London venture capital firm completes new investments of £12m in five European seed funds

Draper Esprit, a London-based venture capital firm, has completed two new investments in Europe seed funds: Join Capital in Berlin and Icebreaker in Finland.

The firm, which invests in high growth digital technology businesses, has also made commitments to three other funds based in London, Cambridge and Ireland.

The total commitment is £12m across all five funds.

These investments are a continuation of the company’s Fund of Funds strategy to invest £75m over a five-year period in European seed funds.

Alongside previous investments in Seedcamp, Episode1 Ventures, Crowdcube and Seedrs, these investments enable Draper investors to gain access to some of Europe’s highest quality seed funds.

Furthermore, the new investments also complement Draper’s strategy to invest approximately £100m a year in technology businesses in series A, B and C+ rounds across the Group’s funds and gives the management team further access to deal flow from across Europe.

Simon Cook, chief executive of Draper, said: “In October last year we announced our intention to invest in seed funds to give investors access to early stage technology businesses through Europe’s top seed funding platforms.

“This gives them exposure to a very important asset class on a pooled portfolio approach; giving a degree of risk mitigation, with added liquidity and without them having to sift through and pick individual seed funds themselves.

“It also gives shareholders and investors an opportunity to support European tech from British shores, helping to ensure the UK continues to have a leading role in European venture.”

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