Notion Capital – Europe’s leading early-stage venture investor in business software and fintech – recently announced the final close of its new €300 million fund Notion Capital V SCSp, which closed at its “hard cap.” And the successful fundraising progress is a testament to Notion’s strategy, past performance, and strong base of supporters, as well as the resilience of the European tech sector in the face of macroeconomic headwinds.
Along with a strong operational heritage and deep subject matter expertise in business software, the firm prides itself on its value-added model with an extensive Platform team supporting its portfolio companies in product, go-to-market strategy, talent, and pricing.
This helps existing portfolio companies fulfill their potential and provides a compelling differentiator to access the best new opportunities in the market. And this complements the firm’s digital sourcing and productivity capabilities using advanced AI to identify, track and prioritize its investment pipeline.
The fund’s first close was held last year, and it already made several investments, including Bound, DataOps, M3ter, and Resistant AI. Notion expects to make about 20 core Series A+ investments from the fund. And unlike predecessors, Notion V is Euro-denominated and Luxembourg based, reflecting the firm’s increasingly pan-European focus.
Notion also announced three senior promotions, with Itxaso del Palacio moving to General Partner and Stephanie Opdam and Kamil Mieczakowski to Partner. A Spanish-Basque national, Itxaso joined Notion in 2018 from M12 (Microsoft Ventures) where she was an Investment Partner. And she is a Kauffman Fellow and an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship at UCL with a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital and a Masters in Engineering. Since joining Notion, she has led investments in Bound, Cledara, Cobee, and Yulife. And Stephanie and Kamil, Dutch and Polish nationals, respectively, also joined the firm in 2018 and have played pivotal roles in strategy and leadership as well as sourcing and winning high-potential companies. Plus, they have proven themselves thoughtful investors and great overall contributors, with Steph leading Notion V’s recent investment in DataOps and Kam leading the Resistant AI transaction.
Notion V continues the firm’s successful investing strategy in Europe’s best-emerging business software and fintech companies. And the fund follows the same strategy as its predecessors, where performance has been solid across all metrics.
The investors in the new fund comprised sovereign wealth funds, endowments, fund of funds, pension funds, family offices and high net worth individuals from across Europe, MENA, and the United States, and numerous founders from Notion portfolio companies. New names included: Cortes Capital LLC, KfW Capital, Shelby County Tennessee Retirement System, and TNO Pension Fund. Returning LPs included: British Patient Capital, Novo Holdings, and RSJ.
Notion expects to return to the market with its third Opportunities Fund in 2024. And this is a complementary strategy investing additional growth follow-on capital into the firm’s best-performing venture assets and selected other growth-stage business software companies in Europe. It will also target parties looking for secondary liquidity in their positions where Notion’s sector knowledge and value-added model should make it an attractive candidate.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our team has built a strong brand and reputation, and the demand for Notion Capital V in a challenging market, is testament to this. Fund V is large enough to provide meaningful funding to its portfolio companies but, crucially, small enough to continue to drive the true outsized venture capital returns we seek for our investors. It’s a great point in the cycle to be investing, and the European technology ecosystem has proven to be resilient, innovative, and highly productive.”
“I am particularly delighted to announce these well-earned promotions, continuing our track record at Notion of promoting Partners from within the firm. We are a diverse team spanning 10 European nationalities which gives us extraordinary reach and access across the market.”
— Stephen Chandler, Managing Partner at Notion Capital
“From our very first meeting, we were impressed with what the Notion team has built. They have deep expertise and insight in European software and a very differentiated proposition for founders. As such, we felt they would be a strong addition to our wider portfolio, giving us additional exposure to early-stage opportunities in Europe and focused insight into the business software market there.’’
— Ryan Tidwell, CIO at Cortes Capital LLC
“I have worked with Notion in my current and previous position across multiple fund cycles now and value the relationship. Given our longstanding experience in the venture capital asset class, we have deep insight and access to some of the very best global venture capital firms. We are delighted to be backing Notion once again.’’
— Søren Thinggaard Hansen, Senior Partner, Head of Private Equity at Novo Holdings
