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Plural, a high-tech investment firm led by the founders of some of Europe’s best-known startups, has raised €400 million to support the region’s next generation of entrepreneurs amid a funding slump.
The London- and Tallinn-based firm was founded by Wise’s Taavet Hinrichs and British AI safety king Ian Hogarth, among others, and is aimed at early-stage companies where capital declines are less severe than in later-stage deals. is focused on.
The fund backs so-called “deep tech” startups tackling more complex problems, such as nuclear fusion and precision medicine, and has raised 26 million euros since raising an initial 250 million euros 18 months ago. investing in the company.
“We believe it is important to work with a smaller, more focused portfolio and have our former founders do that. [instead of] Career investors can solve these difficult problems faster and potentially build important companies in Europe faster,” Hogarth said.
But he recognized that narrowing his focus could make it harder to find the best candidates for investment. “Right now I’m really interested in the idea of biodefense, how we build infrastructure to prepare for the next pandemic,” Hogarth said. “There really aren’t that many founders working in that space.”
The funding comes after a report from venture firm Atomico revealed that investment in European startups nearly halved last year, to $45 billion from 2022. Many of the companies that issue checks are also having trouble securing the backing of their own funds due to high interest rates. Growth is slowing in many of the technology industries.
An Atomico report published in November found that 20% of limited partners investing in European venture funds were less enthusiastic about supporting the asset class, compared to 2% in 2021. That’s what it means.
Hinrichs and Hogarth will join Plural in 2021 with former Bigpoint Games CEO Khaled Helioui and former longtime Skype executive Sten Tamkivi to invest in early-stage European startups. co-founded. Karina Nami, co-founder of Silicon Valley-based biotech company HelixNano, joined the company last year.
Plural takes a Silicon Valley-style approach to venture capital, leveraging its founders’ startup management experience to appeal to a new generation of European entrepreneurs as an alternative to traditional capitalist-driven VC firms. We are using. Partners say this operating method has allowed them to close new funds despite difficult market conditions.
“The fact that Plural is 100% management and founder-led has proven to be the most compelling and competitive advantage in Silicon Valley as Europe matures,” said Hogarth, who founded live music site Songkick. It fits into the pattern recognition model.” Before you become an active investor in AI. “That’s what founders gravitate toward, and that’s what the most ambitious founders want behind them.”
Hinrichs added that the latest fund’s backers include “very large university endowments that have never invested in Europe before,” but declined to name them.
Last summer, the UK government appointed Mr Hogarth to a part-time role as chair of the £100m AI Taskforce, and he led the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November. As a result, he agreed not to participate in his Plural investments in so-called “frontier AI” companies that produce very large-scale models, such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Nevertheless, AI is one of the biggest technology themes Plural has supported to date, including legal startup Robin AI and Unity AI, which applies its technology to online content moderation.
“As the bubble accelerated, I think investment in AI slowed down,” Hogarth said. “We’ve been selectively investing in businesses that we think have really deep moats while they’re still frothy.”
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