Eight Roads Ventures, a London-based global venture capital firm, is launching its fourth fund aimed at supporting European and Israeli innovation.
The team will take up to 20 promising scale-ups with market-specific product solutions under its wing, the company said, each of them for a check of between $ 5 million and $ 50 million. The new fund enters the broader Eight Roads ecosystem, leveraging its large global footprint, and puts the total capital under its leadership at a whopping $ 8 billion.
The development comes as Eight Roads penetrates deeper into the Euro-Israel scene, which it entered over a decade ago with the first dedicated fund. As the region has grown into the bustling tech and innovation hub it is today, Eight Roads has added a plethora of local bigwigs to its portfolio, including giants like AppsFlyer, Cazoo, Fireblocks and Hibob. The Euro-Israel arm of the company brings together a team of 20 seasoned investment professionals with rich industry expertise and a deep understanding of the regional scene.
The new fund is taking off amid a larger expansion of high-tech venture capital, put into overdrive mode by the pandemic. As COVID-19 has forced businesses to move their operations online, the demand for solutions that support and enable digital transformation has increased. This, in turn, paved the way for venture capital firms, investing record numbers in promising projects around the world.
The trend is very visible in Europe, where venture capital investments have been steadily increasing for years. Throughout the previous year, European start-ups raised $ 41 billion. in investment, a record figure for the diverse regional scene, but 2021 has taken the trend to a whole new level. In its first six months, the local scene raised $ 52.2 billion. – a gargantuan figure exceeding the total fundraising in 2020.
Announcing the launch of the new fund, Davor Hebel, Managing Partner and Director of Eight Roads Ventures Europe, praised the “entrepreneurial energy and ambition†in the region that the new fund will cover. “This additional capital allows us to continue to help ambitious founders grow, win and have a lasting impact on our way of life,†he said.
Sharing his take on working with Eight Roads, Alex Chesterman, CEO and founder of Cazoo, praised the way his EU-Israel team approached business. “They are savvy and experienced investors, with an international network, and can help European founders create game-changing global companies,†he said.
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