Seedcamp has held the final close of its fourth fund at GBP60 million, in a heavily oversubscribed round that includes GBP2 million of investment from Seedcamp founders and mentors through a new partnership with equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs.
The announcement comes six months after the first close of Fund IV at GBP41M in November 2017.
New investors in Seedcamp Fund IV include over 100 founders, mentors and angels from the Seedcamp nation including the likes of Daniel Dines (UiPath), Taavet Hinrikus (TransferWise), Sten Tamkivi (MoveGuides), Ryan Notz (MyBuilder) and Bostjan Spetic, Andraz Tori and Todd Sawicki (Zemanta). Seedcamp Fund IV is also supported by leading angel investors including Michael Pennington (Gumtree), Ed Wray (Betfair) and Barry Smith (Skyscanner).
Other institutions backing Seecamp Fund IV as part of the close include Orange Digital Investments, Cachette Capital Management, and MUFG Bank.
In a pioneering move for both venture capital and equity crowdfunding space, Seedrs was chosen to raise a portion of Fund IV from the founders of Seedcamp-backed companies. Made possible by using Seedrs unique nominee structure, the feeder fund enabled much smaller ticket investors to easily participate in the fund. This is the first time that a private equity marketplace platform such as Seedrs has helped a traditional fund this way.
At GBP60 million Fund IV is over 30x bigger than Seedcamp’s first fund of USD2.5 million dating back to 2007. With Fund IV Seedcamp plans to invest in up to 100 startups from across Europe at pre-seed and seed stages and will maintain its sector-agnostic approach. Seedcamp has already made 15 new investments from Fund IV backing the likes of Factmata, Sweatcoin, Pace, Homie, Vantik, doctorly, StepLadder, and Veratrak.
Seedcamp co-founder and Managing Partner, Reshma Sohoni, says: “The Seedcamp story is one that’s touched so many people across the world over our 11 years and we’re thrilled to welcome over 100 founders, mentors and angels from across the Seedcamp Nation who will play an active role in our future. At Seedcamp our ambition is bold to match that of our founders and we believe we have the perfect team and investors assembled to help our companies and our LPs achieve outsized results for Europe and beyond.”
Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp Managing Partner, says: “When we talk about Seedcamp as a lifelong community of support we really mean it; it’s amazing to have founders who we backed when we were first starting out join us as part of our new fund as we invest in the next generation of world-class entrepreneurial talent. Their investment would not have been possible if it weren’t for our partnership with Seedrs which has enabled us to bring on board so many of our founders.”
Jeff Kelisky, CEO at Seedrs, says: “This is a fantastic and genuinely innovative collaboration between the venture capital and equity crowdfunding spaces. We’re proud to have built an infrastructure that allows us to open up highly attractive funds, such as Seedcamp’s Fund IV, to more investors than ever possible before. We very much look forward to working with Seedcamp and their companies in the years to come.”
Daniel Dines, CEO and Founder of UiPath – one of Seedcamp’s three unicorns and investor in Fund IV – says: “Seedcamp took a chance on us back in 2015 when we were a team of just ten people in Romania and now, three years later, we have more than 590 employees across 14 countries and valued at over USD1bn. I trust the Seedcamp team implicity when it comes to uncovering and investing in new categories and Europe’s future leaders and am delighted to support the next generation of entrepreneurial talent to come out of Seedcamp.”
Seedcamp’s Fund IV strategy includes an increase in capital it will invest in startups at pre-seed and seed stages along with a significant amount of money held back for follow-on rounds up to Series B and approval to invest in crypto tokens. Founders will continue to benefit from Seedcamp’s platform that includes access to its global network, in-house team of operators, experts in residence and venture partners and a lifelong community of support.
