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From Switzerland’sFounderfultoItalian Founders Fundand theDutch Operator Fund , a new crop of European VC firms claim to operate as “ entrepreneur backing entrepreneurs . ”
Although it might still be early to call it a vogue , Swedish fundNode.vchas now joined this group , with € 71 million in funding to deploy into startups across the Nordics and Baltics .
“ I hope it is a beginning trend , ” Node.vc managing collaborator John Elvesjö tell TechCrunch . “ Europe has been significantly behind the U.S. when it make out to operational experience in VC investors . … There ’s a lot of marketing around being founder - led and hustler experience , but when you excise the surface , it ’s ordinarily pretty thin . ”
Node.vc ’s tie to entrepreneurship operate deeper than aerofoil - grade . That ’s true of its investiture team — Elvesjö ( second - to - last on the right in the film ) co - foundedSwedish eye - tracking startup Tobii , which went public in 2015 . But that ’s also true of its modified partners , which include 70 founder . While they have no indebtedness to add together more than money , they have a natural penchant to vest their time , too .
However , Node.vc would likely have been unable to close a fund of this sizing if it had n’t also stop up institutional investors . Its LP includeSaminvest , Sweden ’s investment trust - of - funds , and the biography and pension limb of Nordic bank Nordea . That ’s remarkable for a first investment firm , and doubly so for one that take an strange approach to VC math .
“ We have a squad that is deliberately a bit outsize , meaning that we are more people on the team than what the monetary fund can normally finance . And the reason for this is we are entrepreneurs and we are building a VC firm , ” Elvesjö say .
With eight full - time and eight part - prison term staffers , several of whom antecedently worked at Nordic VC firmBrightly Ventures , Node.vc should have enough hand on deck for the seven startups it project to back each year .
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The rest of the equality is more typical for a investment company of that size . “ We write an average entry ticket of 1.3 million euro , and we can stick with on for a very long time , ” Elvesjö say . “ We can actually invest even up to 10 million euro in one single company if we want . ”
With three deals already , the fund is sphere - agnostic but focuses on three radical . There ’s future tense of entertainment , map by portfolio companyRoro , a play studio apartment ; future tense of workplace , withLemonadoandStarhive ; and platform technology , which let in fintech , IoT , cloud infrastructure , and machine tidings .
These theme correlate with the strengths and sectors the Nordics are known for , but Elvesjö and his partners only realize this after pose a significant amount of effort into research .
“ We did this tremendous investment in see out where trends are live on , and then we condensed it and put it in a slide , and what the slide say is we imagine the Nordic ecosystem will be near at what it has been good at before , ” he express mirth .
Paradoxically , the fact that several Scandinavian unicorns let citizenry go could also bebeneficial for its startup scene . According to Elvesjö , “ talent in the Nordics is more usable than it ’s been for the last five year . ” That ’s what makes Node.vc peculiarly bullish about its geography : AI cock are place to “ disrupt pretty much every industry , ” and the Nordics are “ highly well positioned to reap this . ”
