Notion Capital raises $130M growth fund to tackle Europe’s follow-on gap

The lack of growth capital in Europe is so continuous that some companies in the early stage took the matter with their own hands. London -based ISION CAPITAL is based in London.

In 2017, Capital Capital was one of the first companies in Europe to close the opportunities fund to provide its wallet companies with a follow -up capital. Now, I closed a $ 130 million growth box, approximately twice the size of its previous son -in -law, which will also invest outside its wallet, I learned TECRUNCH exclusively.

“The gap in the growth capital is currently tending to focus more on its market,” said administrative partner Stephen Chandler, his administrative partner Stephen Chandler, noting that “the gap in the growth capital is currently tending to focus more on its market.

Some of the idea of ​​the European “hero” companies from the new Opps III Growth Fund is linked to the increasing demand for more sovereignty, including those specializing in defense logistics and the supply chain. But like many, VC is also pulled into artificial intelligence, which Chandler considers a great cycle that causes “a deep shift in the way the program is delivered and consumed.”

The capital will not invest in the infrastructure layer, such as large language models. Instead, the company sees opportunities in the application layer that “will significantly increase” the size of its market, said Chandler. While ISION’s main fund is historically known for its strong SAAS, Cloud and Fintech, these things will now be immersed in artificial intelligence and joined by new heads.

The company expects dozens of investments and has already begun to spread its capital. The deals, so far, include UPVest, the stock trading applications interface from their early stage, as well as Octopus Energy Spinoff Kraken, and Nelly, a startup that builds software and financial products for the medical sector, according to capital.

To give some “strong objectivity”, as Chandler, follow -up deals will be made by the dedicated growth fund partners who “will also come out and the chances of the growth phase outside the wallet.”

One of them is the current capital partner, Stephanie Obadam (to the left of the photo). This growth strategy will now lead alongside Jessica “Jess” Bartos, who was formerly director of Salsforce Ventures. Bartos is also an American citizen of Capital (formerly promoted partners).

“Since this was a new strategy, we felt that we could take advantage of external experience in this growth stage,” said Chandler.

Subsequent growth funds may be easier to collect. While Europe has suffered from a lack of retirement pension funds in investment capital companies, incentives began to change in many countries, including France with the Tibi and UK initiative with Mansion House Accord.

Despite its British roots, the concept capital does not depend only on the UK’s organizational framework; The last III growth box is designed in the Luxembourg -based euros.

To raise this new car, which reaches its assets under management to more than one billion dollars, the company relied on its current relationships with limited partners from all over the Continental EUROPE, the United Kingdom, the European Central Organization and the United States

“Something like 85 % of our money comes from institutions, and inside, we are geographically scattered,” said Chandler.

But while the latest initiatives to mobilize institutional capital are long -term “[weren’t] He added, “Really an advantage in this box,” The signs are very positive, and this is great [for] Treating this basic problem that we started, in terms of some gaps in the capital we have in Europe. “

“If this finally succeeds and more LPS participates in investing the growth phase, this may be translated into more competition on the capital. At least in the growth phase, where it is less firm than it in the early stage. However, Chandler sees both a continuous chain.

“Our real competitive advantage in this growth strategy is to take advantage of the access to our strategy in the early stage,” said Chandler. “Most of the growth boxes do not have this. They are trying to do all their sources of growth by simply placing their head over the barrier in size and momentum.”

In contrast, he said: Capital Capital has many touch points with the founders over the years, including through the very active platform team, and it is flexible in terms of the size of the check.

Despite its expanded range, growth is still the main assets of III Capital wallet. The company has invested in more than 150 emerging companies since its inception, including Currencycloud, GoCardless, MEWS, Padde and Quantum systems. Although some of them before the financial or exit from it, the remaining companies may include future champions-a busy record that would make foreign companies more willing to check their growth, even if the growth capital becomes less rare in Europe.