Skylake Capital holds first close, makes first deal

Alessia Argentieri
22 February 2021

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Recently established venture capital house Skylake Capital has held a first close for its debut fund, an early-stage vehicle with a $100m target.

Skylake Capital was established by co-founding partners Marcos Battisti and Endre Sagi, who worked together at C5 Capital before launching the new investment firm.

"We have a long track record of supporting successful European and Israeli enterprise IT infrastructure startups," said Battisti. "Beyond offering capital and sharing our experience, we connect our portfolio companies to potential customers, strategic partners and industry experts in our global network."

Battisti was previously managing director for western Europe and Israel at Intel Capital, where he served as a member of the firm's investment committee. Subsequently, he was appointed as managing partner at venture capital firm C5 Capital in 2016.

Investors
The fund has already received commitments from several investors and expects to raise additional capital from European institutional investors in the coming months – including the European Investment Fund – as well as from Asian, Brazilian and US-based family offices.

Investments
Skylake Capital Fund I invests in seed and series-A rounds, targeting startups based in Europe and Israel.

Target companies will operate across the data analytics, cloud infrastructure, AI, machine learning, robotics, software development tools and cybersecurity sectors.

The vehicle plans to deploy two thirds of its capital in European companies – primarily based in the UK, France, Spain and Italy – and the remainder in Israeli-based businesses.

The fund invests an average of $10m per company across the entire lifespan of an investment. It also pursues an active approach by appointing one of its partners to its target companies' boards in order to support the management and actively contribute to the business's growth and development.

The vehicle has already inked its first deal, by leading a $3m round in UK-based deep-learning startup Mindtrace. Bloc Ventures and Mercia Asset Management also took part in the investment.

People
Skylake Capital – Marcos Battisti, Endre Sagi (founding partners).