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Many startups grow from time to time and seek funding to develop further and expand into the global markets. There are firms that are meant to pump in investment to the emerging startups and one such category is VC or venture capital firm.
Relatively, AV8 Ventures based in Palo Alto and London is a venture capital firm led by George Urgas, the former head of IBM Ventures and Miles Kirby, the former managing director at Qualcomm Ventures in Europe. They bought two full-time partners and five venture partners to reach an objective of 10 investments each year.
Raises €150M early VC fund
In a recent move, AV8 Ventures has announced that is has raised $170 million (nearly €150 million) for its debut early-stage venture capital fund. This funding will be used to invest in seed and Series A startups across Europe and the US focused on the machine-enabled future.
As per TechCrunch Kirby stated that the AV8 team brings technical backgrounds and strong business acumen. He stated, “That’s something fairly unique about us, we can really help the entrepreneurs as opposed to just investing and sitting back. Having been through this a few times, we can really help through the journey.”
“We think of ourselves as builders versus transactors,” Ugras, who began his career as an astrophysicist, added. “Quite often in venture you’ll notice investors get perked up around transactions, but the magic happens in-between rounds.”
Backed by Allianz
The VC firm is backed by Allianz, a German insurance and asset management business. Though it is backed by a corporate firm, it is not a corporate venture capital fund. On comparing it with Sapphire Ventures (formerly known as SAP Ventures), which is an early-stage fund backed by SAP was rebranded in 2014 to beef up its status as an independent firm.
The portfolio of AV8
AV8 focuses on digital health, artificial intelligence, big data, enterprise tech and mobility. The team has backed seven companies till date with the fund it raised for nearly a year. The portfolio of AV8 Ventures includes PlanetIQ, Alpha Medical, Locomation, which was spun-out of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and Hometree among others.
Team of specialists at VC fund
AV8 Ventures is all set to change the world with executives and investors dedicated bring about transformation across industries. It dismantles the old and brings new and empowering support. There are scientists and specialists with cutting-edge knowledge of their fields. They work towards bringing research-based and innovative solutions.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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These 10 standout tech startups have been selected for Future Hamburg Award 2019
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