London/New York/Stockholm, 16 December 2014 – Today we’re thrilled to announce the final closing of our latest fund, Northzone VII, at $325 million, making it one of the largest venture funds raised in 2014 globally.
Thanks to supportive longstanding and new limited partners, the fund was oversubscribed and reached a hard cap in record time. This marks a great milestone for the investment community as a whole, demonstrating that the environment is favourable for those funds that can demonstrate strong returns to their LPs, over and above other asset classes.
We are in the midst of a fundamental transformation of markets fuelled by technology and innovation. It has become increasingly evident that traditional banking and finance, entertainment, and retail industry players have difficulties in reinventing themselves and are opening up their vast markets for disruption. Consequently, sophisticated investors are now, more so than ever before, looking more actively to get exposure to this shift.
The past twelve months have been exceptionally busy for us: we have invested in 21 outstanding companies, from seed to expansion stage. Being sector-led in our investment thinking, we are constantly evaluating new, upcoming categories to assess when timing is right to step in. Currently we are excited by fintech, mobile, and marketplaces, noting some of our most recent investments in fast growing companies such as MarketInvoice (London), Playraven (Helsinki), Fyndiq (Stockholm), and Qapital (New York City).
We believe that it is vital to build lasting technology-enabled success at scale. This is why we back winning companies such as Spotify, Trustpilot, Tobii, and Avito, from very early on, and through into their expansion stage. Our international heritage and long track record of investments in household names such as Lastminute, Pricerunner, and Stepstone, have helped us gain perspective on venture investing. Through our expansion to London and most recently New York, we continue to expand our reach and share our learnings with great entrepreneurs and key stakeholders in these global innovation hubs.
Being in the business of disruption for two decades, we our primary focus is on delivering value to the entrepreneurs. We are grateful to have been chosen by many great entrepreneurs over the past two decades.. With offices across the Nordics, London and in New York, we work around the clock to connect entrepreneurs with customers, business partners and key talent on a truly international scale. As former entrepreneurs ourselves, we have often been in similar situations, which is why we place trustworthy relationships with Founders at the core of our business.
With NZVII now closed, we are fired up for an exciting investment period ahead, putting brilliant and driven teams first, every time.