Project A, the Berlin-based VC, raises $200M fund to back Seed and Series A European startups
Project A, the Berlin-based VC that backs startups in Europe at seed and Series A stage, has raised a new $200 million fund (a180 million). This brings total assets under management to $486 million (a440 million) and is the third fund Project A has raised.
The venture capital firm, whose investments include the likes of WorldRemit, Catawiki, Voi and Uberall, is also announcing that it will now have a presence in London and Stockholm in order to put people on the ground in what it says are "two of its favourite ecosystems".
Meanwhile, it is just over two years since Project A raised its last fund. Fund two sat at a140 million, so this new fund is a slight increase in size. As is the initial cheque size the VC plans to write out of fund three: "up to $7 million," the firm says.
"We are pleased that our approach as an operational venture capital investor convinces both startups and co-investors. Over the next few years, the new fund will enable us to continue backing passionate European founders and their teams at Seed and A stages - working both on B2B as well as B2C innovations," says Thies Sander, General Partner at Project A, in a statement.
Describing itself as the only European "Operational VC" - which is highly debatable, given that tons of European VCs offer operational support and have Partners that are ex-founders with exits behind them - Project A says its portfolio companies receive support from 100 "functional experts" in engineering, marketing, product, design, communications, business intelligence, sales & customer success, organizational building and hiring.
"Project A can provide support in all critical functions across the entire startup building stack, at all stages of a founding teams' startup journey," says the Berlin-based firm.
Sectors that Project A plans to invest span fintech, digital health, proptech, Industry 4.0, enterprise software, mobility and logistics - all areas the VC says it has "deep expertise," and where European startups are uniquely positioned to build "transformational" global businesses.
And it is certainly true that these are sectors where European startups are punching above their weight, which hasn't gone unnoticed by venture firms and LPs in the U.S. In fact, with fund three, it is the first time that Project A has attracted LPs from the U.S., with Top Tier Capital Partners now a backer.
Cue a statement from Florian Heinemann, General Partner at Project A: "The European digital ecosystem matured enormously within a few years. We see more and more ambitious serial entrepreneurs working on groundbreaking product innovations based on their experience in the established economy combined with their prior expertise. We also see more and more competence-driven acquisitions and strongly believe that they will increase significantly over the next few years".