Thursday, March 28, 2024

Northzone closes €1bn fund to back ‘most ambitious entrepreneurs’ at all stages

Chris O'Brien
Chris O'Brien
Chris O'Brien is an American journalist based in Paris. Since moving to France in 2014, he has covered Europe's startup ecosystem as a correspondent for VentureBeat. Previously, he spent 15 years writing about Silicon Valley as a journalist at the San Jose Mercury news and The Los Angeles Times.
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While venture capital investments in startups are slowing, venture firms are still building war chests for the future. The latest example: Northzone Partners announced that it has raised a €1 billion fund to back startups from the Seed stage to the Growth stage.

“Between the global climate crisis and social, macroeconomic, and political uncertainty, we believe technological innovation will continue to be the silver lining that delivers real societal growth,” the company said in a blog post. “Now more than ever, we look to entrepreneurs who are building a mindful, innovative future; and founders have proven many times that they thrive in turbulent times.”

This is Northzone’s 10th fund and the Nordic firm is more bullish than ever about the impact entrepreneurs are going to have, particularly in areas such as work, travel, transportation, healthcare, retail, and entertainment.

Northzone has grown to a team of 36 and has backed some of Europe’s biggest winners, including Spotify, iZettle, Klarna, Trustpilot, Kahoot!, Tier, Personio, Zopa, Forto, TrueLayer, and Spring Health.

The firm plans to press even harder to be both a local and global partner for its startups. That includes offering operational support and guidance through its “platform team” in areas such as marketing, talent, finance, and legal.

“Our investment strategy has always prioritized finding and backing the most ambitious entrepreneurs at the right stage,” Northzone’s post says. “Tech innovation will continue to drive some of the biggest changes of the coming generations. We’ve seen it create new jobs and industries, as well as remove barriers to opportunities around the world. Tech innovation used to be a vague promise of positive but uncertain progress. Today, the pace of innovation is rapid, changing our behaviors faster and more profoundly than ever before. We’re excited and prepared for this paradigm shift.”

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