Nordic VC agency Voima Ventures at present introduced its third fund with an preliminary closing of €90 million and a remaining goal of €120 million, specializing in early-stage “deep tech” startups from throughout the science sphere.
Based out of Helsinki, Finland, in 2019, Voima Ventures targets firms on the pre- and seed-stage, largely involving startups rising from college labs and associated analysis establishments. Voima additionally sometimes delves into later stage investments the place it entails present portfolio firms, and its typical areas embody firms engaged on sustainability, life science and well being, and different “groundbreaking” applied sciences akin to quantum computing.
Voima’s first two funds had been launched again in 2019. Its €20 million Fund I used to be primarily the spin-off portfolio of state-owned technical analysis middle VTT which stays one of many fund’s restricted companions (LPs) at present, whereas the second €60 million fund was introduced concurrently alongside the brand new Voima Ventures model and a swathe of extra LPs. The primary two funds have backed some 30 firms, together with the likes of Photo voltaic Meals, Dispelix, Betolar, and MVision, and it has a handful of exits to its identify together with Minima, which was snapped up by Bosch final 12 months.
Voima’s newest fund consists of capital from the European Funding Fund (EIF), Finland’s Tesi, VTT, Sweden’s Saminvest, and a handful of pension funds, foundations, and household workplaces.
Vivid and early
Europe has been ripe for recent early-stage VC funds recently. Previously few months alone, we’ve seen the U.Ok.’s Amadeus Capital associate with Austria’s Apex Ventures for a €80 million ($86 million) deep tech fund, much like IQ Capital which launched a brand new $200 million fund for early-stage deep tech startups. Moonfire VC, in the meantime, closed its second fund at $115 million; Playfair Capital closed a $70 million pre-seed fund; Eire’s Elkstone closed its first formal VC fund at $108 million; Finland’s Lifeline Ventures closed a $163 million fund; and in France Emblem and Ovni Capital each introduced new €50 million ($54 million) funds.
As with its earlier funds, Voima’s third pot is targeted firmly on Nordic and Baltic nations, although it sometimes dips into different nations throughout Northern Europe, and it’s aiming for ticket sizes starting from €200,000 to €3 million unfold throughout roughly 25 firms.
A core defining attribute of Voima’s fund is that along with its collaboration with VTT, which is amongst Europe’s largest analysis institutes, it actively collaborates with universities from throughout Northern Europe. Voima founding associate Inka Mero says that almost three-quarters of its portfolio hail from the tutorial world, together with quantum chip startup Semiqon, which VTT not too long ago spun out as an unbiased entity, and Cellfion, a clear vitality supplies firm that emerged from the Royal Institute of Expertise (KTH) and Linköping College (LIU) in Sweden.
“We actively collaborate with all of the Nordic and Baltic universities — we do that by visiting science groups and groups in incubation regularly, internet hosting workshops, and training probably the most potential groups regularly,” Mero advised TechCrunch.
And whereas a lot has modified on this planet since Voima first arrived on the scene some 4 years in the past, from the worldwide pandemic to main financial headwinds amongst different macroeconomic components, Mero says it’s largely enterprise as regular when it comes to what they’re searching for in startups they usually’re strategy to investing.
“Our funding technique has remained the identical — we proceed investing in science-based and deep tech within the Nordics and Baltics,” Mero mentioned. “With Fund III we’re much more thesis-driven, and put money into firms tackling urgent international challenges.”
