London-based VC Plural has launched a €400 million (£342 million) fund to back tech founders across the UK and Europe.

Plural, which also has an office in Tallinn, Estonia, launched its debut €250 million fund in June 2022 and mainly focuses on AI, frontier tech and climate and energy.

The VC has made 26 investments to date, including into UK-based AI startups Robin AI, Conjecture and Unitary – investing between €1 million and €10 million into each.

Carina Namih, a partner at Plural, said: “When we launched Plural 18 months ago, we knew that a lack of operators was underserving European founders turned investors but even we couldn’t have predicted so much appetite for a different approach.

“We’re galvanised by the trust founders have placed in us to support them on their journeys tackling serious problems from developing clean energy that will save the planet to making the internet safer. With Fund II, we want to take this new model of investing even deeper into the European ecosystem, where startup creation continues to outpace the US, providing a huge opportunity that we have a responsibility to maximise.”

Taavet Hinrikus, another partner at Plural, added: “We know that significant technology is being built across Europe – more than 40 per cent of European tech investment in the past year has gone into frontier and deep tech.

“Founders tackling major world problems through technology are exactly the types of companies we are backing at Plural. By supporting the most ambitious founders with our hard-won experience, we’re determined to build enduring global companies that will have a GDP-level impact and be transformative for economies and society.”

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