GoStudent and wefox-backer Speedinvest has began a fund of funds programme to again rising pre-seed and micro VCs — the newest instance of a longtime VC beginning to spend money on different managers.
“It’s about how we may also help first-time fund managers scale from a $10m fund to $500m,” says Deepali Nangia, the Speedinvest accomplice main the programme. “They be taught from us, we assist them scale. Sure, we would get early entry to some offers, however that’s not the intent — it truly is an ecosystem improvement exercise.”
Speedinvest, one in every of Europe’s most lively seed traders, will make investments €3m throughout 10-12 early-stage managers based mostly around the globe, together with rising markets like Latam and Africa. There could also be some stage overlap, however Deepali says the goal is to get extra information about smaller tech ecosystems specifically.
At the least 50% of the GPs can be ladies or from different historically underrepresented backgrounds.
Nangia says that the agency was initially contemplating making a scout programme, much like many opponents; she herself is an alum of Atomico’s angel programme. However it might’ve been troublesome to handle all of the small investments made by such a programme, Nangia says, therefore a fund of funds.
As Europe’s tech ecosystem matures, so too has the variety of smaller VC corporations — and funds to again them. There are at the least 15 fund of funds backing rising managers within the area, in keeping with Sifted evaluation, greater than half of which have been based previously three years. A number of European VCs have fund of funds programmes, together with Phoenix Court docket Group and Molten Ventures.
Speedinvest introduced in December it had raised €500m in new funds to again pre-seed and seed-stage firms and follow-on in profitable firms.
What’s the USP?
Speedinvest has already made two investments in managers by the programme. The primary was into Fund F, which introduced the primary shut of its first fund to again purely feminine founders final 12 months. The second funding hasn’t been introduced, however Nangia says the crew consists of 1 lady and one male accomplice.
Nangia says she will get plenty of supervisor pitches, however her query is all the time: “What’s the USP [unique selling point]?”
“That’s what I wrestle with essentially the most — how do I justify? A lot of them have little or no monitor document.”
In these instances, she says she seems to be for some kind of differentiation. Or she would possibly ask the related sector traders at Speedinvest for his or her tackle the supervisor’s angel portfolio. And, after all, reference calls with founders or former employers.
Nangia additionally says she prefers to have an current relationship with GPs earlier than going into any type of due diligence course of.
“I met quite a lot of model new GPs that we now have not had any interactions with. Wherein case, I need to get to know them higher,” she says.
Nangia says the following steps for the programme are to create a neighborhood and a curriculum to educate first-time fund managers on the fundamentals resembling model constructing, portfolio building and methods to assist portfolio firms. Speedinvest will even assist with LP introductions and due diligence.
Eleanor Warnock is Sifted’s deputy editor and cohost of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, and writes Up Spherical, a weekly publication on VC. She tweets from @misssaxbys
