London-based Claret Capital raises €297m fund to back European tech startups

London-based Claret Capital raises €297m fund to back European tech startups

Published: 31-08-2022 12:03:00 | By: Pie Kamau | hits: 3589 | Tags:

Claret Capital, the London-based Pan-European growth capital provider, announced the final closing of Claret European Growth Capital Fund III (Fund III), to back European tech startups. With total commitments of €297 million, the firm has closed well over its original target of €250 million, extending Claret’s position as one of the leaders within the European growth lending sector.

The final close of Fund III includes commitments from a broad range of leading institutional investors who continue to support Claret within the debt financing market. Repeat investors include EIF, British Business Investments, RAG-Stiftung, Certior Capital and KfW Capital. In addition to the final close of Fund III, a number of co-investment agreements have been finalised which provide substantial additional firepower to offer loan facilities of up to €50 million.

Since the first investment from Fund III in March 2021, Claret has welcomed 29 businesses into the Fund III portfolio. Fund III will continue to invest in innovative growth stage technology and life science businesses throughout Europe - primarily to support organic growth and M&A. Taken together, the final close of Fund III and the co-invest vehicles enable Claret to support businesses with over €500 million of capital in the next three years with which we expect to support an additional 50-60 new companies.

Johan Kampe, Managing Partner, Claret: “We are proud to have closed our third Fund over target and will continue to support existing portfolio companies in the Fund & future European growth businesses. From enterprise software, to fintech startups to marketplaces – we look forward to partnering with leadership teams disrupting the industries they work in. In a market where uncertainty is impacting venture capital funding, the outlook remains positive in growth financing and we’re excited to grow our portfolio business and founders.”

Claret was formed through the MBO of Harbert European Growth Capital (“Harbert”) in 2020. Over the past nine years, the team behind Claret has become one of the preeminent providers of growth debt to SMEs in Europe, backing over 150 companies and investing more than half a billion euros. Recent exits include numerous acquisitions such as: Packlink (acquired by Auctane), Aava (acquired by Pepperl & Fuchs), Bright Computing (acquired by NVIDIA), Miss Group (bought out by Perwyn & management), SuperAwesome (acquired by EPIC Group), Synthesio (acquired by IPSOS), AdaptiveMobile (acquired by Enea), Longboat Clinical (acquired by Advarra), and Decibel (acquired by Medallia), as well as publicly held businesses Eurobio Scientific (EPA: ALERS), SFC Energy (F3C.DE).   

The Fund III commitments have come from a wide group of premier institutional investors and include five new institutional investors; Allied Irish Banks, Aozora Bank, Banca March, HNA, and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), as well as entrepreneurs and industry experts. Claret will continue its mission of providing low dilution growth capital to innovative European companies.

David Bateman, Managing Partner, Claret: “We have been delighted by the response to our third fund. Closing above target underlines the tremendous opportunity that we have within the wider European tech & life sciences sector. We are seeing a strong demand for our capital from Europe’s best entrepreneurs and equity investors. We look forward to supporting the companies in the Fund and our new investments as they work to deliver their ground-breaking innovations to market.”

Claret Capital funds high growth business with proven management teams in need of less dilutive capital to drive their continued ambitions. Loans vary in size but are typically between €1 million to €50 million, with each business evaluated on an independent basis by our team of experienced investment professionals.

www.claret-capital.com