Oxx, a growth capital firm investing in B2B software companies, has completed the first close of its debut fund, Oxx I, with a total of USD100 million in funds under management so far.
Oxx was launched in January 2017 after Richard Anton and Mikael Johnsson left Amadeus Capital to co-found the business. Oxx I has reached its first close target with backing from a range of significant institutions, family offices and HNWs, including British Business Investments, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, which is the largest single investor.
Notable individuals backing the fund include Amadeus Capital co-founder Hermann Hauser KBE and Dr Robert Easton, currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and the former head or co-head of several Carlyle Group funds. Robert is also a senior adviser to Oxx. Finance was also secured from a number of German and Nordic family offices – the firm has offices in Stockholm and London – and via a strategic partnership with OurCrowd, one of the world’s largest equity crowdfunding platforms, based in Israel.
Oxx focuses on businesses from the UK, Nordic region and Israel and invests growth stage capital in business-to-business software companies looking to expand internationally. A prime prior example is ForeScout Technologies, one of Oxx’s portfolio companies. The Internet of Things security company listed on NASDAQ in October last year to great success and today has a market cap of USD1.5 billion – Oxx General Partner Richard Anton had been lead investor in and been a board member of ForeScout since the firm’s early days.
Oxx’s first fund will participate in funding rounds of USD5 million to USD20 million and it is actively working on new investments.
Anton says: “We are delighted to achieve this milestone and look forward to supporting outstanding B2B scaleups to grow internationally. There is a clear funding gap known by entrepreneurs as the ‘valley of death’, which claims many promising scaleups stuck between early-stage venture capital and maturity. But these companies can bridge the gap and achieve explosive growth with the winning combination of capital and guidance from a hands-on investor with a deep understanding of the sector. We are deeply grateful to our investors for their support and confidence in our passion and experience and to our good friends at Amadeus Capital for their help in getting Oxx up and running.”
Mikael Johnsson, Oxx General Partner, says: “Richard and I have both been investing in B2B software scaleups for more than a decade; we joined forces five years ago to intensify our efforts, so it’s an exciting moment to achieve this target in our first independent fund. The support from our investors has been fantastic and reflects belief in our focus. The difficulties that European companies face in breaking through to the global stage have been well documented. We’re excited to apply our expertise to take ambitious B2B software companies from promise to success.”
Catherine Lewis La Torre, Chief Executive at British Business Investments, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, says: “Growth capital is vital for helping innovative technology companies scale up and take their business to the next level. Today’s announcement will help more of these businesses access the finance they need to grow and succeed.
“The British Business Bank – of which British Business Investments is the commercial arm – is the UK’s largest British-based venture capital investor, with over GBP1.3 billion of venture capital committed across a range of different British Business Bank programmes.”
“At British Business Investments, we will soon be releasing further details on how we will cornerstone a small number of large scale, private sector managed funds of funds to catalyse patient investment from institutional investors into high potential businesses.”
