Finnish Venture Capital firm Inventure announced first closing of the Inventure II fund at €50 million, with the expectation that they should have the final close around €75 million.
In 2008 Inventure raised a €40 million fund, and built a portfolio of hardware and software companies consisting of 16 companies, primarily in Finland, with two in Sweden and one in Latvia. This new fund should be structured roughly the same as their past fund, aiming for 15 portfolio companies. The breakdown they’re shooting for is one third hardware and devices, one third online stuff, like media and SaaS, and the other third left open to be split between rising sectors like med tech, clean tech, or other areas.
As in the past, their focus is going to be on Northern Europe, with half of the fund committed to Finland focused, or Finnish technology driven companies, as thats where Managing Director Sami Lampinen tells us they naturally see the best dealflow.
After investment Inventure then works with these companies in helping build the team and then works with the successful companies in their portfolio in receiving add-on funding. With close ties in the Finnish ecosystem, Inventure additionally works closely with Tekes and the Vigo accelerators, as well as connects their companies with Angel investors.
“We start with a relatively small amount of money, and then help gas up the further funding rounds. Thats the strategy we implemented well in the Inventeure I fund and what we will do now [with Inventure II],” says Lampinen.
Inventure’s past investments include Canatu, Freespee, Froont, Miradore, and Thinglink.
Money Heading North
The past few months have been a little crazy for Nordic VC fundraising. Scandinavia’s Northzone raised €150m fund last December, Niklas Zenström’s Atomico raised €352 Million in November, Finland’s Vision+ raised €50 million in November, two Norwegian seed funds raised about €60 million each also in November, and Stockholm-based Creandum raised €135 million in May.
