British “AI-powered” VC firm InReach Ventures has announced the first closing of its new fund of €53 million, from which it's going to invest in early-stage European technology startups.
According to the company, over half of its team are software engineers, who've been busy over the past three years developing a proprietary system that “generates and evaluates deal-flow significantly more efficiently than traditional venture firms.” The firm claims to have invested €3 million in the development of the solution.
The aim of the “venture AI” is not to automate the decision-making process but to discover and analyse more opportunities across Europe, the company stated.
“We are very excited by the opportunity for European technology entrepreneurship. However, if we look at the biggest tech companies in the world today by market capitalisation, European companies are significantly underrepresented,” said Roberto Bonanzinga, investment partner at InReach Ventures. “We need to adopt an approach which is tailored for Europe, or we will continue to fall behind. As European venture capitalists, we need a new approach that is distinct and tailored to deal with this geographic fragmentation and economic reality. We believe the only way to achieve this is through a software-based approach, powered by AI.”
Founded in 2015, InReach has invested in eight startups so far: Oberlo (Lithuania) subsequently acquired by Shopify, Soldo (Italy/UK), Tutorful (UK), Shapr3D (Hungary), Traitly (Sweden) and Loots (Germany).
Another VC firm that employs a similar approach is Swedish-founded EQT Ventures, which has developed “the Motherbrain” to help with finding the best startups to invest in. Check out our interview with Henrik Landgren, analytics partner at EQT, to learn more.
In the photo: the team of InReach Ventures
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