Balderton Capital, a European venture capital firm, has closed its $615 million Early Stage Fund IX and $685 million Growth Fund II, to back Europe’s most ambitious entrepreneurs from the seed stage through IPO.
There was strong investor demand for Early Stage Fund IX and Growth Fund II, which marked the first time Balderton raised its early and growth funds simultaneously. The increasingly global mix of LPs in the firm’s funds has been attracted to Balderton’s European focus and track record of success.
Europe’s success
There is now a long and diverse history of Europe as a key hub for global tech, with proven winners across sectors and countries. In the last two years, Europe has established itself as a leader in AI, with London and Paris being the key innovation centres. The reasons for this include world-class institutions and engineers, a growing culture of entrepreneurialism, a developed funding ecosystem, and, increasingly, third and fourth-generation founders.
The growth of the European technology ecosystem has created strong returns for investors as well. In addition to this, European VC funds outperformed North American funds over both a 10 and 15-year period, according to data.
Portfolio of investments
Founded in 2000, Balderton Capital has invested in over 275 technology companies from across Europe. The current portfolio includes global category leaders like Revolut, Dream Games, GoCardless, Contentful, Aircall, Wayve, Writer, and PhotoRoom.
Many of its previous portfolio companies have successfully exited, such as Darktrace, Depop, MySQL, Peakon, Recorded Future, Talend and THG.
Balderton’s investment history spans technology sectors including AI, fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, mobility, gaming, and marketplaces. Beyond the investment, the VC offers a range of services to its founders and portfolio companies.
Other notable aspects
In addition, Balderton takes unmatched steps to support founders through its industry-leading Balderton Founder Wellbeing and Performance platform. This covers executive coaching, peer to peer support in CEO Forums, a health and fitness program and access to a digital platform for parent founders.
Other range of services it offers include the Balderton Platform team, comprising experts in legal, finance, talent and people, marketing and sustainability; Executives in Residence, which includes industry veterans with decades of experience as startup builders and operators, with expertise in areas including sales, engineering, product and legal; and The Balderton Community of more than 700 leading European technology executives from across the portfolio.
“At Balderton, we believe the best way to change the world is to build a business – and that many of these world-changing businesses will be built in Europe,” said Bernard Liautaud, Managing Partner at Balderton. “As a firm, our mission is simple: to be the partner of choice to the founders starting and growing those European technology companies. These new funds put us in a position to do just that.”
