While corporate capital injections held a summer siesta, some venture capital firms are still seeing their coffers overflowing.
Three years after raising a $500 million fund, the European venture capital firm north zone is back with what partners call its “biggest fundraiser yet” of $1 billion or $1.01 billion for its tenth fund.
Same for Peru Salkantay Ventureswho said it closed up $26 million for the first fund, Salkantay Exponential Fund. Luis Daniel Arbulú, partner at Salkantay, told businesskinda.com via email that the fund is “the largest venture capital fund in the country” according to PitchBook and Crunchbase data.
Colleagues Natasha Mascarenhas and Ingrid Lunden also wrote about some major funds last week, including Oakland-based Kapor Capital, which also announced its largest fund to date of $126 million last week, and Stockholm-based EQT Growth, which closed. at $2.2 billion. Lunden wrote that it is “the first fund that EQT Growth has raised specifically for technical investments, and it is one of the largest first-growth funds in Europe to date.”
Besides that, Citi announced the expansion of its Citi Impact Fund to $500 million, which is more than three times the amount of the banking giant’s initial pledge. And Eyal Ofer’s OG Tech has raised $400 million for his second fund, while Stage 2 Capital has raised $150 million for his third fund.
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north zone
Michiel Kotting, Northzone’s partner in Amsterdam and London, told businesskinda.com that the fund was raised “in interesting market conditions.” Northzone started raising after the market fell but was still able to get funding from existing and new limited partners, he said.
“The nice thing is that the company, which has been around for 27 years, has gone through several cycles,” Kotting added. “We have delivered kicks for our LPs and have the confidence of them to perform in the current conditions as well. The pool is significantly bigger than before because we think the opportunity is in Europe and the East Coast in the US is really starting to get bigger and bigger.”
Northzone’s new fund focuses on some of the same things as the previous funds, such as targeting Europe and the US East Coast and investing primarily at the Series A and B levels with some selective starter investments. One of the company’s most notable exits is Spotify.
What’s new is that a small portion of the new funds were earmarked for an opportunity fund, Wendy Xiao Schadeck, the company’s New York partner, told businesskinda.com. Xiao Schadeck joined the company in 2021.
For years, Northzone looked to its US counterparts at sectors that were synergistic with those in Europe, such as technology, healthcare and enterprise SaaS. However, the company is expanding that to crypto and web3 as well, Xiao Schadeck said.
“We are incredibly open to the next generation of founders to define totally new categories as well,” she added. “Creating vectors and creating new ways to deliver value to consumers and businesses is something we are constantly paying attention to, especially as our industry teams are also working together.”
Salkantay Ventures
Salkantay Ventures’ new fund is backed by a group of investors including Dutch Good Growth Fund, Bancóldex, Capria Fund, IDB Lab and the Peruvian Fund of Funds, managed by COFIDE. Salkantay is one of 16 investment partners in the Capria Network, under Capria Ventures.
The company invests throughout Latin America, with a focus on the Andean region, in maximizing human potential, economic inclusion and sustainability.
Luis Daniel Arbulú, partner at Salkantay, explained via email that this region is “experienced a significant gap in basic services such as education, health care and financing that further broaden socio-economic statistics.” The company is looking for early stage startups that are working to bridge those gaps using technology.
So far, the company has invested in 14 startups, including Minu, Sang, Leal, Aprende Institute, Manzana Verde and Migrante.
He also said the fundraising environment was a bit of a challenge. That’s why the company decided to start small.
“We started with a small investment to prove to the LPs that both our seasoned team, although managing the first fund, and our thesis could provide early signs of success,” Arbulú added.
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