Northzone closes ninth fund on $500m

The fund is dedicated to early-stage rounds and is larger than its predecessor, Northzone VIII, which closed in September 2016 on its €300m target and is now around 80% deployed. 

Meanwhile, Northzone has promoted Hello Fresh co-founder Jessica Schultz and Dots co-founder Paul Murphy to partners. They will manage the investment strategy of the new vehicle, alongside partners Pär-Jörgen Pärson, Jeppe Zink and Michiel Kotting.

In addition, the firm has promoted Wendy Xiao Schadeck (founder of New York-headquartered CoHatchery) and Chris Steinau (co-founder of London-based restaurant booking platform Uncover) to principals, and Henrik Grim to investment manager, further strengthening its investment team.

Investors
NZ IX was oversubscribed and attracted commitments from new LPs and several existing investors, including the European Investment Fund, Argentum, Skandia and SEB Pension. The fund's investor base is composed of a majority of European LPs, as well as American and Asian investors. It includes pension funds, fund-of-funds and family offices.

Investments
NZ IX invests in early-stage companies based across Europe and the US east coast, focusing primarily on series-A and series-B rounds and deploying tickets in the $1-20m range. Smaller selective seed-stage investments will also be a part of its investment strategy. 

The fund pursues opportunities across innovative companies operating in a wide range of sectors, such as financial services, healthcare, education, construction and consumer.

NZ IX has already made three investments: it co-led with Atomico a $25m round for Oslo-headquartered startup Spacemaker AI in June; invested in an $8m series-A for US live video broadcast specialist Livepeer, also in June; and led a $60m round for London-based marketplace Pollen in October. 

People
Northzone – Jessica Schultz, Paul Murphy, Hans Otterling, Jeppe Zink, Michiel Kotting (partners).

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