American investors in Europe - who are they

American venture companies are coming to Europe - this was a very common refrain heard in the European VC circles in 2019-2020.

Truth is, this was bound to happen sooner or later. Each year, the deals in the US have become more expensive and the competition for writing a check increasingly high. 

Besides, Europeans started to produce more and more interesting startups, combined with exits aka money and skills recycled back into the ecosystem.

Those two factors have become signficant enough so that it would justify the efforts and overheads of the American VC investors to spend more attention and time to the European dealflow.

And then... the pandemic came. And, among many effects, this produced a very interesting context: startup location started to lose in importance since all lead qualification and due dilligence was made via video calls anyways. And this is how more and more American investors started to get active in Europe.

In 2020 we tracked more than 500 American investors active in European deals. In the first 6 weeks of 2021 we tracked more than 150!

We reviewed all those deals and produced a report with 20 VC investors from the US who are actively dealing in Europe.

 

Tiger Global

Tiger's a mammoth active both in public in private deals. Started initially as a hedge fund, launched a private equity business in 2003 and has grown to be one of the largest investment companies in the world.

At the beginning of 2021 they announced raising a new $3.75 billion venture fund called Tiger Private Investment Partners XIV.

It is unclear from their materials who is doing European dealflow, though a little advanced search on Linkedin will produce great results. For media inquiries you should call Rubenstein btw.

Notable Euro deals from the ZIRP period include Flipdish ($50M), Wolt ($530M), Rapyd ($300M), Checkout ($450M), Mambu ($135M) or the French version of Amazon SKU aggregators ($150M). After 2023, Tiger's investment activity in Europe has cooled down.

 

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Since we started with the giants let's stick to giants - Lightspeed's another one. It was founded in 2000 and had 2020 LP commitments announced at $4bn across three funds, covering all stages, geographies and verticals.

In Europe, they have had a partner active in London since 2019 - Lithuanian Rytis Vitkauskas - backed by other US-based partners including Brad Twohig and Nicole Quinn.

European deals include Matillion ($100M), Wintermute ($20M), Personio ($125M) and Multiverse ($44M).

As of 2023, the fund’s partners on the ground in Europe are:

Paul Murphy (London)
Julie Kainz (London)
Alexander Schmitt (Berlin)
Antoine Moyroud (France)

in 2022, Lightspeed Venture Partners announced the closing of $7 billion in commitments for XIV-A/B (Seed to Series B) with $1.98 billion, Select V (follow-ons) with $2.26 billion, Opportunity Fund II (pre-IPO), with $2.36 billion, Lightspeed India Partners with $500 million early stage fund and Lightspeed Faction, an independent team dedicated to blockchain startups.

 

New Enterprise Associates

Giant number 3 - founded in 1977, NEA closed its latest investment vehicle at $3.6 billion in 2019.

They have many office around the US, one in China and one in India, but none in Europe though. That doesn't stop them to invest over here, recent deals include Konux and Omio from Germany and Grid from Iceland.

 

A16Z

A16Z is the youngest of the above-mentioned crowd of monster VC investment firms in the world. Probably with more appeal in the younger early stage crowd - Marc Andreessen, one of the two founders, invented Netscape, back in the day - and famously referred to as a media company with VC as a business model (coined by their former employee Benedict Evans)

Announced a pair of funds totaling $4.5 billion back in November 2020 and they also run Europe business from the US, albeit they had an office in London doing crypto deals in 2023-2024. Andreessen Horowitz is involved in all types of deal sizes and sectors, with recent ones including Labster ($60M), Celo ($20M) or Reface ($5.5M).

 

Accel

Accel was founded in 1983 and went through different stages, shapes and business combinations until it got to what it is today. Today the company has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco and invests in a very large spectrum in seed, early and growth-stage stages.

They have $650 million fund commitments for seed and Series A companies in Europe and Israel announced in 2024 run from London and backed by a team of about 30 people.

Accel is one of the most active American VCs in Europe (non-American either), and recent investments include Personio, Turbine or Lydia.

As of 2023, Accel has five partners in its London office, focused on investments in Europe and Israel:

Sonali De Rycker
Harry Nelis
Philippe Botteri
Andrei Brasoveanu
Luca Bocchio

 

General Catalyst

General Catalyst was founded in 2000 in Cambridge, where it's HQ-ed, and has multiple offices on both American coasts.

In 2020 it announced $2.3 billion in fresh money spread through three funds: a $600 million early-stage fund, a $1 billion growth fund for companies with $10 million-plus in annual revenue and a $700 million “endurance fund” to back large companies doing more than $100 million in sales.

In Europe they were quite active in 2020, having been involved in early deals such as Teooh, Finom or Remote and in bigger transactions such as Contentful, Cazoo or Monzo.

Also notable, they started 2021 with a new Europe boss, the London-based executive Chris Bischoff recruited from Swedish Kinnevik. As of 2023, Bischoff is working with three other partners based in its London office: Juliet Bailin, Zeynep Yavuz and Alexandre Momeni.

• the company has a team in London focusing on Europe and Israel - as of 2023, the team includes Juliet Bailin, Zeynep Yavuz, Alexandre Momeni and Chris Bischoff (managing director).
• in 2022, General Catalyst announced $800 million multistage fund focused on Europe 
• in 2023, General Catalyst acquired the VC seed company from Germany La Famiglia.
• in 2024, General Catalyst announced new funding commitments of ​$8 billion​ consisting of $4.5 billion for seed and growth VC funds, $1.5 billion for its startup creation strategy, and $2 billion for separately managed accounts.

 

Founders Fund

Founders Fund, founded in 2005 by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek, is a venture capital firm that invests at every stage in technology companies.

From the marketing materials, it seems that the European dealflow is done from the US but given that Peter Thiel is German and quite networked on the continent, it is not a big surprise to seee that FF was active last year, mostly in early stage deals - recent transactions include Hoxton Farms, Magdrive or Belvo.

 

Insight Venture Partners

Insight Venture Partners is a growth equity company, sometimes getting involved as early as series A (Anydesk, Coreview), but likely more comfortable in series B and later.

Founded in 1995 and run from New York, it doesn't seem to have a London office either. They did however hire a Finnish guy - Teddie Wardi - a former entrepreneur who worked for Dawn and Atomico in London, before making the move to New York in 2017.

As of 2023, Jonathan Trott seems to be Insight's partner actively dealing in Europe.

in 2024, Insight Partners announced a new $10 billion fund, its 13th.

 

Cathay Innovation

Cathay Innovation was founded in 2015 by a French investor named Denis Barrier together with Mingpo Cai, a Chinese serial entrepreneur living in New York who had founded Cathay Capital in Paris.

Cathay Innovation is headquartered in San-Francisco and is a multi-stage venture capital partnership, affiliated to Cathay Capital - the two entities have about 20 people doing business in Europe from a Paris office.

Recent dealflow includes later stage transactions such as Wallbox, Alma or Firstvet but they also were involved as early as in $10 million deals in Lana or Savana Medica (both from Spain).

• in 2022, Cathay announced Cathay Health, a €500 million global health fund.
• in 2022, Cathay announced Ledger Cathay Capital created in partnership with Ledger, a €100 million early-stage venture fund for Web3 startups.
• in 2022, Cathay announced Cathay Innovation III, with a €1 billion size target, with an emphasis for series B and C, with tickets ranging from €5 million to €80 million, globally.

 

Coatue

Coatue is technically a hedge fund, not a VC, and was founded in New York in 1999 by a French guy - Philippe Laffont, who founded the hedge fund after leaving Tiger Management in 1999.

The VC activity is rather new and exotic, compared to their overall record (2020 was a banner year) - in 2019 Coatue has launched a $700 million venture fund specifically targeted at early-stage investments.

And so in Europe they put the money to work, notable deals including Wolt ($500M), Rapyd ($300M) or Gorillas (only $44M).

 

Spark Capital

Spark is an early stage venture company founded in Boston in 2005, post-dotcombubble. It got its initial fame and record from co-investing with USV (a VC from New York) in Twitter, Foursquare or Tumblr and now is one of the more reputable American early stage backer.

They don't have an European office, but got involved very early stage in Tooh (with General Catalyst) and in Beam, and at later stages with Rapyd and Messagebird.

 

e.ventures

E.ventures, formerly BV Capital, was founded 1997 in California by German people backed by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.

Initially operated solely from the US within the US, in 2019 e.ventures raised a $175 million fund that’s focused on Europe and supported by some 15 people based in Berlin and Hamburg.

The focus is on early stage deals, covering the ground from seed to series B, with recent dealflow including Kili technologies, Exporo, Deadhappy or Podimo.

 

Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer is one of the oldest VCs in the business, with a very long tradition coming from a family business. They invest in the whole spectrum of startups, from very early to very late stages, and run the European dealflow from an office in Israel backed by an US-based team.

Recent Euro deals include Cargo One, Contractbook, Kandou or Streamloots.

As of 2023, Bessemer has two people in the London office: Alex Ferrara and Aditya Nidmarti

 

Sequoia Capital

Sequioa is another traditional American venture company, founded in 1972 and having been involved in many companies which now are the backbone of many economic sectors.

In Europe they opened an office in the summer of 2020, when they poached a Romanian - Luciana Lixandru - from Accel's London office. They already got busy, setting up an angel scout program (they love early stage) and backing deals such as Xentral from Germany or Tillit from Norway.

As of 2023, Sequoia has five Europe-based partners based in its London office:

Luciana Lixandru
George Robson
Matt Miller
Anas Biad
Cornelius Menke

• in 2021, Sequoia announced forming a single fund, open-ended capital vehicle, to hold all of its U.S. and European investments, including stakes in publicly-traded companies
• in 2022, Sequoia announced that it had raised $2.85 billion in additional funds to invest in India and Southeast Asia - in 2023, it spun off into an independent entity called HongShan
• in 2023, Sequoia Capital launched a $195 million dedicated seed fund, its fifth, used to back founders across the United States and Europe.

 

Kleiner Perkins

More tradition - Kleiner Perkins is yet another traditional American VC, founded in 1972.

No European offices either, but active in deals such as Demodesk, CodeSandbox or Omio.

 

Khosla Ventures

Founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a former general partner of Kleiner Perkins.

Also run from the US-only, they have good rep on the street and in Europe got involved in Sword (Portugal), Lub Foods (Sweden), Ava (France) or Quell (UK).

Khosla Ventures has $1.4 billion to invest in early-to-late stage startups - $400 million for seed deals and $1 billion for later-stage companies (both funds closed in 2020).

 

Sapphire Ventures

Sapphire Ventures is the former corporate venture arm of the German software company SAP, which was spun off from in 2011.

It was active mainly in the US until last year when it announced intentions to consolidate a London presence by relocating two of their partners - Kevin Diestel and Thomas Moon - to join existing team members in the office, including Andreas Weiskam and Annalise Dragic.

Sapphire announced at the beginning of 2021 securing investment commitments of $1.7bn across multiple funds. Recent Europe deals include Matillion, Flowhaven and Gorgias.

 

Endeavor Catalyst

Endeavour Catalyst is a co-investment fund of an NGO from New York founded in 1997 and which now invests from a $134M venture capital fund closed in 2019.

Unclear how they operate in Europe, where they say to have three offices - one in Bulgaria, one in Ireland and one in Spain. They got involved in the the $450 million round of Checkout.com, but mostly back very early stage deals. Last year's transactions, besides Checkout, include IronHack, Ladorian and Satispay.

 

FJ Labs

FJ Labs means Fabrice Grinda, a French entrepreneur successful in late 90s, early 2000s and turned investor later on.

Fabrice launched FJ Labs together with Jose Marin (the J in FJ) in New York (where the HQ is) and is a scale up of an initial hybrid investment vehicle which now has backed more than 500 companies.

They are very active (and connected) at very early stages and like to invest in digital marketplaces - Fabrice's specialty since he was young and more inclined to build stuff. :-)

Recent investments include Creative Fabrica, Eneba, Mr Jeff.

Their investments are seed and series A. The investment range of the company is $50,000 to $5,000,000. In 2023, FJ Labs closed on $260 million combining two new funds across a pre-seed fund and an opportunity-style “Series B and beyond” fund.

 

Left Lane Capital

As of 2023 Left Lance Capital has five partners based in a London office:

Paddy Dillon
Coraline Kamuleta
Georgia Forbes
Shash Jha
Kenza Zayani