Firstminute holds final close on $100m for seed fund

The firm held a $60m first close for the fund in June 2017 and a second one on $85m in September 2017.

Investors
The vehicle has raised commitments from a mixture of national and international LPs and entrepreneurs.

Two institutional investors – the €60bn publicly listed fast-moving consumer goods giant Henkel, and private bank Lombard Odier – backed the fund at the final close.

Family offices, including that of the Decaux family, have also made commitments to the vehicle.

Chinese investors in the fund include Tencent, Nan Fung Group and Cheung Chung-Kiu, while entrepreneurs include Frederic Mazzella of BlaBlaCar, Fritz Demopoulus of Qunar and Wes Nichols of MarketShare.

Atomico was the cornerstone investor in the fund at the time of the first close in June 2017.

Investments 
The fund will provide investments of $250,000-750,000 in early-stage technology businesses. It seeks to invest in a broad range of countries, including the US, China, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.

The VC has completed 17 investments to date, including Cambridge self-driving startup Wayve, fuel delivery business Zebra, Wireless charging platform Chargifi and ICO exchange Templum. 

People 
Firstminute Capital – Brent Hoberman (founder). 
Atomico – Mattias Ljungman (co-founder).

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