London-based VC Blossom Capital has launched a €166.8m (£142m) European start-up fund as it looks to back see and Series A investment rounds.
The latest fund, the second in under a year, was raised by Ophelia Brown who founded Blossom Capital in 2017.
It follows an $85m fund to being American investment to Europe, raised in February 2019. The firm claims to be the first ever women-led VC firm to carry out the fastest fundraising in Europe.
It has since invested in Deliveroo, co-led Europe’s largest FinTech Series A round in payment solutions provider Checkout.com, and has invested in the likes of travel tech startup Duffel and cybersecurity platform Tines.
Former Index Ventures and LocalGlobe VC Brown said the quality of European start-ups was now five times what it was five years ago.
“The US funds have noticed this and they are investing more frequently and with more capital in the very best European startups,” she said.
“Blossom Capital has established itself across Europe as the first choice for entrepreneurs in part because of our strong relationships with the US’s very best investors. Today we announce our second fund through which we will keep investing with conviction in European-founded companies that we know will one day operate successfully in global markets.”
Louise Samet, partner at Blossom Capital, added: “The beauty of investing in Europe is the sheer diversity of teams, cultures and ideas often coming from new or unexpected places.
Samet said that outside of European tech centres London, Paris, and Berlin, the likes of Munich and Hamburg were becoming hubs and the founders were emerging from the alumni of successful startups like Spotify and Klarna in the Nordics.
“Discovering founders solving some of society’s biggest problems wherever they are is a significant strength of Blossom Capital and we’re poised to continue this with our second fund,” she said.