Plural, a venture capital firm, has recently introduced a new fund called Plural Fund II, with a capital of 400 million euros ($436.4 million), aimed at providing support to technology and AI startups in Europe, as reported by CNBC on Tuesday (Jan. 23). This initiative follows the firm’s successful raising of a 250 million euro fund just 18 months ago.
The founders of Plural include Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Wise, and Sten Tamkivi, co-founder of Skype. Notably, only 8% of venture capitalists in Europe have a background as founders, in contrast to the United States, where the figure stands at 60%. Plural is embracing a founder-led strategy because it thinks it will play a big role in fostering European entrepreneurship.
With the words, “It feels like it’s World War III, and we’re in the trenches together as one of the founders,” Hinrikus underlined the value of a shared experience. He thinks Plural can close transactions and close the current deficit in EuropWare because of its track record.
Plural has already made investments in 27 projects in a variety of industries, such as drug discovery platforms, artificial intelligence with a legal focus, and nuclear fusion power plant development. With its new fund, the business intends to sustain a pace of two to three investments per investor per year, concentrating on artificial intelligence (AI), frontier technologies, and the energy and climate sectors.
The opening of Plural’s new fund adds to the surge in European startup activity that has occurred over the past ten years. According to research by venture capital company Accel, 1,451 new firms, mostly in the FinTech space, have been founded by former workers of European and Israeli unicorns.
This is especially important for European entrepreneurs, since they have been struggling with a lack of venture capital in the area. Venture capital funds invested in Europe saw a 61% decline in the first half of 2023, surpassing the challenges faced by U.S. firms. In response to the challenging climate, alternative methods like government funds, corporate partnerships, and angel investing have gained popularity among cash-strapped FinTechs as complementary avenues to traditional funding.
As Angela Lee, founder of 37 Angels and a VC professor at Columbia Business School, noted, angel investing has experienced a surge in popularity, partly attributed to the global success of shows like ‘Shark Tank,’ introducing many to this investing class over the past decade.
