Spanish venture capital (VC) firm Kfund has raised $75 million to fund technology projects.
The firm announced the new fund on Monday (June 17), saying it would back European founders working on “foundational technologies,” defined here as “data plays,” “platform layers” and artificial intelligence (AI).
“With a target size of €70 million, together with K3 we will continue to invest with the best founders in Southern Europe, helping them lay the foundations for future growth, leveraging our experience as tech founders and executives, and our unique ability to back companies from pre-seed through to Series B through our family of funds in the region,” Kfund said.
The company noted in its presentation that as the market matures, successful companies tend to be more B2B-centric than consumer-centric.
Between 2012 and 2017, just 28% of unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) in the UK, Germany and France were B2B “tech-enabled” companies. Over the next five years, that figure rose to 60%.
Kfund's announcement comes on the heels of news earlier this month that European technology investment is showing signs of recovery after a long period of stagnation.
The Financial Times reports that private tech investor Cleanderm, which has invested in Klarna and Spotify, has announced a $544 million fund. Cleanderm's fund was raised in “record time,” general partner Carl Fridtjofsson told the FT.
“We're seeing a dramatic shift in sentiment, appetite and activity across the industry,” he said.
Investment in Europe's tech sector fell sharply last year, with British venture capital firm Atomico predicting in its annual European State of Technology report for the second half of 2023 that European tech startups will raise around $45 billion, compared with $82 billion in 2022.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS recently investigated how AI is helping venture capital firms make investment decisions by quickly analyzing vast amounts of data on startups and market trends.
“The utility of AI in venture capital is augmenting human capabilities with machine intelligence to sift through the noise and accurately identify real opportunities,” Steve Brotman, founder and managing partner at growth investment firm Alpha Partners, told PYMNTS.
“AI allows us to analyze market trends, startup performance metrics, and other important data points at a scale and speed that simply cannot be achieved by teams of human analysts alone,” he added. “This increases efficiency and provides deeper insights into potential investments that were previously unimaginable, fundamentally enhancing our ability to make informed strategic decisions.”
