May 17, 2022

By We are (somehow) almost halfway through 2022 and Europe’s startup ecosystem is continuing to grow this year at an exciting pace. Contributing to this is, of course, the close of big funds that help startups scale and find success. These funds are a great vital sign of health in Europe’s innovation community. Today, Earlybird Venture Capital has closed its seventh early-stage fund out of the firm’s Digital West investment team at a cap of €350 million – making it one of Europe’s largest early-stage funds! Earlybird is further consolidating itself as one of Europe’s leading VC firms in Europe as it has also just witnessed the birth of two new unicorns in its portfolio. Founded in Berlin in 1997, Earlybird is investing in innovation and entrepreneurship that’s shaping society for good. Hendrik Brandis, Partner & Co-Founder at Earlybird: “Our portfolio companies Isar Aerospace, Aleph Alpha, Marvel Fusion or SimScale show that deep tech startups are on the rise and stem from continuous work of scientific institutions across Europe. Our role is to offer these highly scientific young companies, besides our other focus sectors such as Fintech, Enterprise Software and Sustainability, commercialization and growth opportunities on a global scale, in order to make ground-breaking ideas available to society.” Fund VII will be used to support companies across enterprise software, fintech and sustainability, with a particular focus on deep tech. It’s a fund that is therefore strengthening this highly dynamic sector in Europe. As in previous fund generations, this fund was oversubscribed. Earlybird Digital West has already made over 17 investments out of the Earlybird Digital West VII fund. These include both existing and new portfolio companies such as Aleph Alpha, Deed, Finmid, Hive Technologies, HiveMQ, Marvel Fusion, MAYD, Remberg, Sikoia and ThingsTHINKING. Earlybird’s portfolio is also becoming home to more and more unicorns. In the past 4 months, 2 companies joined the exclusive unicorn club – Finnish software company that combines the best open source technologies with cloud infrastructure, Aiven, and German sports and soccer media platform, OneFootball. It shows that despite current geopolitical tensions and some anxiety around funding, Europe’s startup ecosystem is strong. Earlybird is continuing to support its companies and doing so helps bring stability and optimism to the entire region. With the capital from this fund, Earlybird is again looking to help build European tech champions such as Aiven and N26, or UiPath out of Earlybird Digital East. Christian Nagel, Partner & Co-Founder at Earlybird: “We are grateful for the high-level of commitment and trust coming from our long-term investors, many of whom accompanied us along almost all our fund generations.”  Earlybird has reached major milestones in the European startup and tech ecosystem, such as the recent USD 900 million funding round in N26 –making the mobile bank the second most valuable retail bank in Germany; or the funding round in Isar Aerospace –making the Munich-based startup the best-funded space tech company in Europe. Meanwhile, the Earlybird Digital West team brings on new perspectives, a fresh interest in digital health and fintech, and expands investment activity in France via a Paris office launch and hiring of a local team – all making way for compelling stories out of Europe. European tech is continuing to soar and it’s exciting to see! TAGS