Point Nine closes third fund on €55m

Having spun out of the Team Europe incubator in June 2011, Point Nine went on to raise a small first vehicle (around €6m) from angel investors. The firm's second early-stage venture fund, Point Nine Capital II, closed on €40m in early 2013, having been launched a year prior.

The second fund is now invested in approximately 40 start-ups, with some capital remaining for follow-on funding rounds. All new investments will be undertaken via Point Nine Capital III.

The fundraising process for Fund III was formally launched in Q4 last year, with a first close reached around February 2015. According to managing partner Christoph Janz, the fundraising process was much easier for the latest vehicle than it was for Fund II. The second fund required Point Nine to build up a base of institutional investors; according to Janz, these efforts paid off for Fund III as most of the capital was committed by these existing investors.

Point Nine has yet to score a home run exit from Fund II, given most of the businesses it backs are still in the early stages of their development. Only a handful of investments have so far been realised.

Investors
The vast majority of commitments came from previous Point Nine backers – all investors in Fund II returned for this latest vehicle and were joined by a small number of new investors.

The fund's LP base comprises institutional investors such as Horsley Bridge Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Flossbach von Storch and Vintage Investment Partners. Internet entrepreneurs also contributed to the fund.

Investors hail from the US, Switzerland, Germany, Israel and a few other European countries.

Investments
Much like its predecessor, Point Nine Capital III will invest between €100,000-1m in approximately 40 early-stage businesses; a portion of the capital will be earmarked for significant follow-on funding. The third fund will focus primarily on start-ups in the softare-as-a-service (SaaS) and digital marketplace sectors.

Point Nine has traditionally focused around two-thirds of its investments in Europe (targeting its home market of Germany, as well as other countries such as France and Spain), with the remaining investments made in the US. The VC expects to keep to this split with Fund III.

Businesses that have been backed by Point Nine via its previous vehicles include Zendesk, Westwing and Delivery Hero.

People
Point Nine Capital's team is headed by co-founders and managing partners Pawel Chudzinski and Christoph Janz.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• DACH
• Venture
• Germany