Plural, an early-stage European investor set up by founders and operators, Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus and Songkick’s Ian Hogarth has just announced a new €400 million fund, its second in two years. The fresh capital follows the €250 million debut fund raised in 2022. This new fund aims to back ambitious founders with the mission to change the world through technology.
Plural’s newest fund exceeded its target and attracted participation from some of the world’s most prestigious university endowments, foundations, funds of funds, and family offices. With Fund II, Plural plans to invest deeper into the European ecosystem, where startup creation continues to outpace the US.
The new fund accelerates Plural’s mission to have a GDP-level impact on Europe, address systemic risks, and reduce the opportunity gap worldwide through the companies it backs.
Next-gen founders
Plural – when founded in 2022 – was joined by Hinrikus’s long-term investment friend and also an Estonian Sten Tamkivi and Khaled Helioui, former CEO of German game developer Bigpoint. They all have decades of experience in tech companies, including Wise, Skype, Songkick, Teleport and HelixNano. Over the past 18 months, the Plural team has grown to 15, based in Tallinn, Estonia, and London, UK.
Europe plays an important role in shaping global technology, taking care that innovation from AI to quantum computing lives up to these standards. These values fit with Plural’s broader ambitions to have a GDP-level impact on the continent and to tackle serious problems, from combatting climate change to bridging the opportunity gap by expanding access to education, employment, finance, and healthcare.
Notable investments by Plural
Since its inception, Plural has invested in 26 companies across Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. Its largest sectors by investment are AI, frontier tech, and climate & energy, reflecting the Plural team’s desire to invest early in big, important ideas and willingness to take a long view on complex projects that will shape the future.
The early-stage investment ranges from €1 million to €15 million. Check out the investment portfolio of Plural here:
- RobinAI, which reduces the time it takes to review legal contracts by 80% got a $26 million investment.
- UnitaryAI, a contextual AI for use in content moderation to protect vulnerable viewers raised $15 million in funding.
- Field, which builds renewable energy infrastructure to reach net zero.
- Isometric, which builds the first independent CDR registry, as a step to scaling durable carbon removals, snapped a $25 million investment.
- Proxima Fusion, a spinout from the Max Planck Institute, generating cheap, prolific renewable energy for the battle against climate change raised €7 million.
- VSParticle, which accelerates novel material development to create new sustainable technologies secured €14.5 million.
- Furthermore, Plural also invested $5.3 million in Teton.ai, which revolutionises nursing with AI and computer vision.
Carina Namih, Partner at Plural, said: “When we launched Plural 18 months ago, we knew that European founders were being underserved by a lack of operators turned investors but even we couldn’t have predicted so much appetite for a different approach. We’re galvanised by the trust founders have placed in us to support them on their journeys tackling serious problems from developing clean energy that will save the planet to making the internet safer. With Fund II, we want to take this new model of investing even deeper into the European ecosystem, where startup creation continues to outpace the US, providing a huge opportunity that we have a responsibility to maximise.”
Taavet Hinrikus, Partner at Plural, said: “We know that significant technology is being built across Europe – more than 40% of European tech investment in the past year has gone into frontier and deep tech. Founders tackling major world problems through technology are exactly the types of companies we are backing at Plural. By supporting the most ambitious founders with our hard-won experience, we’re determined to build enduring global companies that will have a GDP-level impact and be transformative for economies and society.”
