Earlybird opens London office to step up UK and Ireland deployment

The firm has made its first hires in fundraising and investor relations, it said in a statement.

Its London-based team will include partner Vincenzo Narciso, who joined the firm in June 2022, as reported. Earlybird investment team members Akash Bajwe, Elle Muller and Anya Maine will also be based in the London office.

The firm will have a team of six people in London, growing to seven in January, Narciso told Unquote. The London-based team could grow further in H1 2023, he added.

The plan to open a London office had been in the works for around a year, Narciso said, preceding his time at the firm. "It is part of a long-term plan to strengthen our European presence, which has included the opening of our Paris office," he said. "We are a pan-European VC firm and have been around for 25 years, but we're still doing early-stage investments, in contrast to many other firms who have grown and now manage bigger funds, meaning that they struggle to still do small Series A and seed investments. We want to be close to the local startup ecosystems."

The new office will be a focus for the Digital West team for now, Narciso said, but the Healthcare strategy can also take advantage of the London presence. The latest vehicle in the series deploys tickets of less than EUR 1m to EUR 10m and held a final close in May 2022 on EUR 350m, as reported.

The VC currently has more than 10 UK-based portfolio companies, according to a statement. These include software development firm Snyk, as well as journalism platform Curio and financial technology startup Payable.

UK in focus
The opening of the new office is an indication of the VC's intention to invest more in the UK and Ireland, amounting for up to 15-20% of the fund, Narciso said. "We want to be closer to our founders and portfolio companies," he added. "We are seeing more and more quality dealflow from the UK and we are making a strong commitment to the UK ecosystem."

UK dealflow is likely to cover all of the areas in which the VC has expertise, Narciso told Unquote. "We are quite traditional in how we invest – for example, we have not actively invested in cryptocurrencies," he said. "We do want to leverage the experience we already have across the firm in the verticals where we are strongest: enterprise software, deeptech, insurtech – and fintech more broadly, climate tech and food tech. But we can look at deals beyond this, too."

Given that London is "one of the biggest tech hubs in Europe", a presence there will be key. "We believe that technology development and the rate of innovation is decoupled from market cycles and the macro and political picture," Narciso said. "If you're a smart entrepreneur, you will still go out and build a business whether the interest rate is 2% of 10%. We think that now is a great time to invest – after the GFC and the dot com bubble, a lot of great companies were started, and we see no difference here. And arguably this crisis is not even as severe as we are not talking about systemic risks or banks failing."

When it comes to fundraising, having a UK base will be an important part of continued network-building for Earlybird. "Being based in the UK does not necessarily mean we will target UK LPs, but a lot of international LPs are based here, including consultants, funds-of-funds, large institutions and Middle Eastern LPs," Narciso said. "Ultimately London is a place it is easy to travel to and from, and you have a continuous stream of people coming through."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• People
• UK / Ireland
• DACH
• Venture
• Technology
• Earlybird
• United Kingdom
• Exclusive