Icos Capital raises €50M IC Fund III from Akzo Nobel, Bühler, Wuppermann and City of Rotterdam
Corporates play an important role for startups and VCs and often combine direct and fund investments to get access to external innovation. After a 2-year fundraising journey that even included the bankruptcy of one LP, the Dutch VC Icos Capital announces today the first closing of its third fund Icos Capital Fund III at €50M. The fund investors comprise the City of Rotterdam and the corporates Akzo Nobel from the Netherlands, Bühler from Switzerland and Wuppermann from Germany. Peter van Gelderen, one of the 3 GPs managing the fund, describes their investment philosophy as collaborative corporate venturing and emphasizes the close cooperation with the 3 multinationals that don’t have inhouse corporate VC units. According to Peter, new corporate relationships take a lot of time and many meetings until the board makes an LP commitment in your VC fund.
Read moreRene Savelsberg pitches the investment strategy of Chrysalix SET
Ecosummit TV: Rene Savelsberg pitches the investment strategy of Chrysalix SET at ECO13 London. The Amsterdam-based smart green VC was founded in 2007 and invests in technology companies that are in the early growth stage and have a sustainable impact on the future use of energy. As their first SET Fund I of €40M is fully allocated, Rene and his general partners (GPs) are raising their second SET Fund II targeting €100M. This fund size enables a larger portfolio and management team as well as investing more capital per startup in multiple follow-on rounds without dilution. VCs typically want to increase rather than decrease their position in the best performing startups in their portfolio.
Read moreFaster exits, higher returns – Alois Flatz discusses the investment strategy of Zouk Capital
Ecosummit TV: Zouk’s Alois Flatz talks about cleantech venture capital 2.0 and the mega trends he takes into consideration for his investment strategy. As we have seen with the feed-in-tariffs, government regulations are in most cases temporary. For startups it’s dangerous to rely on governments as they will change their opinion when the next crisis with huge financial impact is upon them. Alois looks for business models that generate cash from early on and can be grown at low CAPEX for the startup and its customers deploying the new technology. The late stage venture capitalist believes that a top management team at all times and a long-term strategy focused on the exit are among the key success factors. European entrepreneurs and top managers should continue to optimise resource productivity because its benefits will easily survive the next boom and bust cycle.
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