INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
If you haven&t noticed, Europe startup scene is in full bloom, with more than $30 billion deployed in startups across the continent over the
last 12 months and more than 20 countries now home to a so-called unicorn company.
Investors around the globe are jumping into the pool, too
Consider that the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is currently investing a €300 million fund in Europe
Abu Dhabi state investor, Mubadala, last year announced it was launching a $400 million fund to back European startups
And that saying nothing of the many Europe-based venture investors who are either raising new funds or recently closed them.
Atomico, for
example, one of the continent biggest early-stage firms, closed its most recent fund with $765 million in 2017 and is reportedly out
Others of all different sizes have recently announced new vehicles, including Balderton Capital, which last month closed a new $400 million
fund; United Ventures, a 6.5-year-old, Milan-based early-stage venture capital firm that last week closed its second fund with €120
million in capital commitments (nearly double the €70 million it raised for its debut fund); MiddleGame Ventures, a 1.5-year-old,
Luxembourg-based fintech-focused investment firm that recently held a first close on a fund that targeting €150 million altogether;
Northzone, a 23-year-old, London-based venture capital firm that closed on $500 million in capital commitments for its ninth fund (its
largest to date); Ada Ventures, a new London-based seed-stage venture firm that just closed its debut fund with $34 million; and Dawn
Capital, a nearly 13-year-old, U.K.-based early-stage venture firm that in summer raised $125 million for an opportunities-type fund.
To
find out more about what happening on the ground, we sat down at Disrupt Berlin earlier this month with two London-based investors —
Carolina Brochado, who late last year left Atomico to join SoftBank Vision Fund, and Andrei Brasoveanu of Accel — to discuss where the
money is coming from, which European cities are becoming more interesting to both of them, and some of the challenges they face in covering
so many different regions.
We also talked specifically with Brochado about whether SoftBank is changing up its tactics in light of some bets
that aren&t panning out as intended — and whether she has any qualms about the outfit biggest investor
Our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity, follows.
TC: We&re all meeting for the first time, and I thought we could do
everyone here a service who wants to understand both of you better by talking a little bit about who you are and what you focus on
Do you want to start Carolina? I know you studied in the U.S…
CB: Yes, so I&m originally from Brazil
for university, spent over 10 years in the U.S., [and I] have worked in in large cap private equity, have worked at a pre launch, launch,
[then failed] startup, and then have spent a lot of my time in Europe, which has been seven years now, at an earlier stage VC firm called
and for the last year, I&ve been at SoftBank Vision Fund, investing at the growth stage.
AB: I&ve been with Accel for six years
I&m originally from Romania and spent 10 years in the states like Carolina, studying and working in New York in high frequency trading
At Accel, I&ve been focused most of my time on enterprise software and financial services and I&ve been very excited to back European
founders from London all the way to Bucharest
Accel is one of the few Valley-based venture firms with on-the-tground presence in Europe
We&ve been here for 20 years, and we really believe in having a local approach to investing.
TC: Carolina, you switched from Atomico to
Why?
CB: There a lot of push and pull with these sort of things
Europe is such an incredibly exciting place right now, and to be totally honest, back [when I moved here] in 2013, I didn&t totally see it,
but over the years, you realize how many incredible entrepreneurs [are here], how many incredible teams, and the opportunity that lies ahead
And firms like Accel and Atomico were paving the path of the capital structure in Europe, which is actually very young; maybe the past 15
years, there been VC in Europe, and now you starting to see the fruits of that and the exits.
So for me, part of it was while there are
great funds at the early stage, there still a lot of underfunding at that later stage, so I was really excited about doing growth in Europe
and putting significant amounts of capital behind founders who want to go for the really big outcomes.
TC: You now have an insider view of
these two very important firms
What are some of the biggest differences between Atomico and SoftBank, aside from the different stages at which they invest — how do maybe
the processes differ?
CB: There obviously a difference in size — Atomico was 70 people and SoftBank is a 500-person organization
There is an interesting founder-led approach to both organizations
They are both very mission- driven by founders who want to change the world and by founders who want to be the best at what they do, which
is really exciting.
One of the key differences at SoftBank is that it really global firm [with] offices everywhere
We have offices in the U.S
We have offices in Europe
For me, it has been a really interesting platform to see what other great founders are doing in other places of the world.
And then, just
because of the sheer size of the organization, you have a group of 50-plus operating partners who may have really deep areas of domain
expertise like talent but who are also helping our companies do business development, and who can look at our ecosystem — which today is
over 85 portfolio companies — and make connections, and win business and actually win profitability for companies across and within that
ecosystem.
TC: You&re both [in Berlin right now] from London
Andrei, do you run into each other in deals, or are your worlds vastly different?
AB: I would say we have quite different focus areas, we&re
very much early-stage focused as our sweet spot [though] some of our companies, when they get to that mature stage, may benefit from working
with SoftBank.
CB: We try tostay very close to the great companies at Accel, so they&ll nudge us [when it the right time].
TC: Who are you
seeing coming into deals who you might not have when you joined Accel in 2014?
AB: It interesting
Since I joined Accel, the quality of investors in Europe has increased dramatically
So we&ve seen quite a few former operators, for example, [meaning] very successful founders who are now starting the starting their own
We&ve seen more family offices enter the industry
