Berlin-based SquareOne (previously Paua Ventures), an early-stage investor, announced on Tuesday that it has launched its third fund, SquareOne III, at €100M.
The German VC intends to invest in B2B Enterprise Software / SaaS startups in Europe across sectors like enterprise software, climate tech, open source, and supply chain/procurement.
Investors include fund of funds, family offices, corporates, and founders such as Instana, Signavio, Workday, Adyen, and Staffbase. The VC aims to build a good mix of institutional and entrepreneurial investors.
The announcement comes a week after rebranding the company to SquareOne from Paua Ventures.
“We decided to rebrand to concretely reflect what we have been doing for 13 years in one brand, namely early-stage investments. We’ve been partners from day 1 for our portfolio companies, and while a lot has changed, our DNA remains the same: we’ve always been doers at heart,” says Partner Christian Buchenau.
With the new fund, SquareOne has already made 14 investments. Many of the portfolio companies are co-invested with well-known startup scene leaders and former DAX executives, says the company.
SquareOne: What you need to know
Founded in 2010, SquareOne is a venture capital fund with a B2B technology focus.Â
The VC invests in European companies that solve complex problems with scalable technologies across SaaS, enterprise software, and deep tech sectors.
Besides funding, SquareOne leverages its network to provide its early-stage founding teams with rapid access to early customers and talent.
To date, SquareOne has invested in more than 40 startups, including successful companies such as Stripe, Pipedrive, Wandelbots, and VueStorefront.
The fund counts “corporate executives” from DAX and mid-sized companies as well as entrepreneurs from the European technology industry among its investor base.
“We are excited by founders who are building technology to solve complex problems in huge markets. We believe now is a great time to build great and sustainably successful companies. We’ve never had so many high-quality founding teams in our deal flow before,” says Buchenau.
“To generate as much expertise as possible for the founders, we are building the captable very strategically in close cooperation with them. These funds see us as a feeder fund for their own deal flow,” he adds.
