New €150 million fundraising by DFJ Esprit

European venture capital (VC) firm DFJ Esprit aims to raise €150 million (£130 million) for its third fund, DFJ Esprit III.

European venture capital (VC) firm DFJ Esprit aims to raise €150 million (£130 million) for its third fund.

A first close has been held at €70 million, with commitments from the European Investment Fund, Finnish Industry Investors, Partners Group, JP Morgan, LGT Group and HarbourVest.

Simon Cook, CEO of DFJ Esprit, says, ‘DFJ Esprit III will continue to support the best entrepreneurs from all over the UK and Europe.’

The news comes as the firm announces the formation of Encore Ventures, a division of DFJ Esprit that will manage several ex-portfolio companies of private equity firm 3i.

DFJ Esprit is the European partner for the Draper Fisher Jurvetson network of venture funds, which has $6 billion (£3.6 billion) under management.

Nick Britton

Nick was the Managing Editor for growthbusiness.co.uk when it was owned by Vitesse Media, before moving on to become Head of Investment Group and Editor at What Investment and thence to Head of Intermediary... More by Nick Britton