Nauta Tech Invest V holds €120m first close

"Fundraising is always a difficult exercise and during a pandemic it becomes even more complex," Carles Ferrer, Nauta's London-based general partner, told Unquote. "However, for us it has been easier because we have a very loyal base of LPs that have contributed to the majority of the fund's first close."

The vehicle, which started fundraising in December 2019, is expected to surpass the size of its predecessor and take Nauta Capital's total assets under management to €500m.

Nauta Tech Invest IV held a final close on €155m in 2016 and completed its investment period in March 2020. Ferrer said: "Our Nauta IV portfolio companies are in a great place. We have a very well-diversified portfolio and have been fortunate to have placed investments in companies that have been immune to the situation. A good group of them have actually seen an acceleration."

Nauta is also managing its later-stage €55m Sidecar Fund. The vehicle targets series-B and -C rounds and provides follow-on capital to Nauta's portfolio companies.

Investors
The fund's LP base is composed of both existing and new investors from continental Europe, the UK and the Americas. Around 60% are institutions and 40% are large family offices, the VC told Unquote.

"Our investors include funds-of-funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and large family offices that lead large corporates with strong synergies with Nauta's portfolio," said Ferrer. "Around 80% of our existing LPs have joined us again on this fund. With their support, we have doubled the first close compared to our 2016 fund in record time against a backdrop of a global pandemic."

He added: "We plan to increase the institutional portion of our LPs but also attract a number of selected family offices," said Ferrer.

Investments
Nauta Tech Invest V deploys tickets of €1-5m in seed and series-A rounds, with the ability to follow-on with additional capital of up to €7m over the life of an investment. 

Nauta's main areas of interests include B2B software-as-a-service companies with strong networks and able to transform large industries, as well as those leveraging "deep-tech" applications to solve challenges faced by large enterprises.

The fund invests in companies mainly based in the UK, Spain and Germany, as well as those based in other continental European countries with plans to significantly increase their presence in one of Nauta's key geographical hubs.

The fund plans to invest in 25-30 companies and has already made its first investment: a $2.3m seed round in NumberEight, a UK-based contextual intelligence startup. Nauta led the round, which also saw participation from some business angels.

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