Headline raises €776.5M: looks to back growth-stage companies across Europe and North America

Headline, a Europe- and SF-based venture capital firm, announced that it has raised $865M (approximately €776.57M) for its Global Growth IV fund to support companies at their growth inflection points, focusing on Series B and beyond.

Christian Leybold, Founding Partner of Headline, says, “The European tech ecosystem is still in its early stages, with lots of unrealised potential. As we have seen in the past 20 years, venture markets can shift rapidly, but technology as a whole continues growing. AI is transforming every industry and creating a massive reset.”

“With a decade of track record, a proprietary technology platform, and teams on the ground in all major technology hubs, Growth IV arrives at an opportune time to back some of the best private technology companies—regardless of stage.”

Prior to this, in 2022, Headline announced $950M in early-stage commitments. Key portfolio companies include Bumble, Sonos, Acorns, and Mistral AI.

What to expect from the new fund?

Headline plans to deploy $20M to $70M in flexible growth capital, focusing on US and European markets through its offices in Berlin, Paris, and London. The firm aims to back category-leading tech companies globally. 

With a new fund, Headline has expanded its Growth team, led by Shalini Rao, and joined by Nancy Xiao, Trevor Neff, Reda Bensaid, Jake Horwitz, and Austin Hack, working from Europe and San Francisco.

General Partner Rao, says, “An investment firm ultimately builds just one product: its people. The team at Headline is united around the single objective of helping entrepreneurs succeed. To do that, we will draw on our networks and track records, built up over the years in both the US and Europe. But really it’s a mindset: we will do anything and everything we can to help our founders create generational companies. Just like the founders that we hope to back, we hustle and we are hungry.”

In addition, Headline uses proprietary platforms, Searchlight and Deepdive, to enhance founder connections and analyse business efficiencies. This tech-driven approach enables the team to engage with about 80 per cent of companies raising Series A financings each month, ensuring a highly-vetted pool of potential investments.

Investors supporting Headline

The fund includes capital commitments from KfW Capital, the venture arm of Germany’s state-owned KfW bank, and the European Investment Fund (EIF).

Marjut Falkstedt, EIF Chief Executive, says, “Despite being home to world-class talent, cost-efficient companies, and groundbreaking ideas, Europe invests significantly less in venture capital compared to the United States and Asia.”

“This funding gap not only limits our startups’ ability to scale but also risks losing them to foreign markets where capital is more readily available. This is a trend that we are committed to reversing, and that is why we are happy to back Headline through the European Tech Champions Initiative.”

Christian Röhle, Head of Investment Management of KfW Capital, adds, “Headline’s $865M growth fund is a very positive signal for the European VC ecosystem. Large-volume VC funds are indispensable to close the later-stage financing gap in the European VC market. Only large VC funds can lead large financing rounds to support the growth of promising scale-ups.”

“In parallel to its successful closing, Headline attracted two experienced international female investment professionals as partners to its new growth fund, thereby fostering diversity in the European VC ecosystem.”

Brief about Headline

Founded in 1998, Headline is a venture capital firm with over $4B in assets under management, investing in fast-growing tech companies across the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Through regionally-focused early-stage funds and a Global Growth Fund for Series B and beyond, Headline claims to lead rounds at every stage. Its portfolio includes 300+ companies such as Acorns, Bumble, Farfetch, Gopuff, Sonos, and Mistral AI.

Headline uses two advanced tools to enhance its investment strategy:

• Searchlight: An analytics tool tracking over 7 million companies globally and evaluating 100,000+ prospects annually. It aggregates extensive data from various sources, including search traffic, web metrics, and funding history, to provide detailed rankings and forecasts. Searchlight supports around 30-40 global investments per year by identifying breakout growth opportunities through comprehensive data analysis.
• Deepdive: An all-in-one platform for evaluating startups, offering deep insights into financial and operational metrics. It analyses customer behaviour, unit economics, and product-market fit, with AI-driven segmentation to identify ideal customer profiles. Deepdive helps founders with benchmarks, predictions, and growth strategies by processing complex data quickly.