at early and growth stage start-ups.
Balderton said that the funds come at a time when Europe has established itself as a leader in AI, with London and Paris being the key innovation centres.
“The reasons for this are not surprising or new: world class institutions and engineers, a growing culture of entrepreneurialism, a developed funding ecosystem and, increasingly, third and fourth generation founders,” the announcement reads.
The VC firm cited data from Invest Europe and Cambridge Associates that found European VC funds outperformed North American funds over both a 10 and 15 year period.
“We believe the best way to change the world is to build a business – and that many of these world-changing businesses will be built in Europe,” said Bernard Liautaud, managing partner at Balderton.
“Our mission is simple: to be the partner of choice to the founders starting and growing those European technology companies. These new funds put us in a position to do just that.”
Balderton has invested in more than 275 technology companies across Europe since it was founded in 2000. Its current portfolio includes Revolut, Dream Games, GoCardless, Contentful, Aircall, Wayve, Writer and PhotoRoom.
Some of the companies it has invested in in the past include Darktrace, Depop, MySQL, Peakon, Recorded Future, Talend and THG.
“With Balderton’s 65 team members across Europe, $1.3bn in new funds, and a strong portfolio of more than 125 companies, the firm is excited to continue its work of partnering with Europe’s top entrepreneurs as they build world-changing companies,” the firm said.
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