Recently, Dawn Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on investing in the enterprise software and fintech sectors, announced the launch of Dawn IV – a $400M (approx €338M) fund. The fund has been raised from leading institutional investors, including pension funds, endowment funds, fund of funds as well as family offices, and high net-worth individuals.
Dawn’s co-founder and General Partner, Norman Fiore says in a statement, “Innovation thrives on instability. System-wide shocks drive change that startups can exploit ruthlessly, while incumbents are incapable of adjusting. Historically, these shocks were either financial, technological, or societal. In 2020, we’ve had all three at once: technology shock as the cloud came into its own, financial shock which will force society to do more with less, and a fundamental change to the way our working society is organised. We can’t wait to see where our entrepreneurs take us as we invest Dawn IV and greatly appreciate the support of all our investors in making this a successful fundraising.”
Oversubscribed and closed within six months
As per the company , the fund was oversubscribed and closed within six months of launch, after receiving strong support from existing investors and attracting new investors from the US, Europe and Asia.With this funding, Dawn Capital will focus on investing in Series A and B rounds in Europe’s leading B2B software startups and continue to fund the best-performing companies through growth rounds to successful exits.
The Dawn IV fund will focus on themes including Data and Analytics, Security, Fintech, and Future of Work. Also, the initial investments will be somewhere around approximately $5M (approx €4M) to $20M (approx €17M). The London-based VC has so far invested in 40 companies across 14 European countries in the above four themes.
Providing capital & counsel to founders
Dawn Capital’s portfolio companies include Collibra, Dataiku, Gelato Group, iControl, iZettle, Mimecast [MIME], Neo Technology, Showpad, and many other companies. Founded by Haakon Overli and Norman Fiore in August 2006, London-based Dawn Capital provides capital and counsel to support founders to scale their businesses. According to the company, “its sweet spot is working with founders when they have gotten their product right and revenues are beginning to scale up.”
Haakon Overli, Dawn co-founder and general partner, says, “Dawn has always been a long-term believer in the strength and vast opportunity of European B2B software. The fantastic support our investors have shown for Dawn IV reinforces our belief that now really is Europe’s time to build the next generation of category-defining software that will underpin the future of the enterprise, work, and commerce globally.”
“The scope for ambitious and talented European founders, hungry to scale their businesses globally and deliver innovation at scale, is unprecedented. We have never been more excited about what we can achieve in partnership with these founders, as we deploy Dawn IV and continue to deliver industry-leading returns for our investors”, Overli adds.
Main image credits: Dawn Capital
