20 Biggest European Venture Capital Funds

”We back the best and most ambitious entrepreneurs and help them make their ideas real and lasting.”

After years of easy access to cash, a slowdown in funding and IPO has some tech investors and startup founders worried that the industry is facing a correction. But there are still huge venture capital funds (VC’s) looking to splash the cash as Europe’s tech scene continues to grow.

Here are the top 20 European VC’s, ranked by funds raised since 2010:

20. TVM Capital Life Scienceis a health-tech fund. Based in Munich and Montreal, it invests across the West in biotech, pharmaceutical, and medtech companies.

19. Forbion was launched in 2000 as ABN AMRO Capital Life Sciences before becoming independent and rebranding in 2006. Forbion is a European Venture Capital Fund with offices in the Netherlands and Germany. Its area of focus is biomedical technology and life sciences.

18. Scottish Equity Partners (sep.co.uk) with offices in London, Glasgow & Edinburgh was s launched in 1991 and invests in a mix of energy, healthcare, and technology companies. On the tech side, its portfolio includes language-learning service Babbel, flight finder Sky Scanner, and social analytics company SocialBro.

17. MVM Life Science (mvm.com) with offices in London and Boston invests in healthcare businesses across all stages of development, from early-stage to public companies.

16. Advent Life Sciences (adventls.com) invests in a range of sectors within life sciences, including new drug discovery, enabling technologies, med tech and diagnostics. The company is based in London.

15. 15.com has offices in Paris, Berlin as well as San Francisco. One of its most recent investments is online furniture retailerMade.com, in which it invested 34 million USD of a 60 million USD round. Previous investments include the German online review site Qype (which was subsequently acquired by competitor Yelp) or French video hub Daily Motion.

14. Rockaway Capital (https://www.rockawaycapital.com/en/) was founded in 2013 and is building the internet economy in emerging markets. Aside its European base in Prague, it also has offices in San Francisco and Sao Paulo.

13. Endeavour Vision (http://www.endeavourvision.com) is a life sciences-focused VC fund based in Geneva, Switzerland which currently focuses on growth stage Medtech companies and emerging Digital Health opportunities.

12. BGF (Business Growth Fund) is the UK’s most active provider of growth capital to small and mid-sized businesses. Set up 2011 to fill a funding gap for Britain’s growing smaller and medium sized businesses, BGF has since invested nearly 850 million GBP in a diverse portfolio of more than 125 companies including manufacturers, retailers, technology providers, restaurants and more.

11. Balderton Capital (www.balderton.com) is headquartered in London and has a focus on early stage European technology businesses, with ambitious founders and unique approaches. Founded in 2000 asBenchmark Capital(Europe), Balderton became independent in 2007 and has invested in more than 100 startups.

10. Northzone http://www.northzone.com is a Swedish venture capital firm based in Stockholm with offices in London, Oslo, Copenhagen, and New York that does ‘Seed’, ‘Early Stage Venture’, ‘Later Stage Venture’ and ‘Private Equity’ in sectors like advertising or  software.

Northzone has invested in more than 100 companies, including Spotify, LastMinute, and iZettle.

9. Sofinnova Partners has been around for over 40 years and invested in almost 500 companies in that time. Sofinnova Partners (France) is headquartered in Paris, and focuses on life sciences. A more detailed history of the global Sofinnova organization can be found here.

8. Holtzbrinck Ventures (www.holtzbrinckventures.com) is one of the leading independent European early stage funds. The Germans operate offices in Munich and Berlin and have invested in over 150 businesses, such as Zalando, Wooga, Lazada, Global Fashion Group, Groupon, Quandoo, Flixbus, HelloFresh, Westwing, Home24, Delivery Hero. They seek entrepreneurs who share ‘our passion for growth and innovation, and business ideas with the potential to transform important markets and build large and valuable companies.’

7. Abingworth (http://www.abingworth.com) was founded in 1973 and has offices in London, Menlo Park, and Boston. The investment-focus is exclusively to the life sciences and healthcare sectors. It invests across all stages of company development including early and late-stage private deals, VIPEs (Venture Investments in Public Equities) venture growth and public companies.

6. Lakestar is based in Zurich with offices in London, Berlin, as well as New York and makes early and growth stage investments in disruptive, technology-enabled businesses driven by ‘outstanding entrepreneurs‘. Lakestar and its general partners have historically invested in Facebook, Spotify, Skype, AirBnB, Klarna, andKing.com, and more recent Lakestar investments include Algomi, GoEuro, AngelList, Makers Studio, Taulia and Harry’s.

5. High-Tech Gründerfonds is a huge German fund founded in 2005, which focuses on seed-stage investment.

Based in Bonn, Germany, it is unlike most other venture capital firms a public-private partnership.

4. Atomico (www.atomico.com) was launched by Skype cofounder Niklas Zennström in 2006. Atomico focuses exclusively on tech. It is headquartered in London, with additional offices in Beijing, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Instanbul, and invests globally. Investments include Skype, Rovio, andLast.fm, in Europe – as well as Fab and Jawbone in the US.

3. Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is a British government initiative to help fund UK businesses. For every £1 invested through the RGF, its website explains, the private sector has put in £5.50.nIt claims to have created 130’000 jobs so far.

2. Deutsche Telekom Capital (http://telekom-capital.com/) was launched 2014 by German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom. It aims to be an ‘external innovation engine’through investments in venture capital, with a special focus on Germany’s start-ups scene,it said at launch.

1. Index Ventures (https://www.indexventures.com/firm) was launched in 1996, has offices in Geneva, Switzerland, London, Jersey, and San Francisco. It invests in both technology and healthcare. Its extensive tech portfolio includes Asos, BetFair, Facebook, Etsy, and Just Eat. The motto of Europe’s biggest VC firm 2016:”We back the best and most ambitious entrepreneurs and help them make their ideas real and lasting.”

(via venture capital tracking firm CB Insights and businessinsider.com)

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