E.Ventures Isn’t The Only VC Raising Money To Invest In Europe

Morning Markets: The US is off today, so let’s talk about our friends across the Atlantic.

Happy holiday to the Americans not reading this article; happy Lost Colony day to our friends in England; and a shoutout to France for their help a few centuries ago. That’s why we buy your wine.

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History aside, let’s talk about venture capital. New funds to be exact. Earlier this week, E.Ventures raised a bunch of new money, including a chunk of cash for the European market. The firm’s new capital is split between geographic loci, as TechCrunch explained:

[E.Ventures] has raised $400 million in fresh capital across two new funds: a $225 million U.S.-focused fund that’s based in San Francisco, and a $175 million fund that’s focused on Europe and based in Berlin.

That got us to thinking about what other recent funds have been announced with at least some focus on the European market. As I wrote yesterday, Crunchbase News is in quarterly reporting mode, so VC tallies are on our minds.

We did a little digging and found some interesting examples worth highlighting. Let’s take a peek.

Euros For Europe

Let’s stick to what’s happened in the last week or so to keep our notes circumscribed to the present. Private equity groups Permira and BD-Capital raised new funds (here and here).

Beechbrook Capital also raised a new fund with backing from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund,. According to the Irish Times, the fresh €35 million investment pool will “target fast-growing SMEs that have a turnover of between €3 million and €25 million” and positive EBITDA of €1 million or more. Per its website, Beechbrook Capital provides both debt and equity capital to growing companies. According to Crunchbase data, Beechbrook has 16 known exits in its history and has raised at least $600 million to-date across a number of funds.

(Notably, as I dug through a host of announced funds this morning, private equity comprised the vast majority of the new entities. Not a surprise per se, but when it comes to EU-based funds, the ratio of PE:VC is more skewed than I would have guessed.)

Another fresh venture fund based in the EU is London-based Talis Capital’s new $100 million fund. According to Tech.EU, Talis “raises money from its LP base every year.” Talis’s recent investments in the EU include Medbelle (London, UK), The Plum Guide (London, UK), Ÿnsect (Évry, France), and Luminance (Cambridge, UK).

Closing on a continental fund, Vesalius Biocapital Partners raised a fund in the last week of Q2 2019. The new, 120 million Euro venture fund for the Luxembourg-based group became public on June 25. Its own, recent EU-based investments include Mecuris GmbH (Munich, Germany), OMEICOS Therapeutics (Berlin, Germany), and Forendo Pharma (Turku, Finland).

I could go on, but the lesson today is that even while the venture world seems torn between covering the U.S. and Chinese markets, there’s a lot going on in Europe that is worth more of our attention. All this serves as preamble to a chart that Jason Rowley and I have coming out either tomorrow or Monday. More soon, and don’t work too hard today.