EQT Ventures out from Luxembourg

Capital V #9

On 25 May 2016, the EQT Ventures fund (“EQT Ventures”) held its final close and secured commitments totaling EUR 566 million to support fast-growing, innovative and tech-enabled companies, and support great entrepreneurs throughout all different stages of growth. The fund’s core region is the European area, but it considers and evaluates investments anywhere in the world. In addition to a strong interest from global institutional investors, EQT Ventures was also backed by a network of prominent entrepreneurs.

EQT Ventures has a multi-stage strategy. The investments range from an early stage A round of EUR 1 million to growth investments of up to EUR 75 million. This means that EQT Ventures’ support window is wider than a typical single-phase fund. EQT Ventures also evaluates minority equity or equity-related investments along between founders and other venture capital firms in technology-enabled businesses across all sectors.

Considering that EQT already had an AIFM licence in the Grand-Duchy, and the attractive conditions for setting up private equity funds in the area, it was decided to launch EQT Ventures and all related vehicles in Luxembourg, being a one-stop shop solution with superior substance that is simpler, cost-efficient and less risky. In order to facilitate a smooth set-up process, EQT sought direct contact from the regulator and other authorities for an open and progressive dialogue.

The EQT Ventures investment advisory team combines some of Europe’s most experienced and successful serial entrepreneurs and company builders, engineers, designers, marketers, data scientists and scaling experts. The team use their experience from success stories including Booking.com, Uber, King and Spotify, to support ambitious founders on their journey to global success.

Europe in particular is currently facing a huge demand for venture capital, as transformational shifts in technology are occurring across numerous industries, and this disruption is spurring on new, innovative companies. EQT Ventures is very well positioned to support entrepreneurs in this fast-paced environment, combining the team’s own entrepreneurial skills with EQT’s proven track record of developing companies and its established network of over 250 independent Industrial Advisors, which features a variety of global business leaders and successful entrepreneurs.

The aim is to provide the resources, skills and experience to help partnering companies deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

While EQT Ventures’ focus is not seed investments, a matchmaking platform and app, called Together, has also been launched for angels and early-stage startups, aimed at making the earlier stage of raising funding for founders of startups easier. Additionally, EQT Ventures has created its own AI-driven initiative called Motherbrain, which builds data sets from available information on companies in relevant regions and stages, analyses growth signals and ranks the most interesting companies to proactively source potential investment opportunities.

“It was decided to launch EQT Ventures and all related vehicles in Luxembourg, being a one-stop shop solution with superior substance that is simpler, cost-efficient and less risky.”