London's Playfair Capital returns for the hat trick, this time with $70 million

London-based Playfair Capital has announced its third fund at $70 million. The tertiary outing will continue to follow the firm’s low-volume approach, making only six to eight investments per year. In contrast to making 30+ investments a year, Playfair specialises in unearthing diamonds in the rough, as it were, supporting companies often found outside traditional tech hubs, as evidenced by 

In line with its history, Playfair’s newest fund is aiming to get in at the pre-seed stage and support UK and Continental European startups. Playfiar’s average cheque size is approximately £750,000, and while a generalist fund, the firm’s team quotes experience investing in areas including B2B SaaS, applied AI, healthtech, and marketplaces.

Having backed companies such as Thought Machine, Orca AI, Andela, Mapillary, and Omnipresent, Playfair portfolio companies have gone on to raise follow-on funding totaling some $570 million from DCVC, First Minute, IQ Capital, Kinnevik, Molten, Notion, Stage 2 Capital and Tencent.

“Playfair is the pre-seed fund that goes against convention and delivers results. We make a select few investments every year and focus our time on helping founders to turn their early-stage ideas into global companies,” commented Playfair’s managing partner Chris Smith. “I’m incredibly proud of everything the team has achieved so far as we look ahead to our 10th anniversary later this year.”