100 million fund focused on Berlin startups
Earlybird joins recently closed funds from Index, Sunstone and Partech to reflect growing confidence in the European VC market as well as potential opportunities on the Continent despite the debt crisis. Accompanying the new fund are reported figures that confirm Berlin as second only to Silicon Valley as having the highest number of tech start-up company founding rates worldwide.
“In some cases we took investors on a tour across the ecosystem: St. Oberholz and its co-working space, meeting teams we may invest in, meeting with key angels, visiting our still small but also our large portfolio companies,” said Earlybird VC Ciaran O’Leary. ”It really amazing to see pension fund managers from the US and Asia who manage billions excited about what founders are building here in Berlin.”
“Earlybird’s announcement today is another sign that venture capital is re-emerging as an attractive asset class on the Continent and underscores that, despite the sovereign debt crisis, innovation has not fallen victim to recession and the financing of novel companies that shift paradigms has little correlation to macro economic conditions,” said Andreas Schmidt, Head of Primary Private Equity at Deutsche Bank Private Equity.
Keep goin, Berlin so in addition to maintaining our Continental investment focus,” said Earlybird Managing Partner Christian Nagel in a statement to VentureVillage, “we plan to significantly add to our seven existing portfolio investments in Berlin, which has become a nourishing ground for global tech companies.
Aha, we like it.