Earlybird Venture Capital has closed its sixth early-stage tech fund on its €175m hardcap, to further support European technology companies.
The vehicle, ‘Digital West’, was oversubscribed, with backing from institutional limited partners and corporate companies. Following the close of the fund, the firm’s total capital under management has reached €1bn.
Its investment focus is on early-stage technology opportunities in German-speaking countries, the Nordics, UK, Benelux, France and Southern Europe. This new vehicle has already been tapped to make 13 investments.
Last year, the firm contributed to the $10.4m Series A round of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift. The Swiss company offers an exchange for blockchain-based digital assets to other platforms.
The firm has been very active in the FinTech market, with previous investments into B2B payments platform Traxpay, working capital management suite Tradico, and online loan comparison company smava.
Another previous investment was into N26, a European mobile bank, which recently collected €110m for its Series C funding round. The funding was raised to support the launch of its solution into the US later in the year.
Alongside the fund, the firm is looking to expand the strategic partnerships with its corporate companies and investors.
Earlybird founding partner Hendrik Brandis said, “In view of the growing opportunities of the global digitalization, the European VC market is still undersupplied. Compared to the USA, only about 15 percent of the venture capital is available per capita. Accordingly, the opportunities for active venture capital investors are better in Europe.”
The firm’s previous early-stage technology fund, was dedicated to the healthcare technology market, which launched in 2016, with a target of between €100m and €120m. it is unclear whether the fundraise has closed.
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