Firstminute Capital launches a second fund for $ 111, with a who’s who of the founders as an LP – Heaven32

London Headquarters Capital of the first minute announced its second $ 111million (£ 87million) start-up venture capital fund. Founded and incorporated in 2016 by Brent Hoberman CBE (better known as co-founder of lastminute.com and MADE.com), along with Spencer Crawley (formerly Goldman Sachs), this new fund comes after the first $ 100M fund, giving Firstminute $ 211M in assets under management, investing in Europe and the US at an early stage.

Firstminute’s 18-person team are based in London, Stockholm and Berlin and are now planning to open an office in Los Angeles next year.

It’s worth noting that their LPs now have $ 70 billion of company founders as investors, and Firstminute is so open. VCs usually don’t reveal much information about LPs. Hoberman has also clearly leveraged his position as the founder of the Founders Forum Group, which organizes events and activities for European tech founders.

The fact that so many founders, largely from the ranks of European startups, have invested is unusual, certainly for European venture capital funds. It includes 16 founders of decacorn tech companies worth over $ 10 billion, including Palantir, Wayfair, Ocado, MongoDB, Zalando, Supercell, and Check Point, as well as the founders of Huda Beauty, Graphcore, and Rappi. They include board members and CEOs of large tech companies.

RIT Capital Partners is the main investor in the fund. This is your first position of its kind in a European venture capital firm. They have previously backed top US funds including Sequoia, Benchmark, Thrive, and Iconiq. Other institutional investors include Chinese tech giant Tencent, consumer goods conglomerate Henkel, London-based hedge fund Atomico and four multi-tier California companies.

The current Fund I portfolio consists of 56 companies which have collectively raised funding of approximately $ 500 million.

Firstminute says half of the companies in its current portfolio are headquartered in the UK and the remaining half are split between mainland Europe and North America. Two thirds of businesses are B2B and one third are B2C.

Hoberman said in a statement: “European technology is reaching flight speed, and it’s fantastic to allow so many global serial entrepreneurs to bring their expertise to the next generation – we have over 70 unicorn founders who join us on this journey. so far, and more to watch as we approach the final closing. Seed capital investments are attracting more and more quality funders, helping more founders to be successful.

Crawley, co-founder and general partner of firstminute, said: “Our healthcare systems, our workplaces and our educational institutions are facing new complexities. The service economy must be reinvented. The gap between financial markets and the real economy is widening (young people being the most at risk). Startups are not a panacea, but startups have a key role to play in today’s recovery strategy, both in their mindset and in the products they will create.

I asked Hoberman to what extent the internationalization of the fund’s geographic footprint was linked to Brexit.

“Some investors have asked us about the Brexit risks for a UK based fund and it has been fantastic to highlight the international nature of our approach,” he said. “The potential threats of a bad Brexit deal have allowed us to move faster to cover more geographies.”

I also asked him what advantages or disadvantages the fund had with as many founders as LP.

“Operators have a good understanding of the roller coaster of the Founder’s Course. They know that the path to success is seldom linear. They lived the climbing trip with all its challenges. They can pass this wisdom on to the next generation.

“These founders know blitzscaling, board management, prioritization, fundraising, internationalization and, above all, the role of talent and teams. This knowledge can make the difference between failure and extraordinary success.

“Additionally, successful founders often have a world-class network, useful for recruiting, internationalization and business development contracts,” he said.

Firstminute also announced some team changes. Arek Wylegalski, formerly of Index Ventures, joined Fund II as an associate. Arek was the company’s venture capital partner during Fund I. Lina Wenner, prior to BCG, was promoted to Associate Partner, and Camilla Mazzolini, Clara Lindh Bergendorff and Sam Endacott were promoted to Directors. Min Nolan, Platform and Operations Manager, and Anais Benazet, Community Manager, lead the portfolio support function, while Henry Lane-Fox, Steve Crossan and Tommy Stadlen continue to invest as partners venture capital.

First-minute equity fund sponsors include founders and / or executives of the companies listed below:

First Minute LP: Founders of companies over $ 10 billion include:

Joe Lonsdale (Palantir Technologies), Robert Gentz ​​(Zalando), Niraj Shah (Wayfair), Tim Steiner (Ocado), Marius Nacht (Check Point), Kevin Ryan (MongoDB), Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), Adyen, Autonomy, Airtel.

First Minute LP: Founders of $ 1 Billion + Companies include:

Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), Ross Mason (MuleSoft), Pete Flint (Trulia), Martin Migoya (Globant), Vikrant Bhargava (PartyGaming), Martin Varsavsky (Jazztel, Fon, Eolia), Fabrice Grinda (OLX), Steve Fredette (Toast )), Rafi Gidron (Chromatis), Simon Nixon (Moneysupermarket), Lars Hinrichs (XING), Johan Brand (Kahoot), Huda Kattan (Huda Beauty), Tom Chapman & Ruth Chapman (Matchesfashion), Nigel Toon (Graphcore), Carl Pei (OnePlus), Hanzade Dogan (Hepsiburada), Barry Smith (Skyscanner), Sir Charles Dunstone (Carphone Warehouse), Hamish Shephard (HelloFresh), Alexander Rittweger (Payback), Marketshare, King.com, BlaBlaCar, Qunar, Net-a – Porter, Fox Kids Europe, Webhelp, Betfair, Datamonitor, Tradex Technologies, Zoopla.

First Minute LP: Current or former CEOs and Presidents, including:

Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), Michael Lynton (chairman of Snap and Warner Music Group, former CEO and chairman of Sony), Sir Paul Ruddock (co-founder and former CEO of Lansdowne Partners, chairman of the Oxford University), Lord Mervyn Davies (Chairman of Corsair Capital, former Minister and CEO and Chairman of Standard Chartered), Linda Fayne Levinson (former Chairman of Hertz), Jeremy Coller (Founder, Chairman and CIO of Coller Capital), David Giampaolo (Chairman of Gousto), Ian Gallienne (CEO, Sienna Capital), Alexander de Carvalho (Co-founder and CIO of Public.io, Heineken NED), Babatunde Soyoye (Co-founder and Managing Partner, Helios Investment Partners), Nextdoor, PicsArt, Booking.com, Nordeus, Kinnevik AB, JCDecaux Holdings.