Speedinvest, a pan-European early-stage venture capital firm, launched its second specialist Networks Effects fund with €33M.
Led by Mathias Ockenfels, the new fund will back early-stage European startups that use the power of digital marketplaces and a platform-approach to disrupt industries. With strong recommitments from existing cornerstone LPs, the Speedinvest x Fund 2 has raised two thirds of its intended final fund volume of €50M, which would take the total AUM of the Speedinvest Network Effects team to €100M.
The Speedinvest Networks Effects team has also appointed Julian Blessin, co-founder of TIER Mobility, as partner, and promoted Jeroen Arts to associate partner.
Julian Blessin moves from portfolio to partner, joining the Speedinvest team from TIER Mobility, a company he co-founded alongside CEO Lawrence Leuschner and CTO Matthias Laug. Speedinvest invested in TIER Mobility through its specialist Network Effects team in 2018, leading the company’s first round of funding and participating in its recent $250m Series C round led by Softbank. Alongside TIER Mobility, the Network Effects team has also invested in and worked with other European marketplace startups, including CoachHub, Packhelp, Kodit, Planetly, Admix and Schüttflix. In the three years since launch, the portfolio of Speedinvest x Fund 1 has so far attracted over €470M in follow-on funding from top tier investors, such as Softbank, Northzone, Mubadala, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Forerunner Ventures.
The Speedinvest Network Effects team also runs an annual Marketplace Conference in collaboration with Battery Ventures and Autotech Ventures, spearheaded by Arts.
Speedinvest is a European venture capital firm with €400M+ AUM and more than 40 investment professionals working from Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, Vienna and San Francisco. The firm actively deploys its global network and dedicated team of in-house operational experts to support our 170+ portfolio companies, including with US market expansion.
FinSMEs
12/11/2020