Fly Ventures closes maiden fund on $41m

The venture capital firm uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to source potential investment opportunities. The firm said in a statement that its technology can identify startups "long before they go out to fundraise for the first time" and remove "mundane tasks" such as "sifting through vast numbers of leads".

Fly's founders include former Partech Ventures principal Gabriel Matuschka, former Google product manager Stephan Seyboth and Fredrik Bergenlid, formerly technology lead manager and staff software engineer at Google.

Investors
The vehicle received commitments from the European Investment Fund, Korelya Capital and family offices from Europe and the US.

Investments
Fly will look to make seed investments of $400,000-900,000 in seed rounds of £1-2.5m. The fund has a remit to invest in artificial intelligence firms across Europe and will look to make around 30 investments. It will specifically target companies that have a focus on automation software and operate in sectors such as finance, human resources and recruiting.

According to the statement, Fly has made 11 investments to date. This month, it took part in a DN Capital-led €18m funding round for German factoring fintech Finiata. Other investments include Germany-based AI funding platform Bezahlt.de and France-based student job search platform Side.

People
Fly Ventures – Stephan Seyboth, Gabriel Matuschka, Fredrik Bergenlid (partners).

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