Stockholm/Oslo/London/Copenhagen, December 5th 2013 – Today Northzone is delighted to announce the first close of its latest technology investment fund, Northzone VII, at €150 million. The first closing of the fund was secured with strong support from existing investors. The target size of the fund is €200 million. It will be Northzone’s largest fund to date, marking an important milestone in Nordic early stage technology investing as a whole, which has over the past decade become a hotbed of innovation.
“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,” said partner Tellef Thorleifsson. “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. We are particularly pleased to welcome a roster of new high quality Swedish investors into our fund such as SEB Pension Fund and AP6.”
As the region sees increasing international interest in companies with ‘Nordic DNA’, it is all the more important for Northzone to be able to cater to the new wave of high quality entrepreneurs through our local presence and strong value proposition. The fund will therefore invest primarily in disruptive technology companies with Nordic roots, and will selectively stretch out to the rest of Europe.
Hans Otterling, Northzone partner in the Stockholm office added: “Being truly committed to addressing large global opportunities, from an early stage or at a more mature stage, has made Northzone the premier partner of choice for so many world class entrepreneurs. We look forward to continuing to deliver value.”
Northzone firmly believes that specific innovation clusters will continue to produce global category leaders; the Nordics being at the forefront of some of these verticals. 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.
This new fund will help Northzone keep up with the high level of activity it continues to see across the target markets. Some of Northzone’s notable investments during the past 24 months include; SpaceApe Games, Trustpilot, eProspects, Widespace and iZettle.
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For more information, please contact:
Tellef Thorleifsson in Oslo:
tellef@northzone.com
Hans Otterling in Stockholm:
hans@northzone.com
Gregers Kronborg in Copenhagen:
kronborg@northzone.com
Jeppe Zink in London:
jeppe@northzone.com