Berlin-based Project A Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that combines financial and operational support for technology companies, announced on Wednesday that it has closed its fourth fund at $375M (approximately €358.24M).
The VC says the fund will invest from pre-Seed to Series A in “promising” founders across the continent. The new fund, which is the largest fund raised so far, will bring the company’s total assets under management to $1B.
Limited partners of Project A’s new fund generation consist of institutional investors in the US and Europe, selected European corporates, and German “Mittelstand” companies, as well as well-connected entrepreneurs.
A new fund for promising entrepreneurs
Project A Ventures says that the new fund will help the firm to invest in founding teams across Europe that are reshaping their industries while focusing on sectors across B2C and B2B, including fintech, commerce, enterprise software, data infrastructure, supply chain, and climate tech.
Even though the majority of deals will be B2B focused, Project A will continue its investments in consumer businesses.
Co-founder of Project A, Uwe Horstmann, says, “The closing of our fourth fund is a major milestone in our company history as it marks the 10 year anniversary of Project A successfully supporting founders all over Europe – not only with the capital they need but also with operational expertise to help their businesses thrive. Last year alone we welcomed four new unicorns in our portfolio and we plan to continue investing in tech companies at the early stages.”
“As the ‘war for talent’ makes it harder to grow organisations quickly, we have found that startups and scale-ups require more hands-on support. That’s why we are continuing to expand our operational VC model to have our functional experts directly support our portfolio companies in scaling their business and their technology,” adds Horstmann.
Project A’s “operational VC” model enables all portfolio companies to access a wide range of operational support services. The firm boasts of the largest platform team in Europe, with over 140 functional experts supporting in all areas of startup operations.
The “Operational VC”
Project A Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that combines financial and operational support for technology companies.
The VC firm provides access to a wide range of operational support services across key areas, such as software engineering, product development, business intelligence, brand and communications, data, marketing, sales, and recruiting.
In the last year, Project A claims that its operational teams worked more than 100,000 support hours for portfolio companies, enabling them to grow and thrive in their respective markets.
Since its inception in 2012, the firm has made more than 100 investments backing founders from pre-Seed to Series A and beyond in sectors such as fintech, digital health, logistics, eCommerce, proptech, B2B enterprise software and mobility. Project A has invested in some of Europe’s most promising Internet startups, including Trade Republic, Kry, sennder, WorldRemit, Spryker, and Voi.
Additionally, since 2018, Project A has hosted its annual Knowledge Conference, where investors, operators and experts come together to share their knowledge on startup operations and venture capital with attendees.
Plans to invest $80M in PE deals
Besides the new fund, Project A Ventures also announced that it will expand its private equity co-investment practice, and will invest up to $80M in Private Equity deals. The firm is keen to use the experience it has gained by investing and scaling early-stage companies for over a decade, at the ‘growth’ end of the market.
Ben Fischer, General Partner at Project A, says, “We have accrued a huge amount of expertise in how to help technology companies grow and reach scale. Having shown that this knowledge can be transferred into the more mature buy-out environment, we are keen to double down on this opportunity. By investing alongside world-leading PE funds, we are able to offer more mature companies operational implementation know-how of our experts, strategic guidance and extensive knowledge sharing by our early-stage portfolio.”
The firm has already amassed a portfolio of 11 private equity co-investments during the previous few years.