London-based VC Atomico is supporting disruptive European tech startups by raising $765 million for its fourth investment fund yet.
The fund, dubbed Atomico IV, will zero in on making investments from Series A onwards in startups which have already achieved a market fit and are in a position to start scaling up. In a statement, Atomico said:
Raising a fund of this size is testament to the growing confidence in European tech – which we have championed from the start – and our unique approach to partnering with founders to help them build successful companies and create value. When we invest in a company, we give everything we have, not just capital.
Atomico was established in 2006 by Niklas Zennström, founder of Skype, along with tech VC Mattias Ljungman, and today has a team of 40 members that include founders and executives from giants like Facebook, Google, LastMinute.com, Spotify, Uber and Virgin. Atomico also said:
We use that experience to coach and push entrepreneurs, hard, in areas where they need help the most, like user growth, hiring and retaining the best talent, market-entry and partnerships, or marketing and communications.
News of this brand new fund comes after the launch of Atomico’s $476m fund, Atomico III, way back in November 2013, and is a testament to the VC’s steady growth pattern. The company said:
We’re excited that we’re now in a position to invest one of Europe’s largest funds and deploy Europe’s most experienced venture team to partner with even more superstar founders.
According to Atomico, European venture capital could really reach breakout velocity at some point, if given the right kind of push and support. The firm makes this statement from its position of being one of the best funding firms in Europe, with its central office in London but people also working in Beijing, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, New York, and Stockholm.
Atomico also notes that it now offers some of the most extensive services to its portfolio companies.
The firm also employs various associates, advisors, and a head of research who doubles as a principal with the firm, with a healthy proportion of these being women.
Atomico further hosts theme-specific events, something that, according to Ljungman, “isn’t something that people in Europe have spent a lot of time” thinking about, in terms of the value it can provide for founders.
When quizzed about the nature of the firm’s backers over the past few years, Ljungman says Atomico’s limited partner base is made up of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds and that a small but growing percentage of its relationships are with companies to whom the firm is a bridge between older and new parts of the economy, with these firms wanting to better understand how technology is likely to disrupt their businesses before it happens.
However, he says the strategy shall remain consistent. Atomico is focused on Series A rounds primarily. Its new, larger fund simply gives it more opportunity to do B and C financings, too — rounds that, just as in the U.S., seem to be on the rise.
