[ad_1]
Skype founder’s VC firm raises $1.24 billion to back European tech startups
LONDON — Atomico, an early investor in top European technology firms from Stripe to Klarna, announced Monday the launch of two new funds worth $1.24 billion to back emerging and growth-stage startups in the sector.
The launch of Atomico’s sixth batch of new funds, comprised of a $754 million growth-stage fund for startups raising Series B to pre-IPO financing and a $485 million early stage fund, marks a breath of life for a European tech industry that has been reeling from a slide in valuations and mass layoffs.
Venture funding for European tech startups nearly halved to $45 billion in 2023, compared to $82 billion in the previous year, according to a report penned last year by Atomico. This decline was a reversal to pre-pandemic years which saw a wild rise in tech valuations, Atomico said at the time.
The combined value of all private and publicly listed tech companies in Europe totalled more than $3 trillion in 2023. In 2022, Europe’s tech sector saw $400 billion wiped off its overall market capitalization amid a sharp slide in tech valuations.
The size of Atomico’s new funds marks more than a 50% increase on the $820 million it raised for its last round of funds, Fund V, in 2020. The firm, founded in 2006 by Niklas Zennström, a co-founder of Microsoft-owned video calling app Skype, has backed some of the most well-known companies in Europe’s tech scene.
[ad_2]
Source link