The money is to flow into 15 to 20 companies in the tech industry.
(Photo: obs)
Frankfurt The global venture capitalist Eight Roads is launching a new fund with a volume of $ 450 million. The funds are intended for 15 to 20 emerging companies that are in the scaling phase.
Eight Roads focuses on all technology sectors. Partner Michael Treskow currently thinks fintechs and companies with a health focus are particularly exciting. In Germany, Eight Roads is already involved in the Frankfurt insurance start-up Thinksurance, a digital platform for commercial and industrial insurance. In addition, the investment company recently invested in the Potsdam diabetes app Oviva together with other investors.
Germany should also play an important role in the new fund: “We are seeing that the local economic ecosystem is continuing to mature,” says Treskow. Germany is “certainly one of the most interesting and mature markets in Europe”. The investment volume per company in the current fund should be between five and 30 million dollars.
Eight Roads and the associated funds now manage around eight billion dollars worldwide in Europe, Asia and the USA. The venture capitalist was founded more than 50 years ago in Boston, and one of its most prominent investments is the Chinese technology giant Alibaba.
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Since Eight Roads’ first dedicated European fund was first launched over ten years ago, Europe has developed into a leading technology center, explains Treskow. When it comes to entrepreneurship and creativity, there are now hardly any differences between the USA and Europe.
Investors are bothered by high company valuations
Eight Roads’ European portfolio now includes more than 50 companies, including companies such as the online used car dealer Cazoo, and the British furniture and lifestyle products dealer Made.com.
The mood among venture financiers is currently better than it has been for a long time. The investor barometer for Germany calculated by the KfW development bank, the BVK industry association and the Deutsche Börse Venture Network climbed to a new high in August.
However, the managers of the venture capital funds are increasingly bothered by the high valuations. Three new start-ups achieved a valuation of one billion dollars for the first time and thus the status of “unicorns”: the neobroker Trade Republic, the digital asset manager Scalable Capital and the logistics specialist Forto.
The development of the deal volumes suggests that the valuations have increased especially for follow-up financing and less so for the first start-up financing. A trend that Treskow is also observing: “The ratings between the USA and Europe have converged over the past few years,” says the Eight Roads partner.
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