Venture Capitalist TLcom Capital announces the first close of its second fund TLcom Fund II at EUR50m.
Venture Capitalist TLcom Capital announces the first close of its second fund TLcom Fund II at EUR50m. The target size of the fund is EUR150m. It has the backing of an investor group made up of IDeA, European Investment Fund, Access Capital Partners, and Finlombarda.
TLcom II follows TLcom I, a EUR138m fund, which closed in December 2000 and includes successful venture capital exits such as Iobox and Netscalibur Italia, as well as technology leaders such as PacketFront, Media Lario and CommProve. The new fund will focus primarily on revenue stage companies across Europe including Israel, bringing innovation to the global technology market.
Investors returning to the venture capital world are European Investment Fund and Access Capital Partners, who have been joined by Milan-based Finlombarda Gestioni – the investment arm of the development agency of Lombardy – and a group of limited partners associated with IDeA Alternative Investments.
IDeA AI is a broad-based investment initiative by Investitori Associati, Wise and DeAgostini, an Italian financial conglomerate with successful investments such as Seat PG, Eutelsat, Lottomatica and Toro Assicurazioni. IDeA has become a financial player with a strong international profile over the last ten years.
IDeA Alternative Investments is building strategic presence through selected regional and sector-focussed managers, and has picked TLcom as its international technology and venture capital platform.
Maurizio Caio, managing partner of TLcom Capital comments, ‘We are pleased to announce the first closing of TLcom II, which will enable us to continue to back the best European entrepreneurs and managers in the technology sector pursuing innovation in large existing markets or the creation of new global markets.
‘We are experiencing an increase in the number of interesting investment opportunities in the market today and are confident that our industry expertise and value added investment style in our target markets will deliver superior returns.’
Lorenzo Pellicioli, chief executive of DeAgostini and chairman of IDeA adds: ‘We are delighted to announce our participation to the first close of TLcom II. This investment marks an important step for IDeA towards the creation of a broad platform of independent specialist funds, as we aim to become a reference player in the alternative investment industry.
‘We will leverage the extensive technology and venture expertise as well as the network TLcom’s team has built over more than 20 years in the US and European markets, to deploy capital in the pan-European technology and venture segment.’
John Holloway, director of investments of the European Investment Fund says, ‘As the largest investor in early stage venture capital funds in Europe we are excited by the prospects offered by our investment in TLcom II, which we believe comes at a favourable time for the venture capital industry in Europe.’
TLcom Capital has been instrumental in supporting the creation, growth and development of exciting technology companies, and we are pleased to reiterate our commitment to the team.’
Philippe Poggioli, managing partner at Access Capital Partners comments: ‘The team at TLcom has an ability to deal with the full spectrum of venture opportunities, including the increasingly important revenue stage segment, requiring mature investors able to support entrepreneurs and management with strategy, growth and value generating exits.’
Marco Nicolai, managing director at Finlombarda Gestioni SGR adds: ‘We have been impressed by TLcom’s ability to discover and build world class technology companies such as semi-conductor innovator Media Lario, starting from local platforms in regions like Lombardy, our area of focus.
‘We look forward to working with TLcom to bring more local innovation to the global marketplace, and help us exploit the value generation potential of entrepreneurship in our geography’.
TLcom II expects to invest in approximately 12-15 companies over the next few years. A second closing is planned later in the year as the fund is now talking to other institutional investors.
