London-Based Seedcamp Launches $180 Million Fund to Back European Entrepreneurs

Seedcamp has launched a $180 million fund to back European entrepreneurs.

The London-based seed-stage venture capital (VC) fund will use its Fund VI to lead investment and write first checks of up to $1 million in angel to seed rounds, Seedcamp said in a Wednesday (May 17) blog post.

“We remain sector-agnostic in our approach and are looking to back companies building foundational technologies spanning sectors, including the likes of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, open source software, HealthTech, FinTech and more,” Seedcamp said in the post.

Together with the fund, Seedcamp has formed a new Seedcamp Expert Collective (SxC) that consists of more than 100 operators who will provide support to founders and teams via one-to-one sessions, workshops, content, micro-communities and, in some cases, angel investments, according to the post.

Seedcamp has been active for 15 years and now has a portfolio of more than 460 companies, including nine unicorns and two publicly listed companies, according to the post.

Its latest fund is almost double the size of its previous one, and the firm believes “now really is the moment to invest in the next decade of entrepreneurship,” Seedcamp said in the post.

“While volatility might be the current name of the game, at Seedcamp we are optimists at heart,” the firm said. “Over this time, we’ve also seen the European tech ecosystem mature, professionalize and join forces in times of crisis and experienced so many positive stories for Europe and across our Seedcamp Nation.”

This news comes on the same day that Finland-based VC firm Lifeline Ventures closed a fund at €150 million (about $163 million) and said it will use the fund to continue backing early-stage founders.

With this fund — which is its fifth and largest since its founding in 2009 — Lifeline Ventures will continue to focus on Finnish startups, for the most part, Sifted reported Wednesday.

EU early-stage startups can benefit from VC dry powder, Zeynep Yavuz, FinTech partner at early-stage VC firm General Catalyst, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in April.

“I believe it’s an amazing time to build a company,” Yavuz said, “and because the funding market has slowed down in the growth and late-stage space, a lot of the capital is shifting to early-stage.”