Nauta Capital calls it on its fifth fund, closes at €190 million

London’s Nauta Capital has announced the final close (no really, really, really closed this time) of its oversubscribed fifth fund at a hefty ​​€190 million, €40 million over target. The firm traditionally focuses on Seed to Series A investments in B2B companies, with ticket sizes ranging from €1 to €5 million. Nauta plans to carry on in this manner and is targeting approximately 35 promising startups in the fintech, insurtech, retailtech, and open source verticals.

Having announced the first close of the fund back in July of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Nauta has been fund raising and investing simultaneously, all from a distance. Now, that doesn’t make the VC firm unique, as we’ve all had our fair share of “virtual” over the past 19 months, but when that virtual number is clocking in at €190 million, it does add a certain amount of credence to what and how Nauta go about their business.

Attracting interest from LPs in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, Nauta reports that the vast majority, “​​are private institutions with strategic interest in the fund’s B2B focus as well as Family Offices with links to corporations aligned with the fund’s investment thesis.” Of note, Brussels-based Merifin Capital and the private markets division of BBVA Asset Management are onboard, backing Nauta alongside British Patient Capital, ICO, the European Investment Fund, ICF, and Germany-based KfW Capital.

Since launching v5, Nauta has invested in 11 startups thus far, and include SaaS purchase and management Cledara, open source platform Nhost, app analytics and management platform Appfollow, employee wellbeing platform ifeel, embedded insurance for SMEs insureQ, and b2b last-mile delivery company Gophr.

Additionally, with this new fund, Nauta will be dipping its toes into the pre-seed pool, investing £100,000 to £250,000 in deeptech companies via the recently launched Nauta Labs project.

With the final close at €190 million this now brings Nauta’s assets under management to a healthy €550+ million, a figure they claim makes them one of the largest European VC firms specialising in B2B startups.

“We’re proud to have surpassed our target having now closed at €190M, making it our biggest fund to date and one of Europe’s largest B2B funds. With most of our existing LPs from our vintage funds committing again, we are grateful for their continued trust in us and our investment strategy,” commented Nauta’s London-based general partner Carles Ferrer.