Dawn Capital, one of Europe's biggest backers of business software companies, raised $700 million in two new funds, defying the odds as venture capital investment in tech startups has slumped.
The London-based VC firm is one of the most prominent tech investors in the continent, with a portfolio that includes the likes of Swedish online payments firm iZettle, which was acquired by PayPal for $2.2 billion in 2018, and Swedish open banking company Tink, which Visa acquired for 1.8 billion euros in 2022.
"Suddenly with everything with the markets and the denominator effect, their private book was overallocated even if technically by their own benchmarks they weren't. That meant a lot of funds could only reup with existing managers or those with high convictions." With rates at multi-year highs, innovative, growth-oriented companies that are making losses and that take longer to make a return on their investments have become less attractive. Stodgy, profitable firms with more stable revenue streams, on the other hand, are seeing greater interest.
Gubbins said she doesn't have a crystal ball for when the IPO market will officially open up again. However, she said, Dawn Capital is following the debuts of Arm and Instacart closely as it searches for signs of when the dust will settle on the public listings front.