VC Northzone is proud to announce their largest fundraise to date: €1 billion “to invest in the next generation of changemakers.”
Between the global climate crisis and social, macroeconomic, and political uncertainty, they believe technological innovation will “continue to be the silver lining that delivers real societal growth.” Now more than ever, they look to entrepreneurs who are “building a mindful, innovative future; and founders have proven many times that they thrive in turbulent times.”
At the outset of their tenth fund cycle, Northzone have reached yet another defining moment for our society: tech entrepreneurs today are able “to shape behavior for generations to come, redefining our world, from hybrid work to travel, transportation to healthcare, retail to entertainment, and more.”
The firm is grateful to their entrepreneurs and LPs from around the globe “for doubling down on this journey with [them].”
Reflecting on the scale of the opportunity ahead, they will “continue to be long-term partners to founders, focusing on opportunities across Europe and the US, from Seed through to IPO.”
They will continue “to invest in existing verticals such as fintech, healthtech, SaaS, and consumer.” Many of the entrepreneurs they have yet to meet “will build their own business category through this fund cycle.”
The team have “embraced multiple geographies with a joint local and global mindset.”
Their team of 36 “operates across 6 countries and represents 16 nationalities.” Many of the most successful companies they’ve invested in — such as Spotify, iZettle, Klarna, Trustpilot, Kahoot!, Tier, Personio, Zopa, Forto, TrueLayer, and Spring Health — “can attribute their success to their experience scaling internationally and building global teams.”
Founders are “expecting more from their capital partners than ever before.”
They have “invested in a fully integrated platform team, with expertise across marketing, talent, finance and legal.” They have also “built a global network of more than 300 seasoned operators who have successfully scaled teams and who are at-hand to support our founders on every step of their journey.”
As noted in the update:
“Diversity and inclusion continue to be core to Northzone’s foundation. In addition to championing people with diverse backgrounds both at Northzone and in our portfolio, we’re proud to say that we’ve had gender equality in our investment team for several years.”
As mentioned in a blog post:
“In spite of the headwinds and challenges of today, entrepreneurs have many reasons to be optimistic. Our ecosystem has scaled to become more international, professional and ambitious – all of which give founders more choice in selecting their venture capital partner. We’ve had people on the ground in several cities for many years, including New York, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Berlin, and have witnessed these colossal changes in the local ecosystems firsthand.”
Tech innovation will “continue to drive some of the biggest changes of the coming generations.”
The team added that they’ve “seen it create new jobs and industries, as well as remove barriers to opportunities around the world.” Startups today can “tap into a bigger pool of talent than ever before and decide whether to build teams locally or entirely remotely.”
The firm added:
“Our investment strategy has always prioritised finding and backing the most ambitious entrepreneurs at the right stage. From Seed to Growth, we are excited to be able to offer more to our founders across multiple stages of their company building journey. That’s why with this fund, we decided to earmark a significant part of our capital for growth stage investments so that we can offer our entrepreneurs a “full-stack” partner, from Seed to pre-IPO.”
They also noted:
“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 — join us.”