Frontline Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital firm has closed Fund II at €60 million. The firm which has offices in London and Dublin invests in B2B software companies at the pre-seed and seed stages. Its investment amount ranges from €200K to €3 million.
Prior to Fund II, Frontline had raised its first fund of €50 million in 2013. It has invested in 27 software companies across Europe until now.
Frontline is led by partners Shay Garvey, Will Prendergast, William McQuillan, and Stephen McIntyre. Prendergast in a statement, says, the pace at which software companies are redefining industries is accelerating. He further adds,
Our first fund has shown us that some of the world’s most ambitious founders are right here. With this Fund II, Frontline is positioned to be the investment partner of choice for ambitious software entrepreneurs building out from Europe to the US.
A cohort of investors fueled capital into Frontline Fund II such as Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Enterprise Ireland, European Investment Fund, Allied Irish Banks with the participation of a number of pension funds and family offices.
This transaction benefits from the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe.
Eugene O’Callaghan, Director of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, said,
We are delighted to extend ISIF’s partnership with Frontline through this latest Fund given the encouraging performance and impact of Frontline Fund I, which has already seen the creation of 350 new Irish jobs and played a major role in supporting the development of innovative start-up software companies in Ireland.
Prendergast was quoted saying that they will focus on the US expansion with this fund, having tracked the pace of penetration for European startups into the U.S. He adds,
We have been tracking what we call ‘Time to U.S. market entry’ for B2B companies coming out of Europe. This is both in terms of time for a founder to relocate there and time for more than 50 per cent of sales to be from the U.S., which is the biggest market for most B2B software companies.
He further mentions this time has drastically lessened since the incorporation of Frontline and now they expect both to be achieved within 12-18 months of the company being founded.
Notable investments in the Frontline portfolio include Qstream, Dublin-based money transfer company CurrencyFair, and London-based StreetTeam.
