- Atomico, a London-based venture capital firm, announced it has raised €757 million ($820 million) for a new fund
Atomico, a London-based venture capital firm, announced it has raised €757 million ($820 million) for a new fund. According to Atomico investment partner Siraj Khaliq via CNBC, the venture firm is planning to capitalize on the tech “renaissance” happening in Europe.
As of 2014, there were 22 unicorns (privately-held tech companies valued at $1 billion or more) in Europe. And now there are 100 in the area.
“Now the talent exists here, the mentorship exists here. All these key ingredients you need for European success stories actually exist,” said Khaliq via CNBC. “It’s not to say we can’t be better, but we’re really on the track.”
Khaliq is known as the founder of The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for $1.1 billion). Atomico was an investor of The Climate Corporation.
This fund was oversubscribed as it closed above the target of $750 million. Atomico did not disclose the name of the limited partners in this fund. But it included a number of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds along with the founders of several European startups such as Adyen, Klarna, and TransferWise. Now Atomico’s total assets under management are $2.7 billion.
Atomico’s new fund has already started making investments in companies. Some of the companies in the fund portfolio include Infarm and Healx. And since Atomico launched, it has backed more than 100 startups, including Hinge Health, Klarna, Teralytics, and Supercell.
Mattias Ljungman and Niklas Zennström founded Atomico in 2006. Zennström is known for launching companies like Skype and Kazaa.
