Tag Archives: Venture Capital

Solar Foods closes series A financing for its first commercial factory

Lifeline Ventures

Solar Foods, producing a unique single-cell protein out of thin air, has closed its series A financing round with €15M new financing. Today’s announced investment extends the Series A financing round to total €18.5M, including the €3.5M convertibles raised in late 2019.

The largest food-tech financing round in Finland to date was led by Fazer Group with Bridford Investments Limited, Agronomics Limited, Lifeline Ventures and CPT Capital.

“We are thrilled of our new partners and their vast experience now at Solar Foods’ disposal. This development now enables us to successfully proceed with our planned production facility,” says Dr. Pasi Vainikka, CEO and co-founder of Solar Foods. 

“We have been with Solar Foods from the very beginning and have been extremely impressed with how their team has consistently delivered on all expectations. I am also very happy that this financing round has brought together an excellent group of highly experienced investors who understand the industry thoroughly,” says Juha Lindfors, partner at Lifeline Ventures and chairman of Solar Foods.

New funding enables progress with the commercialisation of Solein®

Solar Foods is the first company capable of producing food by using air-captured CO2 in a complete and continuous mode, including the preparation of the actual final food products. Solar Foods produces an entirely new kind of nutrient-rich protein, Solein®, by using air and electricity as its primary raw materials. This process revolutionises food production, as the production of Solein is non-dependent on agriculture, climate, or the weather.

A new production plant, enabled by the new funds raised, will be a key milestone in Solar Foods’ path in reaching its vision of changing the way food is produced. The new facility is planned to be operational in late 2022 and will enable the commercialisation of new food products based on the novel platform ingredient. Thus far, Solar Foods has already developed 20 different kinds of food products that utilise Solein.

“We are extremely delighted to be able to go forward toward commercialisation of Solein® protein and bringing it on consumer plates. Our first factory will be located in Finland and is aimed to be the world’s first commercial factory producing food out of air-captured CO2. At the start-up phase, our production is estimated to be 5 million meals a year. We want to disconnect protein production from the ever-increasing use of environmental resources. Turning this possibility into a reality is an exciting prospect,” says Pasi Vainikka. 

Powered by possibilism

Solar Foods has already carried out basic engineering for its production facility and is now entering the permitting process. The unit is planned to demonstrate the future of food production in an urban environment. It is designed to include the Solein Experience Hub and a future-food bar to provide citizens with an entirely new level of transparency in food production, which is why the production facility is also called the demonstrator.

“New technologies can open windows to the future. Through them, we can see possibilities that were an impossibility only a handful of years ago. It is not a case of opportunism, nor a question of optimism or pessimism. Producing Solein every day is already a tangible reality. At Solar Foods, we are possibilists who want to encourage and empower all people to be part of the solution: creating a better world through better food choices.

Our vision is to change the way food is produced, and the demonstrator’s product is aimed to be permitted as a global novel food. The world has hope. Food of the future is not a utopia – it is happening now,” Pasi Vainikka continues.

Natural protein of genuine sustainability

Solein® is a complete protein with all the essential amino acids that is light in both taste and appearance. It vanishes into daily meals, while simultaneously maintaining its rich nutritional value and offering a unified solution that caters to virtually every imaginable meal of today. This new, genuinely sustainable and natural protein also provides exciting opportunities for entirely new foods of tomorrow.

Producing Solein can take place in the toughest of environmental conditions, e.g. the desert, the Arctic, or possibly even in space. Because its production process does not involve irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers applied on open land or animals, Solein stands as the world’s most sustainable protein.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/tidm/headline/14671578

Press assets

For more information:

Pasi Vainikka, D.Sc. (Tech.), CEO, Solar Foods Ltd., tel. +358 40 5825 987, pasi@solarfoods.fi

 

About Solar Foods

Solar Foods produces protein using air and electricity. Solar Foods revolutionises food production with a method that is not dependent on agriculture, the weather, or the climate. The company was founded in Espoo, Finland, in 2017 by Dr Pasi Vainikka, Dr Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Sami Holmström, Jari Tuovinen, Professor Jero Ahola and Janne Mäkelä as a spinoff from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the LUT University. www.solarfoods.fi

Agronomics Limited

Agronomics is an AIM-listed investment company centered on the nascent fields of cellular agriculture, precision fermentation and synthetic biology. The Company invests in technologies that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world’s expanding population.

Bridford Investments Limited

Bridford Investments Limited is part of the Bridford Group, founded in 2018 by a group of investors that have worked together since 2007.  The group has investments in sustainability; creative industries (music, photography and fashion); fintech and tech-enabled businesses; and fundamental technology.  Its focus is on backing founder-led businesses with long-term growth potential, ideally those concerned with societal or environmental welfare. 

CPT Capital
CPT Capital is the venture arm of a leading private family office. As a long-standing dedicated investor in the alternative protein space, they partner with the best and the boldest companies driving the food and materials technology revolution. From plant-based protein to recombinant proteins to cell-based meat, CPT Capital backs the most promising solutions from seed all the way through to sale or IPO and longer term. 

Fazer Group

Fazer, The Food Experience Company, enables people to enjoy the best moments of their day. In 1891, the young Karl Fazer opened his first café with a mission to make food with a purpose – and a passion to create moments of joy for all the people around him. Shaping the next tastes, traditions and food experiences, Fazer is going Towards Perfect Days. Fazer wants people to experience the Northern Magic it creates and builds on its strong heritage, consumer first approach and innovations to create the sustainable food solutions of the future. The Group focuses on fast-moving consumer goods, operates in eight countries and exports to around 40 countries. In 2019, Fazer Group had net sales of 1.1 billion euros and almost 9,000 employees. Fazer’s operations comply with ethical principles that are based on the Group’s values and the UN Global Compact. 

Northern Magic. Made Real. 

Lifeline Ventures

Lifeline Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by serial entrepreneurs. Lifeline often starts working with founders before they have launched their first product. Companies we have invested in include Oura, Sulapac, Supercell and Wolt. Lifeline Ventures led the seed round of Solar Foods in 2018.

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Draper Esprit is pleased to participate in $33 million strategic investment round

Draper Esprit

Draper Esprit is pleased to participate in $33 million strategic investment round of Form3, the leading cloud-native payment and technology provider for banks and regulated Fintechs.

Our participation follows on from our investment in Form3’s Series B funding round in 2018. The company has since trebled in size and increased its annual recurring revenue by 160%.

Form3 is one of many Draper Esprit Fintech investments lead by partner, Vinoth Jayakumar, who focuses on the backbone and infrastructure of banking, specifically on three key areas of interest have been in fraud, payments and core banking systems.

Form3 provides real-time cloud-native end-to-end payments to combat the ever-evolving regulated payments sector, by making payments faster, easier and most cost effective for banks, Fintechs, and Fintech institutions. By removing the need to manage and focus solely on the complexities of the evolving payments infrastructure, Form3 enables banks and Fintechs to focus on building better customer propositions and growing their businesses. The company’s infrastructure significantly reduces downtime and allows for system upgrades to be achieved more seamlessly.

Working with companies like N26, Ebury, and Prepay Solutions, Form3 is helping to improve efficiency, issuing customers real bank account numbers for their clients, and decreasing the amount of time needed to complete and manage real time payments.*

Read the press release below to find out more.

*sourced from Draper Esprits Annual Results 2020

***********************************************************************************

London, August 18 2020: Draper Esprit, a leading venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth digital technology businesses, today announces that it has participated in the recent $33 million strategic investment round in Form3, the leading cloud-native payment technology provider for banks and regulated Fintechs. Form3’s cloud-native, API platform delivers technical connectivity and managed services to address critical payments infrastructure challenges facing banks, building societies and Fintechs globally.

Draper Esprit’s participation follows on from its investment in Form3’s Series B funding round in 2018, since which Form3 has trebled in size and increased its annual recurring revenue by 160%. The new funding will strengthen Form3’s market leading cloud-native payment technology, build significant functional enhancements and accelerate its global expansion plans in existing and new markets.

Leading banking providers worldwide are looking to leverage technology to improve their payments infrastructure and the customer experience. Figures from McKinsey & Company show that 40-90% of banks’ workload globally could be on cloud in 10 years*.

Draper Esprit invested alongside new shareholders led by Lloyds Banking Group and including Nationwide Building Society and venture capital firm 83North.

Michael Mueller, Chief Executive Officer at Form3, commented:

“Form3 has a close relationship with Draper Esprit, having worked with them since our Series B round in 2018. For any relatively young company it is very important to work with investors who fully buy into the vision and the ambitions of the founding team. Draper Esprit saw our potential from the beginning and continue to work with us today to help us execute on our strategy and vision to become the world’s most trusted provider of cloud-native payment technology for the global financial community.”

Vinoth Jayakumar, Partner at Draper Esprit, commented:

“We are delighted to be following our investment in Form3, which has shown phenomenal growth since its last round. Form3 is a great example of the investment potential in Fintech as the digital banking revolution continues. It’s also encouraging to invest alongside banking industry players who bring significant market knowledge and commercial opportunity.”

*Bank of England, The Future of Finance, 20 June 2019.

-ENDS-

About Form3

In 2016, four banking and technology leaders set out to revolutionise the world of payments processing. Form3 has disrupted the traditional payments infrastructure model and built from scratch an award-winning, cloud-native, Payments-as-a-Service platform. Today, Form3 is trusted by some of UK and Europe’s biggest Tier1 banks and fast-growing Fintechs to handle their critical payments architecture.

Form3 has been ranked in the Top European Fintechs to watch by Sifted 2020 and Fintech 50 2019 and named as the Best Digital Innovation by Bobsguide 2019 and runner up in British Bank Awards for Best Technology Partner 2020.

About Draper Esprit

Draper Esprit is one of the most active venture capital firms in Europe, developing and investing in disruptive, high growth technology companies. We believe the best entrepreneurs in Europe are capable of building the global businesses of the future. We fuel their growth with long- term capital, access to international networks and decades of experience building businesses. Currently, Draper Esprit is a shareholder in a diverse portfolio of companies including Trustpilot, UiPath, TransferWise, and Graphcore. For more information please visit: www.draperesprit.com

Contact:

Powerscourt (public relations)

Elly Williamson: 07970 246 725

Donjeta Miftari: 07961 628 862

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bp invests $5 million in geospatial analytics company Satelytics

BP Ventures

  • Firm uses machine learning and spectral imagery to monitor environment.
  • Technology combines data from satellites, drones and planes.
  • Part of bp’s strategy to deploy a suite of complementary methane detecting techniques across new and existing facilities.

bp ventures invests in Satelytics

bp ventures has invested $5 million in Satelytics, a cloud-based geospatial analytics software company that uses advanced spectral imagery and machine learning to monitor environmental changes, including methane emissions.

 

Satelytics collects high resolution spectral imagery from the planet’s surface using satellites, drones, and planes. Its technology combines these images with proprietary algorithms to create unique electromagnetic signatures that can be used to detect environmental changes, including releases or leaks. Its software visualises these data sets on interactive displays that give end-users a clear and actionable picture of operations, and alert them to facility risks, like methane leaks.

 

bp’s $5 million investment will enable Satelytics to develop its technology further and scale its applications throughout the oil and gas sector. Use of the technology has the potential to be part of bp’s aim to install methane measurement at all major oil and gas processing sites by 2023, publish the data and then drive a 50% reduction in methane intensity of its operations.

 

Morag Watson, bp senior vice president of digital science and engineering, said: “Satelytics is modernising the energy sector by making data about physical assets more accessible and digestible, leading to better decision making. We are excited to work closely alongside their unique team of scientists and technologists to help them evolve their technology and to continue to move the needle on industry digitalisation.”

 

Sean Donegan, chief executive of Satelytics, said: “bp’s early use of our detection and quantification software has inspired us to expand our capabilities. bp’s investment marks an inflexion point for Satelytics, which will assist us in expanding our technological capabilities and fuel future innovation.”

 

Through its venturing business, bp is making strategic investments in innovative, game-changing technologies and businesses that can help it reimagine the global energy system.

 

David Hayes, bp ventures managing director for the Americas and chief operating officer, said: “Earlier this year we announced our ambition to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero. As part of our ambition, one of our 10 aims relates to methane measurement at all of our major oil and gas processing sites by 2023 and reducing methane intensity of our operations by 50%. Advanced technologies such as Satelytics, integrating multiple approaches to efficiently detect emissions, have the potential to be a valuable tool that can support this work.”

Notes to editors

About Satelytics:

 

  • Satelytics Inc., is a cloud-based geospatial analytics software suite.
  • Multi or hyper-spectral imagery is gathered from satellites, UAV, planes, and fixed cameras, and processed to provide both alerts and qualitative results for our customers.
  • Data can be gathered on up to a daily basis and results sent to customers in hours.
  • This includes the specific problem, location, magnitude, and even qualitative information, which minimize cost, impact, and operational disruption for clients.

About bp ventures:

 

  • bp ventures was set up more than 10 years ago to identify and invest in private, high growth, game-changing technology companies, accelerating innovation across the entire energy spectrum. Since then, bp has invested almost $700 million in technology companies across more than 31 active investments with more than 250 co-investors.
  • Venturing plays a key role in bp’s strategy to tackle the dual challenge of meeting the world’s need for more energy, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions.
  • bp ventures focuses on connecting and growing new energy business. It makes strategic equity investments across a portfolio of relevant technology businesses including advanced mobility, low carbon and digital.
  • For more information visit: bp.com/ventures.
  • Shaun Healey, bp ventures Principal, will take up a director seat on the board of Satelytics.

Further information

Contacts

bp press office, London: +44 (0)20 7496 4076, bppress@bp.com

Kekst CNC, London: +44 (0)20 3755 1630, bpventures@kekstcnc.com

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Celebrating CloudGenix’s $420M Acquisition By Palo Alto Networks

BainCapital

Today, Palo Alto Networks closed its $420M acquisition of CloudGenix, an industry leader in software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN).

I have had the privilege of knowing CloudGenix’s co-founder and CEO Kumar Ramachandran since November 2013.

We initially met on a Saturday morning at the DoubleTree in Pleasanton to discuss his new company. And while the location might have been less memorable, the meeting was not. We spent the next two hours sitting in the hotel lobby discussing the massive opportunity at hand: the myriad of reasons why customers might choose to move away from traditional MPLS routing to software-defined edge networking. We could see then what we know now to be true…

Software-defined edge networking not only offers increased functionality to MPLS routing, but is also easier to manage, more secure, and allows network administrators unprecedented visibility into their networks.

Couple this discussion on the advantages of software-defined networking with Kumar’s incredible passion on the topic. Within the first few minutes of our conversation, it was clear that Kumar felt strongly about networking being overcomplicated. There had to be a way to eliminate the need to have intimate knowledge of underlying protocols, while also simplifying the overall process of delivering applications to remote offices. He believed that he and the team at CloudGenix could deliver on these needs.

Shortly thereafter, in early 2014, I made my first investment in the company, and was invited to join the board. I was confident then in Kumar’s experience, leadership, incredible drive, and the team he and his co-founder Venkataraman Anand had assembled, and knew I wanted to be a part of the journey.

In April 2015, Bain Capital Ventures had the chance to invest as CloudGenix readied their product for initial shipment. We could see the demand for large enterprises to implement SD-WAN in order to effectively manage a complex, multi-cloud strategy, and how the CloudGenix team had capitalized on it; creating a best-in-class solution that autonomously tailors to each enterprise’s specific security and networking needs.

In the years following, I had the privilege of working with the leadership team on a number of key initiatives. Many of my fondest memories with the startup, however, are of the days I spent working alongside the field organization, engaging with prospects and customers to share the CloudGenix vision, and express Bain Capital Ventures’ support for the company.

Recognizing CloudGenix sales achievers in August 2019

Fast forward several years, and my confidence in Kumar, the team he’s built, and the award-winning product, has never been stronger. Just last year, CloudGenix announced a 300% year-over-year growth, as large enterprises made the switch from legacy incumbents, due in part to our work in the field, helping to win many highly competitive engagements against intense competition. This significant progress and growth is what spurred us to become CloudGenix’s largest investor in their latest funding round.

Today, as we all navigate through this period of uncertainty, and millions have been forced to work remotely, the need for an effective WAN to supply a secure network across a largely distributed workforce, has never been greater.

Palo Alto Networks, a leader in next generation firewalls, plans to extend its network reach further and consolidate the edge technology stack. They announced their intent to acquire CloudGenix for $420M on March 31st, 2019. It couldn’t be a better match.

Congratulations again to Kumar and the entire team at CloudGenix. We could not be prouder to have been a part of your journey since the early days, and cannot wait to see how you continue to revolutionize the networking industry.

Kumar Ramachandran and members of the CloudGenix team

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Rabo Frontier Ventures invests in online UK mortgage broker Trussle

Rabo Frontier Ventures

Rabo Frontier Ventures (RFV), the strategic investment fund of Rabobank, is investing in online UK mortgage broker Trussle. RFV participated in the funding round of £7.5m alongside existing investors, Goldman Sachs Growth, Finch Capital and San Francisco-based Propel Venture partners.

This round of funding demonstrates investors’ confidence in the opportunity to revolutionise the UK mortgage market. Every year, millions of people in the UK are subject to unnecessary costs, delays and frustrations when trying to get a mortgage. Trussle is utilising technology to disrupt the market, making the mortgage experience fairer, faster and easier. The online mortgage broker has grown rapidly over the last year, amplifying its mission to make mortgages fairer and almost doubling the volume of customers.

 

Trussle Chairman, Simon Williams, commented: “Owning a home should mean stability and freedom. Unfortunately, the reality is that finding a mortgage often creates stress, inconvenience and unfair treatment. Since Trussle launched in December 2015, we’ve helped thousands of homeowners get onto the property ladder and reduce their mortgage payments by switching to the right deal. But there’s ample work to be done in revolutionizing the archaic industry.”

 

Williams continued: “Our business is at a pivotal stage in its journey and this new funding will enable us to accelerate our progress, especially through investment in our technology, to make the mortgage process quicker, easier and more transparent. The funding from our investors not only exemplifies the progress we’ve made so far, but also the scale of the opportunity that lies ahead.”

 

Harrie Vollaard Managing Director of RFV, commented: “Getting a mortgage is a complex process and is one of the biggest pain points of the financial industry. Trussle is leading the way in reshaping the way people interact with their mortgage by utilising technology to make mortgages smarter, faster and fairer. We’re looking forward to working closely with Trussle on the next phase of their journey to redesign the mortgage application process, as well as additional services to better support their customers through the home ownership journey”

 

Rabo Frontier Ventures

RFV is a €150 million investment fund of Rabobank, focusing globally on innovative fintech and agtech companies. RFV aims to invest in the early growth stage (series B) of companies that are disrupting or influencing the current business of the Rabobank. As an investor RFV strives to share in-depth knowledge in order to add value to portfolio companies.

 

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Truffle Capital successfully raises nearly €400 million for new Venture Capital funds. Funds backed by top-tier French and international institutional investors

Truffle Capital

Paris, France, December 18th, 2019 – Truffle Capital, a major European Venture Capital fund, announces the closing of its new BioMedTech and Fintech-InsurTech institutional funds, after having successfully raised close to €400 million from French and international institutional investors.

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Truffle Capital has received €250 million in commitments for its BioMedTech funds and €140 million for its new Fintech-Insurtech funds. The closing of these new funds marks a milestone for Truffle Capital, demonstrating a strong acceleration in its development (compared to the €750 million raised in the past 15 years) and the success of sector-specific funds with institutional investors, as previous Truffle funds were non sector-specific and mostly retail funds. The new BioMedTech fund will create and fund a dozen companies, mainly in France, developing medical devices and medications aiming to revolutionize mini-invasive medicine and health based on disruptive technologies sourced by Truffle from the top 50 US and European universities. The new Fintech-Insurtech fund will create and fund between 12 to 15 companies designing and building disruptive services and products for the banking and insurance industries, which will be developed around AI and blockchain technologies.

Created in 2001, Truffle Capital sets itself apart from other Venture Capital funds thanks to its unique business model of Business Builders. Truffle Capital is systematically the main investor in its participations, often the founder and majority shareholder during several years, and supports its companies until an advanced stage of their development. During the last 15 years, Truffle Capital has supported more than 70 companies, of which 80% were created by or with the support of Truffle Capital’s teams. Truffle Capital has successfully undertaken 13 IPOs and 17 divestitures for its portfolio companies, generating attractive returns on investment and supporting international growth of the companies.

About 60% of the amount raised for the new Truffle Capital funds comes from French investors and 40% from international investors. Obratori (l’Occitane Group), Guerbet Group, Agrica Group, la Cipav, BPCE, Caisse Centrale de Réassurances (CCR), ProBTP, Sopra Steria and many French and international family offices have invested in the BioMedTech or Truffle Financial Innovation funds. In 2017, the French pension fund Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR) had notably given a mandate, one of the first dedicated to French Venture Capital, to Truffle Capital. Investments have already been made to create and support a dozen of promising companies:

• In BioMedTech, Truffle Capital has already created five startups, that rely on exclusive and global licensing agreements negotiated with prestigious international research centers and universities, with its new funds: HoliStick Medical, aiming to treat cardiac pathologies (PFO) without open-heart surgery, relying on technologies from Harvard and the MIT; Skinosive, which develops dermo-cosmetics technologies to prevent skin cancers based on a Yale University Technology; Artedrone, whose autonomous microrobots could prevent and treat cerebrovascular pathologies or treat tumors; PKMed, which develops smart bioactive implants; and finally, Bariatek, which works on non-invasive medical devices to treat obesity and diabetes.

• In FinTech-InsurTech, Truffle Capital is supporting the development of five startups with its new funds: MoneyTrack, which revolutionizes directed payment (especially in insurance reimbursement) by using blockchain technologies developed in partnership with INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique) and ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure); RollingFunds, which develops an automated scoring technology allowing SMEs to benefit from instant cash advance; IPaidThat, which automates SMEs’ invoice processing; Monisnap, which simplifies and digitalizes money transfer in underbanked countries; and finally, Sharegroop, which has invented group payment systems on websites.

The three managing partners of Truffle Capital, Patrick Kron, Philippe Pouletty, and Bernard-Louis Roques, comment:

Patrick Kron, Chairman of Truffle Capital states: “The success of this ambitious fundraising is a great source of pride for Truffle Capital and its teams. The confidence of these top-tier investors is further proof of the relevance and the efficiency of our unique model. Our position as entrepreneur-investors has enabled us to create genuine global leaders, able to use disruptive technologies to propose new offers and address unmet needs. Thanks to the unique experience we have acquired, we are convinced that we will be able to structure and grow particularly promising investments.”

Philippe Pouletty, M.D., Co-founder, CEO of Truffle Capital, head of the BioMedTech Team adds: “With €250 million new funds, we are now among the top BioMedTech players in Europe, especially in the interventional medical devices segment. Our investment strategy is designed to allow clinicians to treat patients more effectively and in a less traumatic way with revolutionary products, allowing patients to enjoy better and longer lives, and payers to reduce health costs. Disruptive innovations sourced by Truffle Capital will combine smart implants, mini-invasive surgery, interventional radiology, AI, micro-robotics and the harnessing of human physiology. Medical needs and market potential are very important, especially in cardiology, neurology, dermo-cosmetics, oncology, gastroenterology, and orthopedics. We are working hand in hand with the top 50 universities and research centers based in Europe and the US. Following a stringent selection process, we aim to in-license and transform their disruptive inventions into major technological innovations and medical products. Our proven experience as entrepreneur-investors and our investment fire power allow us to build future world leaders within the excellent French ecosystem, from creation to clinical and commercial stage.”

Bernard-Louis Roques, Co-founder, CEO of Truffle Capital, head the FinTech-InsurTech team says: “In 2014, we felt that the combination between deregulation and rise of ‘deep techs’, mainly with AI and blockchain, would deeply and sustainably transform the world of finance. While FinTechs accounted for only 2% in Venture Capital, we decided to focus on this segment by creating the first French FinTech incubator, thus giving birth to seven companies, of which three were rapidly sold successfully. As we were encouraged by the success of this first phase, during which we invested €30 million and realized good exit multiples, we built an ecosystem around our network of entrepreneurs, scientists, and financial institutions, created by our major institutional fundraisings. FinTechs now represent 20% of Venture Capital, and we plan to deploy €140 million over the next six years to create future leaders who will help transform the financial industry.”

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Rabo Frontier Ventures partners with Northzone’s Fund IX

Rabo Frontier Ventures

Rabo Frontier Ventures (“RFV”) has committed to Northzone’s brand new venture fund (Northzone IX). Northzone Ventures (“Northzone” or the “Firm”) is a leading European technology investment firm and has been investing in technology companies for 23 years. Northzone has a pan-European focus and operates from its bases in the UK and the Nordics.

Northzone’s investment team is widely regarded as being highly experienced with privileged access to some of the world’s best entrepreneurs. Northzone has a history of strong performance with many successful deals and exits such as Spotify, iZettle and Avito.

Northzone

Northzone is an early stage venture capital fund, founded in 1996. It is one of the most experienced venture capital funds in Europe, and operates from its offices in Stockholm, London and Oslo. The firm also has a New York presence, and makes investments in select verticals in the US.

Northzone has raised 9 funds to date, and including the latest fund, the firm has raised a total of €1.5 billion. Over the past 2 decades, Northzone has invested in over 150 companies, including seminal names in European tech such as Spotify, iZettle, Klarna, Avito, Trustpilot, lastminute.com, Stepstone, Zopa and others.

Northzone’s focus is on disruptive technology companies and the fund makes investments across Europe and the US East Coast. The latest fund, Norhthzone IX, will back strong-minded entrepreneurs building category leading businesses in both the consumer and enterprise segments. The fund will invest at Series A and B stage, with selective seed bets also a part of the strategy.

“Northzone is a great partner and our commitment to their fund will give a good first indication of the fund of funds (FoF) strategy that we follow. This year we started with our early stage FoF strategy in order to generate relevant deal flow for our direct fund and to institutionalise existing relations with top performing VC funds. Our commitment in Northzone’s brand new venture fund marks the start of the execution of this strategy. Part of our strategy is also to leverage knowledge of Rabobank and to make it accessible for Northzone and its portfolio companies. Herewith creating a platform in order to add value to our VC partners and their portfolio companies”

Jeroen van Doornik, Partner RFV

Rabo Frontier Ventures

RFV is a €150 million investment fund of Rabobank, focusing globally on innovative Fintech and Agtech companies. RFV aims to invest directly in the early growth stage (series B) of companies that are disrupting or influencing the current business of Rabobank and invest indirect in leading general tech funds.

 

 

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EQT closes second Ventures fund, securing commitments totaling EUR 660 million

  • One of Europe’s largest VC funds, bringing EQT Ventures’ total capital raised to just over EUR 1.2 billion
  • Data-driven approach with Motherbrain continues to transform VC investment process
  • Team of founders and operators ensures hands-on support for bold, ambitious European and US founders

EQT today announced the successful closing of EQT Ventures II (or the “Fund”), securing commitments totaling EUR 660 million, of which approximately EUR 620 million are fee paying, just 3.5 years after EQT Ventures I launched. The Fund is one of the largest European venture capital (“VC”) funds and demand from both existing and new investors was strong.

EQT Ventures II will build on the multi-stage strategy of its predecessor fund EQT Ventures I, which secured commitments totaling EUR 566 million in 2016, investing in the next generation of ambitious founders and building global winners out of Europe. In addition to partnering early on with bold European founders (typically at Series A and B funding rounds), the Fund will continue to bridge the US and Europe, providing support and capital for US founders (typically at Series B and C rounds) keen to scale into Europe. Motherbrain, EQT’s proprietary in-house developed artificial intelligence system that helps source attractive investments, will also remain central to the Fund’s strategy.

Born inside the EQT Ventures advisory team and spun out to its own dedicated team in 2016, Motherbrain is managed as a start-up inside EQT. Keeping track of millions of companies every day, Motherbrain enables the EQT Ventures advisory team to assess companies faster, improve assessment accuracy and spend more time on the right companies earlier. The self-learning platform is involved in prioritizing and evaluating all potential investments and deeply integrated throughout the sourcing process. Five EQT Ventures’ portfolio companies have been sourced by Motherbrain so far – Peakon, Handshake, AnyDesk, Warducks and Standard Cognition.

The EQT Ventures advisory team, consisting of former founders and entrepreneurs from companies such as Spotify, King, Booking.com, Lithium, Huddle and Hotels.com, supports portfolio companies in a wide range of disciplines. These include product, marketing and communications, engineering, analytics, user experience, international expansion, sales, partnerships and finance.

With advisory teams in Stockholm, London, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Berlin, EQT Ventures’ “local-with-locals” approach and hands-on support for founders started to produce strong results early on. Just 2.5 years after its launch, the EQT Ventures I fund had its first exit when it sold its stake in mobile games company Small Giant Games to leading social games developer Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNGA) in a deal valued at USD 700 million.

Hjalmar Winbladh, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to the EQT Ventures funds, commented: “Building a global success story requires more than just capital. It requires grit, ambition, teamwork and support from people who have experienced the start-up journey firsthand. Being a large multi-stage investor, the EQT Ventures advisory team supports and coaches entrepreneurs on their journeys so they can scale and deliver long-term sustainable growth. Europe has never lacked ambition, talent or innovation but compared with the US, European start-ups have often struggled to access the capital they needed to grow from bright ideas into proven businesses. With this fund, EQT Ventures wants to continue to close this funding gap and its size is clear evidence of the growing confidence in European tech, which is punching above its weight. The team is looking forward to partnering with more of the boldest founders in Europe and the US.”

Christian Sinding, CEO and Managing Partner of EQT Partners, added: “Digital innovation is reshaping industries by disrupting existing business and operating models. This presents an opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs keen to transform every sector imaginable. With the EQT Ventures advisory team’s deep experience of founding and supporting start-ups, they are ideally positioned to support the next wave of founders and this is evident in the superb performance of the first fund. We are proud of what the team has achieved so far and looking forward to the next stage of EQT Ventures’ journey.”

EQT Ventures II is backed by a global blue-chip investor base consisting of, among others, pension funds, insurance companies, financial institutions, foundations and family offices. Backing from new and existing investors from Europe, the US and Asia, highlights the growing confidence in European tech start-ups and talent.

Recent additions to EQT Ventures’ portfolio include Einride (USD 25 million Series A), BEAT81 (EUR 6.4 million Series A) and Standard Cognition (USD 35 million Series B).

EQT Ventures’ dedicated investment advisory team will continue to leverage the global network of EQT’s advisors and global platform, as well as the proven governance model and growth-focused approach to drive performance.

The fundraising for the Fund has now closed. Accordingly, the foregoing should in no way be treated as any form of offer or solicitation to subscribe for or make any commitments for or in respect of any securities or other interests or to engage in any other transaction.

Contact
Lucy Wimmer, Communications Partner, EQT Ventures, lucy@eqtventures.com, +44 7551 289 177
EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com, +46 8 506 55 334

About EQT Ventures
EQT Ventures is a multi-stage VC fund that partners with the most ambitious and boldest founders in Europe and the US. The fund is based in Luxembourg and has investment advisors stationed in Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco and Berlin. Fuelled by some of Europe’s most experienced company builders and scalers, EQT Ventures helps the next generation of entrepreneurs with the capital and hands on support needed to build global winners.

More info: www.eqtventures.com
Follow EQT Ventures on Twitter and LinkedIn

About EQT
EQT is a differentiated global investment organization with more than EUR 62 billion in raised capital and around EUR 41 billion in assets under management across 20 active funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 21 billion and approximately 127,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtgroup.com
Follow EQT on Twitter and LinkedIn

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Swarm64 raises fresh capital to accelerate growth from FPGA inventor Xilinx

Alliance Venture

Swarm64 and Xilinx teaming to meet growing demand for FPGA-accelerated database management solutions.

Berlin, October 8, 2019 – Swarm64 (swarm64.com), a leader in FPGA-accelerated database management solutions, today announced Xilinx, Inc. has invested in Swarm64 and will work together to deliver high-performance analytic databases that are easy to deploy and scale at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than existing solutions in the market.

“Swarm64 has demonstrated impressive analytic database price-performance gains on Alveo accelerator cards,” said Donna Yasay, vice president of marketing, Data Center Group at Xilinx. “We are excited to work with Swarm64 to address growing enterprise demand for database solutions that enable new analytic and digital business innovations.”

Swarm64 Data Accelerator for Analytics runs on servers equipped with Xilinx Alveo cards to deliver up to 50x faster analytic query and data insertion performance for PostgreSQL open source database users. PostgreSQL is one of the most widely used databases in the world and Swarm64 DA running on the Xilinx platform enables a powerful SQL solution for customers looking to replace their legacy data warehouse with a seamless integration of hardware accelerators and popular open source software.

“We are very happy to be working with Xilinx to bring new FPGA-accelerated database solutions to market,” said Thomas Richter, CEO of Swarm64. “Swarm64 FPGA-based software delivers a new database user experience, including better price-performance, easier scaling, and even the ability to reconfigure the FPGA hardware to enable advanced features like text processing.”

Swarm64 will use the investment to develop new solutions that leverage the reconfigurability of FPGA hardware to accelerate specific workloads on PostgreSQL such as time series, full-text search, geospatial and others.

About Swarm64

Swarm64 is the developer of hardware accelerator solutions for analytics based on PostgreSQL, one of the most widely used databases in the world. By leveraging FPGA hardware accelerators, Swarm64 provides the easiest way for businesses to scale performance for analytics systems. The company works in close partnership with both leading FPGA suppliers, Intel and Xilinx. Founded in 2013, Swarm64 has built a world-class team developing hardware accelerator images and database software extensions. It is backed by leading venture investors from the US, Norway, and Germany, and has offices in Berlin, Seattle, and Boston.

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Greycroft and LiveOak Venture Partners Lead $3M Seed Funding Round for CyberFortress

LiveOak

Chief executive Huw Edwards announced Wednesday CyberFortress had closed a $3 million seed funding round co-led by New York-based private equity firm Greycroft and Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners.

Monte Tulum Capital, which had invested in CyberFortress’s pre-seed round, is also participating in the latest funding. Porthcawl Holdings, Jungle Disk’s parent company, provided pre-seed financing in 2018.

The San Antonio-based insurtech (insurance technology) startup will use the $3 million investment to accelerate its product launch in Texas in early 2020, Edwards said.

Launched in 2018 by former Rackspace employees Huw Edwards and Michael DeFelice, the San Antonio-based startup offers tailored insurance policies to protect small- to medium-sized e-commerce companies from cyber threats. Most insurance providers tend to tailor their cyber insurance policies for large-scale enterprises, requiring upfront payment of large annual premiums. They also lack historical data to quantify cybersecurity risks.

CyberFortress is building a deep machine learning-based approach to quantify all risks of online revenue interruption for e-commerce companies, whether from cyberattacks, internal server errors, or third-party e-vendor failure.

That differentiation is coupled with its customer-centric approach: Easy-to-understand policies, a straightforward application process, fast payouts in the event of a claim, and the ability to pay for annual premiums in monthly installments rather than in a lump sum.

Given that most small business owners lack the robust reserves of larger companies, they may face bankruptcy in the aftermath of prolonged online interruption in their e-commerce. CyberFortress’ business interruption policy features make this new type of insurance uniquely small business-friendly.

“A small e-commerce company can’t afford to spend months engaging with their insurance company waiting for a payout,” Edwards said “If they can’t collect revenue, they may not be able to make their next payroll. Our policy is laser-focused on solving this critical problem for small businesses.”

CyberFortress launched its Downtime Risk Assessment at the conclusion of its participation in the Plug and Play insurtech accelerator program earlier in 2019. The free assessment helps e-commerce companies reduce their risk of events that could lead to downtime.

The assessment’s continuous collection of data from thousands of features and technology choices evaluated over time provide a fact-based, probabilistic assessment of a company’s exposure to suffering e-commerce downtime.

Will Szcerbiak is leading the investment for Greycroft, a seed-to-growth venture capital firm that has over 300 investments across the tech sector.

“Their underwriting is efficient, and the rapid, automated payment of claims will make for a delightful customer experience,” Szcerbiak stated. “These characteristics are unusual in the commercial insurance universe, and we believe they will set CyberFortress on a path to scale.”

Joining the startup’s board of advisers is Katie Wade, the former Connecticut Insurance Department commissioner with more than 20 years of industry experience in public policy and regulatory compliance. Venu Shamapant, a founding LiveOak Venture partner, also joins the CyberFortress board of directors with this financing.

Based in Austin, LiveOak is a venture capital fund specializing in full-cycle investing in Texas-based startups. They invested in San Antonio before, notably in the cybersecurity company Infocyte four years ago. Shamapant continues to believe “San Antonio has interesting depth in pockets of advanced tech.”

“What caught our attention about CyberFortress is the experience of their team with small- and medium-sized businesses and e-commerce businesses — they have a deep understanding of the pain points in that market segment,” Shamapant said. “That, coupled with an innovative solution, got us excited about the opportunity to back this team in their efforts to revolutionize the cyber insurance industry.”

Others recognize the groundbreaking nature of what CyberFortress is developing. The startup has been working with a team of Milliman consultants to develop and validate its risk model. The consulting firm is the largest independent provider of actuarial and risk management services to the insurance industry.

“The insurance product we are helping CyberFortress develop is a revolutionary approach to identify and insure risk to e-commerce revenue streams,” said Sheri Scott, principal actuary and the CyberFortress consulting team lead at Milliman.

Insurance industry stakeholders are also taking notice of the San Antonio startup, Edwards said, as he attended Insure Tech Connect, the largest insurtech conference, this week.

“We’re finding that it’s [insurance] carriers and brokers that are now showing interest in insurtech solutions — they recognize the need to partner with insurtech startups,” Edwards said. “We need to work with these partners because very few startups can become major carriers overnight.”

The $3 million funding round will be put to work to expand the team and fuel its growth in the Texas market. While the CyberFortress team of eight employees has deep expertise in cybersecurity, data science, risk management, they are looking to hire developers and business development staff.

“The capital will be used to secure partnerships with e-commerce and other providers, and to scale, not to sit in a bank account,” Edwards said.

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