London-based renowned European early-stage investor Seedcamp has closed its fifth fund at £78 million. The money will enable Seedcamp to invest in pre-seed and seed stage investments, Named ‘Seedcamp Fund V’, some of the capital will also be used to follow-on rounds up to Series B.
Seedcamp launched in 2007 and has since built a portfolio of over 360 startups, Revolut, UIPath, Transferwise and recent double unicorn Hopin.
The VC compares this fundraising process, during the ongoing pandemic, to raising Fund IV (£60 million) in 2018, during Brexit discussions.
Seecamp’s partners said, “Fundraising, both for companies and VCs, is never easy – you have to constantly be selling and fighting your corner as to why someone should take a chance on you. Raising Fund V felt like the first time we’ve not had to fight tooth and nail to prove our legitimacy, a strange reality to be faced with in the middle of what is a hugely uncertain time across the world.”
According to a press release, the fund has over 100 institutional investors including British Patient Capital, Legal & General, TIFF, LGT, Vintage IP, Isomer Capital; other venture capital firms: Index, Sequoia, Underscore VC, Northzone, Atomico and Draper Esprit; as well as some European angel investors and Seedcamp founders: Taavet Hinrikus (TransferWise), Daniel Dines (UiPath), David Helgason (Nordic Makers/Unity) and Shakil Khan (Spotify).
Also backed by 80 of Seedcamp’s founders, the power and reach of the Seedcamp Nation is now such that it could have raised the entirety of its first fund (2.5M Euros in 2007) from the Seedcamp network alone.
The Seedcamp Partners commented, “At Seedcamp, we’ve always held firm in our belief that exceptional talent truly can come from anywhere – a belief we stand by both in how we’ve built out our own team and the founders we’ve gone on to back. When you take a chance and make the first investment into the Romanian founder who goes on to build Europe’s first cloud-based decacorn (UiPath) or the founder with health issues who creates an online events platform to drive connectivity for people who can’t be there in person – and it becomes one of the fastest growing companies in history (Hopin) – you know you’re onto something.
Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund’s Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal.