Inventure targets EUR 175m hard-cap for fourth fund

Inventure Fund IV has held its second closing on EUR 144m, slightly below its targeted EUR 150m fund, according to the sponsor’s press release on 3 November.

The sponsor, which has teams in Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn, will continue fundraising at least until January 2023, targeting mainly European institutional investors, family offices and private professional investors, Lampinen added.

The new vehicle is backed by LPs like the European Investment Fund, Ilmarinen, Molten Ventures, OP, Finnish Industry Investment Tesi, Nordea Finland and Nordea Sweden, according to its press release.

Inventure was advised by law firm Borenius for the fundraising, Lampinen added.

Its previous funds include EUR 40m-size Inventure Fund I (2008), EUR 70m-size Inventure Fund II (2014), and EUR 116m-size Inventure Fund III (2018), Lampinen said. Its first and second funds are now in the exit phase, and its third fund still makes follow-on investments, he added.

Investment plans
The fund plans to build a portfolio of 40 companies during its five-year investment period until January 2027, Lampinen said. The vehicle has a lifecycle of 10 years until January 2032, he added.

It anticipates making 18 very early-stage deals with investments in angel-type rounds, where Inventure’s ideal ticket would be at EUR 300,000, he said. Another 22 investments would be in seed rounds with tickets of EUR 1.5m-EUR 2m, Lampinen said. It would leave around EUR 100m for follow-on investments in upcoming rounds, he said, adding that Inventure can invest up to EUR 15m per company.

Inventure looks for investments in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Lampinen said. It anticipates making a third of its investments in Finland, another third in Sweden, and the remainder in the Baltics, Denmark, he added. Some of its primary themes now include sustainable resources and new energy, fintechs, as well as cybersecurity, Lampinen said, adding it is not a final list, for example, it invests in Software-as-a-Service players.

Inventure Fund IV has so far made 10 investments, Lampinen said. Some of its investments include anotherblock, a Swedish platform for decentralised investments into music; Anyday, a Danish consumer payments solutions provider; Hedera Dx, a Swiss biotech start-up working on liquid biopsy technology designed for cancer treatment; Jobbatical, an Estonian company offering software to automate relocation and immigration; Medoma, a Swedish acute healthcare start-up; Steep, a Swedish data analytics company; Yeply, a Finnish bike maintenance company, according to its announcement.

Inventure has backed more than 80 companies since 2005, including a Finnish food delivery platform, Wolt, which was sold to DoorDash, a San Francisco, California-based restaurant food delivery services firm, in a EUR 7bn all-stock transaction last November. Some of its other investments include Swappie, a Finnish platform for reselling used smartphones; Insurello, a Swedish insurance technology player; Blueprint Genetics, a Finnish genetic testing specialist; aiMotive, a Hungarian automated driving technology company, according to its website.

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