UK-based Blossom Capital raises $85 million to invest in early-stage startups across Europe

Blossom Capital, a London-headquartered VC fund launched by ex-Index Ventures and LocalGlobe investor Ophelia Brown, has raised $85 million to invest in early-stage startups across Europe. The firm's other partners are ex-Index Imran Ghory, former CTO of Deliveroo Mike Hudack, and Louise Samet, former head of the technical sales team at Klarna.

“Traditionally European Venture has been dominated by non-technical investors,” said Ghory. “We’ve found having the majority of the investment team with engineering, product and data backgrounds at Blossom makes a huge difference to founders who know we speak their language.”

The firm plans to use a data-driven approach to source early-stage deals in Europe, particularly outside of the popular tech hubs. To date Blossom has backed Duffel, Fat Llama, Frontify, and Sqreen, co-investing with Silicon Valley and European funds including Y Combinator, Greylock, and Index.

“The European ecosystem has changed dramatically over the last decade; we believe that mission-driven entrepreneurs today want investors who match their ambitions and can help them reach goals far beyond what they thought possible,” Brown said. “Too often founders have felt they need to go to the West Coast to raise their Series A — with our unique Silicon Valley ties and deep networks, we’ve set up Blossom to help change that.”