Insights|
Lakestar announces closing of its latest fund generation for $600 million, investing in technology advancing Europe’s digital sovereignty
We are happy to announce the recent closing of our latest funds, Lakestar Early IV and Lakestar Growth II, for around $600 million to inject new capital into the next generation of European start-ups, bringing Lakestar’s assets under management to €2bn.
As a long-standing champion for Europe’s digital sovereignty, Lakestar invests in disruptive businesses enabled by technology and founded by exceptional entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond, through dedicated early-stage and growth funds.
Both new funds will focus their investments across geographies, with a focus on Europe in sectors such as AI, digitalisation, deep tech, healthcare, and fintech. The funds are aligned with Lakestar’s commitment to forge a stronger future for Europe by nurturing the region’s innovation and tech ecosystem through the funding of business models which support economic growth and social prosperity. These new funds have already led investments in tech companies such as energy supplier platform Fuse Energy (UK), embedded finance solution Swan (France), healthtech company Nelly (Germany), NEKO Health (Sweden), the preventative health care technology company co-founded by Daniel Ek, and AI text-to-video technology platform Colossyan (UK/Hungary).
With the closing of the two funds, Lakestar will deploy new capital backed by a mix of limited partners (LPs), including sovereign wealth funds, family offices, fund of fund investors and other institutional and individual players, including founders. The closing of Lakestar Early IV and Lakestar Growth II places Lakestar in a strong position to further deepen its impact on Europe’s entrepreneurial community.
"We provide founders with the resources, mentorship, and network needed to succeed in building the technology that help solve the challenges reshaping the world"
Klaus Hommels, Founder and Chairman of Lakestar said: “With world class universities and leading research facilities, Europe is home to some of the world’s best centers of innovation which are at the forefront of sectors critical for Europe’s sovereignty such as AI, digitalisation, healthcare, deep tech, and fintech. With the closure of our early and growth stage funds, our focus is to nurture talent from seed to series B and beyond. We provide founders with the resources, mentorship, and network needed to succeed in building the technology that helps industries and countries capitalise on opportunities and solve the challenges reshaping the world. I am a firm believer that nurturing technology is fundamental to our prosperity - in an era where Europe's sovereignty is more crucial than ever, Europe is only as strong as its innovation ecosystem. We take pride in attracting new and existing investors to our new funds, which are built on our proven strategy.”
"Lakestar is not just an investor, we are also a partner and champion for European technology, committed to ensuring the region continues to play a leading role in shaping the technological future"
Ninja Struye, Partner, Chief Communication Officer and Head of Investor Relations at Lakestar said: “This is a strong vote of confidence in our proven strategy. Lakestar is not just an investor, we are also a partner and champion for European technology, committed to ensuring the region continues to play a leading role in shaping the technological future. Despite the challenging market conditions, we welcome aboard insurance companies, pension funds and other institutional investors, signaling a new direction for the European tech ecosystem and demonstrating the growing recognition that Europe is home to some of the brightest and best entrepreneurs. Over half of our investment capital comes from Europe, followed by Asia and MENA. Lakestar’s ability to unlock funding opportunities across the broader European ecosystem and strengthen Europe’s tech sovereignty has attracted new and existing LPs to our latest fund generations.”
Lakestar’s new funds are complemented by the company’s partnership with some of the leading European Tech Universities, such as TUM (UnternehmerTUM), (voted number 1 startup hub in Europe according to the FT), ETH, Aachen and Oxford. Its advisory board includes well-known names both from the business and political community, helping founders with connections or questions in the political and regulatory environment. Lakestar also continues to invest alongside some of Europe’s best-known angels through its ‘Halo Fund’, a community-based angel programme designed to co-invest with European angels in pre-seed stage deals.
Lakestar is supported by a diverse team of 40, spanning 15 nationalities across London, Berlin, and Zurich and takes an active role in supporting its portfolio which includes the likes of Revolut, IsarAerospace, sennder, AccurX and Builder.ai. In addition to financial resources, Lakestar provides access to its extensive partner and founder ecosystem, expertise, extensive network, and influential voice to drive its companies to success and strengthen Europe’s tech sovereignty. The company also recently co-published its latest edition of the ‘State of Quantum Report’ along with its third iteration of the ‘European Deep Tech’ report.
