UNQUOTE

Lakestar holds final closes totalling $735m

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Lakestar has held final closes for Lakestar III and Lakestar Growth I amounting to $735m.

The GP said in a statement that one third of the total capital raised will be committed to Lakestar III, amounting to $245m, and two thirds to Lakestar Growth I, amounting to $490m.

The firm also announced that it has hired Mika Salmi as managing partner and Stephen Nundy as chief technology officer. It has also appointed investor relations head Ninja Struye de Swielande to partner.

Monument Group acted as placement agent and King & Wood Mallesons provided legal advice for the fundraise.

The funds were launched in Q2 2018, as reported by Unquote, and held first closes in December 2018. Lakestar III held a close on €125m against a target of €250m. Lakestar Growth I held a first close on €250m against a target of €550m.

The vehicles' predecessor, Lakestar II, held a final close in August 2015 on €350m.

In July 2018, Unquote published a GP profile on Lakestar based on an interview with its founder, Klaus Hommels.

Lakestar had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Monument Group was not available for comment at the time of publication.

Investors
The vehicles' LP base is expected to follow a similar pattern to their predecessors, comprising institutional and individual investors from Europe and the US, as well as Asia.

The GP made a contribution of 2% to Lakestar III at the time of the first close.

Investments
Lakestar III will follow a similar investment strategy to its predecessor vehicles, targeting early-stage investments. Lakestar Growth I will focus on investments in larger, later-stage financing rounds and can invest up to €100m per round. The funds will generally target Europe-based companies, but will also invest in companies based elsewhere with potential for European expansion.

Lakestar's recent investments include Germany-based procurement platform Scoutbee in January 2020 and logistics software provider Sennder in July 2019. It also invested in UK-based language processing platform Eigen Technologies in November 2019 and hotel data startup Impala in February 2020.

People
Lakestar – Klaus Hommels (founder).

Venture fundraising booms in DACH
Venture fundraising has got off to a strong start in Q1 2020 in the DACH region, with a number of firms announcing first or final closes. Speedinvest held a final close for its third vehicle in February 2020, as reported by Unquote. In January 2020, healthtech-focused VCs 415 Capital and Heal Capital launched their debut funds.

The pipeline in the region is also healthy, with Earlybird understood to be on the road for Digital East Fund II and BtoV fundraising for its Internet and Mobile Technologies Fund II.

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