Earlybird closes €175 million fund to invest in early-stage European startups

Earlybird closes €175 million fund to invest in early-stage European startups

Berlin-headquartered VC firm Earlybird has closed its €175 million “Digital West” fund that will focus on deep tech startups in German-speaking countries, Nordics, UK, Benelux, France and Southern Europe. The latest fund brings the total capital under management of the firm to €1 billion.

“We see a steadily growing number of promising deep tech startups in Europe with excellent teams and scalable business models,” said Fabian Heilemann, partner at Earlybird. “With our new ‘Digital West’ fund, we invest in exactly these kinds of companies.”

This is Earlybird's six fund since its inception in 1997. The firm raised the fund from institutional limited partners and corporates, without participation from private investors. Earlybird says that it has already made 13 investments from the new fund over the past few months.

“In view of the growing opportunities of the global digitalisation, the European VC market is still undersupplied,” said Hendrik Brandis, founding partner at Earlybird. “Compared to the USA, only about 15 percent of the venture capital is available per capita. Accordingly, the opportunities for active venture capital investors are better in Europe.”

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