- For its sixth fund, Nauta has raised €60 million, €30 million of which comes from the British Business Bank.
- This represents half of the €120 million initial closing of Nauta’s fifth fund, with the fund eventually reaching €190 million.
- Nauta intends to raise between € 150 million and € 200 million in the second half of 2027.
Nauta, a venture capital firm with offices in London and Barcelona, secured €60 million in the first closing of the sixth fund, with the British Business Bank providing half of the amount raised. Other backers include the European Investment Fund and Germany’s KfW Capital.
The investors also included SETT, the technology investment arm of the Spanish government, Merifin Capital, and the Institut Català de Finances, owned by the Government of Catalonia. Several other institutions and family offices from the UK, Continental Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East also took part. According to Nauta, three-quarters of the investors at the first closing are people who have previously invested, with the rest being new investors.
The firm invests in business software and deep tech companies at every stage, from pre-seed through to Series A. The company specialises in capital-efficient software in such sectors as travel, finance, retail, and human resources.
Its team of 20 has managed more than €600 million and has supported over 200 founders in 100 companies over the last 20 years. It has achieved exit values of nearly €3 billion from more than 25 exits, including Brandwatch, Holded, and Connectbase.
Half the size, half from one investor
Nauta’s fifth fund achieved a first closing of €120 million in July 2020 and ultimately raised € 190 million by November 2021, exceeding its target by €40 million. The fourth fund had opened with €62 million in September 2015 and had closed at €155 million. To meet its target of €150 million to €200 million, Nauta will have to increase its first close by 2.5 to 3.3 times.
The fourth fund increased 2.5 times from its first to its final close, while the fifth fund grew by 1.6 times. The target range is about 21% below to 5% above the fifth fund’s final size. The firm says this fund will bring its assets under management to nearly €750 million.
Earlier this month, Tech Funding News covered that the bank had supplied 60% of the £75 million equity fund set up by Whiterock in Northern Ireland. We also reported in June that the bank has invested more than £600 million directly in over 50 UK science and technology companies.
Michael Laycock, investment director for funds at the British Business Bank, stated: “Our long-standing partnership with Nauta demonstrates the role the British Business Bank can play in attracting international investors to the UK. Since our first commitment, Nauta has built a substantial presence in London and established the UK as a core investment market for them.”
Deep tech investments within a software-focused fund
A portion of the new fund is allocated to Nauta Labs, which supports pre-seed deep tech companies in high-performance computing, AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, industrial automation, digital health infrastructure, and energy frontier technology.
Nauta launched Labs in 2021 and invests £100,000 to £250,000 in each company.
Universal Quantum is a major deep-tech investment aimed at creating the world’s first million-qubit quantum computer. The company, based in Sussex and co-founded by Sebastian Weidt and Winfried Hensinger, announced a Series A funding round of more than $100 million on October 8, 2026, with DCVC and Firgun Ventures as co-lead investors and Nauta already an investor.
NetBird serves as an example from an earlier stage. The Berlin-based startup, which was founded by Mikhail Bragin and Maycon Santos, began as a side project. Bragin stated in January 2026 to TFN that the project “began as a personal side project in mid-2020″, describing it as “a privacy-first alternative to Dropbox that you could run at home on a Raspberry Pi.”
Nauta also acted as the lead investor in Unravel’s $7 million Series A in April 2025 and in Acai Travel’s $4 million seed round. The firm was also an original investor in Lodgify’s $30 million Series B, led by Octopus Ventures.
Carles Ferrer Roqueta, a general partner at Nauta based in London, added, “Having invested through every major technology shift since the early 2000s, we’ve learned that enduring venture firms are built on discipline, adaptability and long-term conviction. This philosophy has enabled us to reach the rare milestone of a sixth fund, but more importantly it has strengthened our belief that every generation of technology brings with it a new wave of exceptional companies.”
Understanding the first close
The amount raised in the first close, €60 million, matches the median size of European venture funds, a figure PitchBook states was €60 million for the first half of 2026, up from €50 million in 2025.
During that time, European venture funds raised €8.2 billion, representing a 32.8% increase on the previous year, although this amount was distributed among fewer funds. According to PitchBook, in the first quarter, 35.3% of funds closed at smaller sizes than their predecessor funds, the highest rate in a decade.
The report also mentions that limited partners tend to favour funds with a narrower focus. For instance, Quantonation, a firm specialised in quantum technology, closed its second flagship fund at €220 million, surpassing its target.
The key question for the second half of 2027 is whether limited partners will support a 2.5- to 3.3-times increase from the first close for a firm operating across two disciplines, given that the median fund matches Nauta’s initial size.
