Balderton Capital raises new €530M early-stage fund; here’s what the VC plans to do with this fund

London-based venture capital firm Balderton Capital announced that it has raised $600M (approx €530M) in its second fund to support its mission to be the leading provider of venture capital and founder support to European startups with global ambitions.

The firm has already raised four funds totalling close to $2B since 2018 and has active investments in more than 100 companies employing more than 26,000 people in 50 countries globally.

Investing in Europe’s most ambitious founders

Founded in 2000, Balderton Capital is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on backing European-founded startups. To date, the firm has invested in close to 300 startups and claims to have extensive experience backing exceptional founders from Seed to growth stage, Europe-wide. 

Since the start of this year, Balderton has invested in 20 new startups in sectors ranging from reproductive health and instant commerce to data labelling and gaming. Besides, it has also seen 13 portfolio companies achieve unicorn status this year. 

Companies where Balderton invested at Seed or Series A include Aircall, Beauty Pie, ComplyAdvantage, Contentful, Depop, Dream Games, GoCardless, Infarm, Labster, Revolut, Vestiaire Collective, and Zego. 

Moreover, Balderton’s four portfolio companies – Darktrace, Flywire, SOPHiA Genetics, and Truecaller – have gone public in landmark European IPOs and the firm has seen 10 exits including Peakon’s sale to Workday, Nutmeg’s sale to JPMorgan Chase, and Depop’s sale to Etsy.

Balderton Capital’s portfolio companies have collectively raised over $6B in follow-on funding this year. It is an increase of almost $2B on the $3.1B raised in the entirety of 2020.

Suranga Chandratillake, General Partner at Balderton, says, “The launch of Fund VIII marks 21 years of Seed and Series A investing at Balderton. In that time we have had the huge privilege to work with many irrepressible founders with outsized ambitions and we hope to do so once again. While our job may not have changed, Europe has – we are excited for the thriving ecosystem we find around us with more talent, more capital and more ambition than at any time in our history.”

Committed to European tech ambition

With Europe on track to raise a record $70B of venture capital investment by the end of the year, more than twice the total for 2020, Balderton Capital is now more than committed to build the next generation of global tech companies from the region.

The firm says the new funds will be sector agnostic and managed by Balderton’s investment team of 25 people working across Europe. The equal partnership will work together to share experience and insights to the benefit of the entire portfolio. 

Balderton’s portfolio companies benefit from its Build with Balderton platform of talent, marketing, finance, and legal services. The Platform is completely focused on giving founding teams the help they need to scale, including access to operational and functional services, and an active community of peers.

Balderton’s Platform continues to expand and the firm has added 13 people to its team in the last year, including Dave Kellogg, Balderton’s first executive-in-residence. Founding teams also gain access to the global industry leaders of the Balderton Executive Council, the CEO Collective offsite, and events and workshops hosted at the firm’s Kings Cross headquarters and across Europe.