EQT closes Europe's largest VC fund with EUR 1.1bn raised

EQT Ventures III was registered last September and drew in participation from European, North American and Asian institutional investors, foundations, and endowments, according to a statement said. The vehicle is almost double the size of EQT Ventures II, which closed on EUR 660m in November 2019.

The new fund has already led investments in 13 companies, including Swedish financial services platform Juni, UK-based consumer tech group Nothing, US company analytics specialist Knoetic and Swedish electric boat maker Candela.

The vehicle can deploy EUR 1m-50m in founder-led start-ups across Europe and North America in areas such as climate tech, food tech, the creator economy, energy, fintech, software, data and IT infrastructure, deep tech – companies which EQT hopes can tackle some of the "biggest challenges facing society", according to the statement.

EQT Ventures III brings total commitments raised across the EQT Ventures Funds to EUR 2.3bn since launching in 2016. The EQT ventures funds have completed over 100 investments, of which nine have reached a EUR 1 bn+ valuation and 18 have been exited, it said.

The EUR 1.1bn close of EQT Ventures III follows the recent close of the EQT Growth fund, at EUR 2.4bn in total commitments. EQT Ventures makes initial investments between EUR 1-50 million, while EQT Growth makes initial investments between EUR 50m-200 million at later stages of the company growth journey, it said.

The EQT Ventures funds are advised by over 40 founders and operators across offices in Stockholm, London, San Francisco, Berlin and Paris with a 50/50 gender split. With the new fund, the advisory team will be able to grow further by hiring in Europe and the US, with the ultimate goal of making EQT Ventures the most supportive early-stage investor across both markets, it said.

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