London-based Moonfire Ventures, a new venture investing in early-stage startups in Europe, announced on Wednesday, that it has secured $115M (approximately €106.7M) in a fresh fund.
Moonfire transforms ventures by using machine learning models and software across the VC value chain to address founder concerns at scale, with ‘greater’ knowledge and speed.
About Moonfire Ventures
Launched in 2020 by former Atomico co-founder Mattias Ljungman, Moonfire Ventures is a next-gen VC firm that blends traditional techniques with deep, data-driven methodologies to fund Europe’s early-stage founding tech teams.
It is both a VC-focused tech startup and a VC firm, with its VCs serving both as investors and product managers.
The firm has created a large-scale tech stack and AI models from the ground up rather than utilising off-the-shelf solutions, which enables it to integrate technology throughout the whole VC value chain, from founder discovery to exit.
It’s a symbiotic, patented technique where the AI aids in investors’ decision-making while the investors and on-site engineers can directly and continually develop the AI in response to changing trends and market movements.
All of this immediately helps founders by allowing investors to have better ties with founders.
When paired with the team’s operational expertise, Moonfire’s technical power is a major draw for entrepreneurs searching for a partner to assist them in overcoming their most difficult technical issues.
Along with more conventional issues like recruiting, go-to-market, and finance, the Moonfire team claims to be ideally positioned to assist entrepreneurs in maximising opportunities like how to leverage the potential of AI and machine intelligence.
Moonfire thinks it symbolises the future of venture capital by allowing its staff to be more influential, productive, and valuable to its founders. A key step in the rise of the 10x VC.
Additionally, Moonfire provides founders and investors with a variety of online tools, such as its VC Portfolio Simulator and recently released research on its models.
What to expect from the new fund?
Moonfire wants to take it to the “next level” with Fund II.
Moonfire Ventures partner and computer scientist Mike Arpaia, says, “The power of the AI and VC partnership has always been at the core of Moonfire and, with the launch of Fund II, we see it move to the next level.”
“This new level combines human and machine like never before, hoping to turn an inefficient and inequitable industry on its head. With AI solving the mental-manual work, we can focus on the aspects humans are better at – meeting and forming relationships with founders.”
The firm currently analyses up to 50,000 businesses per week—more than 600 times the average of a typical VC. It does this in search of the “best” founding teams in Europe using “next-level” technologies like AI, Web3, and AR/VR.
This focus, according to Moonfire, is “where sources of disruption intersect with sectors that are driving innovation” and is essential for achieving a society that is more accessible, sustainable, and equitable.
Moonfire Ventures’ Managing Partner Mattias Ljungman, adds, “We are entering a new decade of AI that is transforming the possibilities of technology and redefining how tech companies are built through greater access, efficiency and product quality.”
“We want to be there for the founders at the earliest stages powering their growth and being true partners from the very beginning. Europe has been a leader in AI and we find our best fit is to support the next generation of founders solving some of our greatest challenges within health, work, finance and gaming.”
Moonfire Ventures investments
Since its inception, the Moonfire team has led 23 deals and participated in another 27 alongside investors such as Sequoia, Accel, Index, General Catalyst, and Accel.
Moonfire’s investment in UK fintech LiveFlow is an example of how it uses a tech-first strategy.
After finding LiveFlow using its AI engine, Moonfire co-led the pre-Seed round with Seedcamp before utilising the technical know-how of the Moonfire team to create a hiring funnel that enabled LiveFlow to employ a fresh, highly qualified CTO. After that, LiveFlow raised $4M in a Seed round, more than doubling its pre-Seed valuation.
Notable successes from Fund I include portfolio company Humaans (raised $15M in Series A round), Lightdash (raised $7M led by Accel), and GOALS (closed a $20M Series A round with Seven Seven Six). In addition to its $90M Fund II, the firm has raised $25M to double down on its winners via its Opportunity Fund.
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