Scandinavian venture capital firm Northzone announced that it is raising a new fund worth EUR200 million or USD272 million. The fund called Northzone VII will cater to startups who had roots in the Nordic region. The biggest so far for the venture capital firm, Northzone's latest fund was able to secure around EUR150 million or USD04 million, it said. Northzone confirmed that existing investors and new investors SEB Pension Fund and AP6 participated in its latest fund.
The size of Northzone's latest fund was not only an indicator that the venture capital firm has established itself in the industry, but also showed that investors are getting more interested in betting on startups outside Silicon Valley, shunning the traditional route of investing, said TechCrunch. The report also added that Silicon Valley is already crowded with too many startups and venture capitalists making their mark as the go-to firm for potential investors to fund them.
Northzone VII will reportedly focus on startups that are being built or had been established in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. The fund will also look for startups in cities as far as London of which its founders or the startup itself had aided or struck alliances with Nordic-influenced companies.
Northzone said of their planned investments in the Nordic region, "Three key components stick out when it comes to companies from this region: they think global from day one, they're lean, and they put a user-friendly design at the forefront of their agenda. This makes the products and businesses scalable from very early on."
Northzone partner Pär-Jörgen Pärson said in a statement, "Over the past eighteen years, we have been fortunate to be involved in the growth of companies such as Spotify, Avito, Tobii, Pricerunner, iZettle and many more. We see many attractive investment opportunities driven by an increasing rate of innovation and a large and growing pool of dedicated and talented entrepreneurs coming out of the Nordic region. Thanks to the commitment of new and longstanding limited partners, we will continue to play a key role in this development."
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