Fintech-focused VCs Index and Dawn fuel-up for next wave of investments

Two of the UK’s most prolific venture capital firms, Index Ventures and Dawn Capital, both announced funding rounds yesterday as they build up their investment war chests.

Index, which counts Wise,Robinhood and Revolut among its portfolio, raised $3.1bn across three separate funds it’s launching.

The cash is split $2bn for its sixth growth fund, $900m for its 11th venture fund and £200m for its first early-stage origin fund.

“We’ll be investing in companies across sectors, particularly in consumer, enterprise, software infrastructure, gaming and fintech, where we’ve established leadership and expertise,” said Index partner Mike Volpi.

“We continue to see a lot of opportunity here, while of course we remain open to exploring other new and exciting areas.”

Meanwhile Dawn Capital, which just this week made a follow-on investment in portfolio company and expense automation platform Soldo, raised $120m for its second later-stage fund.

The last few years have been particularly kind to Dawn’s fintech portfolio, with iZettle being acquired by PayPal in 2018 for $2.2bn and Tink just last month signing a €1.8bn deal to be acquired by Visa.

“The last 18 months have been pivotal for B2B software. Defined by substantial societal, economic and technological shocks, the spotlight was firmly cast on the power of software to save and define enterprise,” said Dawn partner Mina Mutafchieva.

“Across the board we saw the value of our companies, as they facilitated productivity, collaboration and distributed working at scale.”

Dawn and Index’s fundraisings come just after listed fintech investors Augmentum Fintech and Draper Esprit both tapped public markets for cash to pursue more deals.