London-based VC firm secures €200m fund for Series A tech start-ups

DN Capital will be focusing on European and US-based fintech in an effort to battle Brexit.

London-based DN Capital has raised €200m for seed-stage and Series A tech start ups across Europe and the US, with two-thirds of the fund to be invested in fintech, digital health and consumer mobile apps.

The venture capital firm, which is a previous backer of music app Shazam and property website Purplebricks, will be investing most of its fourth fund in the UK, France, the Nordics and the US as it looks to prop up investments after Brexit.

DN Capital is no stranger to start up success, as one of the platform’s original Series A investments, used car marketplace Auto 1, recently secured a €460m investment from SoftBank.

According to the VC, backers of this latest fund ranged from pension funds and insurance firms, to banks and family offices. Despite having ceased funding to UK venture capital firms in 2016, the European Investment Fund was also included in the list of backers, as it had agreed to the funding before the referendum.

Speaking to Tech Crunch this morning, chief executive Nenad Marovac said: “I think a hard Brexit would be detrimental to the U.K. in general, in terms of venture. It seems like things are softening up, which is in all of our interests,” he says.

“Europe has to compete against China and America, and I think being fragmented makes Europe as a whole weaker, so I think together, Europe has a much better chance of competing against these much bigger continents.”

European tech also saw an influx of VC funding at the end of 2017, after Nutmeg and Revolut investor Balderton Capital announced a $375m fund aimed at creating the next global giant.