London-based Blossom Capital, the record-breaking European VC led by premier investor Ophelia Brown, launches its €166.8 million fund and gears up to partner with the top early-stage tech startups in Europe, aiming to be the lead investor in seed and Series A rounds.
This new fund has been raised from LPs spanning leading institutional investors and high-profile tech entrepreneurs. The second fund comes less than 12 months since its first, and takes the total funds raised to 243.5 million.
Blossom Capital, founded in 2017 by former Index Ventures and LocalGlobe VC Ophelia Brown, has a track record of investments in many of Europe’s fastest-growing and most innovative tech firms, from payments unicorn Checkout.com, to travel visionary Duffel, to cybersecurity platform Tines. Blossom has rapidly become the first choice for European founders building with global ambitions, combining on the ground expertise focused at the early-stage with close ties to the leading US later-stage funds enabling founders to have access to the best growth investors.
Ophelia Brown, founder of Blossom Capital, said: “The volume and quality of European startups is now five times what it was five years ago. The US funds have noticed this and they are investing more frequently and with more capital in the very best European startups. Blossom Capital has established itself across Europe as the first choice for entrepreneurs in part because of our strong relationships with the US’s very best investors. Today we announce our second fund through which we will keep investing with conviction in European-founded companies that we know will one day operate successfully in global markets.”
Blossom Capital enables founders to build their startups from Europe with the same level of support as they’d get in Silicon Valley and access to follow-on capital from the leading growth funds who are becoming ever more active in backing European leaders.
With its first fund – the fastest-ever first time fundraise from a female VC in Europe – Blossom Capital established itself as the go-to VC for ambitious product-driven founders seeking to build global category winners. In just under a year, this fund put Blossom Capital in the top 5% of funds of 2018/2019 vintage in the US and EU, according to private investment benchmark data from Cambridge Associates and Preqin.
Tines founder, Eoin Hinchy, said: “As an early-stage startup we knew how important choosing the right investors would be to our long-term success. We chose to work with Blossom because the entire team has an innate understanding of the problems we’re trying to solve and is passionate about helping us grow the way we want to. Blossom isn’t just our investor and adviser, the partners are friends and an important part of our team.”
Duffel founder and CEO, Steve Domin, said: “The Blossom team have been true partners since the early days of Duffel, long before they invested. They are incredibly talented, generous with their time, and don’t mind getting their hands dirty – precisely what you need in the early days. They are a game changer in the European VC ecosystem and this new fund is going to massively amplify their impact. We couldn’t be more proud to be part of their portfolio.”
via https://www.AiUpNow.com/ by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
