The venture backer of companies including LOVEFiLM, Wonga and MySQL has closed its fifth European fund and now has $2.2 billion of funds under management.
Balderton Capital, which recently hired blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake as a partner at the firm, has raised $305 million (£183 million).
According to the firm, the new fund is hoping to take advantage of ‘growing opportunities’ in the European technology sector and secured a contribution from the European Investment Fund.
Set up in 2000 under its previous name Benchmark Capital Europe, Balderton Capital rebranded in 2007 and claims that the total value of companies it has backed exceeds $10 billion.
Explaining the new fund raise, general partner Bernard Liataud says, ‘Over the last few years, we have refined our investment approach focus to double down on European early-stage start-ups.
‘As with our last fund, this one is focused on Series A, where we currently see the greatest opportunities in Europe. Our goal is to be the first venture fund with an international outlook to invest in a company.’
The founders of Carwow secured £1.3 million from Balderton in February
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The past year saw nearly 10,000 businesses contact Balderton Capital, Liataud reveals, with an ‘increasing quality’ noted of entrepreneurs in the technology sector. The firm completed 20 new deals during the period, of which most were Series A investments.
Also joining Chandratillake at Balderton Capital during 2013 was Daniel Waterhouse, an investor who is formerly of Yahoo! and a board member of EyeEm, Hailo and YPlan.
First institutional funding rounds completed by Balderton in 2013 include site layout automation business Ezoic and property landlord service Rentify.
George Spencer’s Rentify banked a £2 million Series A at the beginning of 2013
The firm cites co-investments made with Google Ventures, Benchmark and Accel as evidence of its ‘strong’ US links alongside European investing.
‘The team’s strong operational experience gives us the expertise to back founders early and help build companies, which is why we are willing to take risks and work with entrepreneurs at this earlier stage.’
