The Nordic red-hot startup motion continues. On Tuesday, Neil Murray, founder and basic accomplice at Copenhagen-based agency The Nordic Internet Ventures, introduced the shut of a $6 million Fund III to proceed investing in early-stage founders within the area.
The fund will give attention to writing the primary institutional checks to corporations targeted on robotics, AI-native corporations, and deep tech founders.
Murray, a solo GP, advised TechCrunch that his first two funds have been “check automobiles” to show his potential to identify and spend money on prime expertise within the area. Now, seven years later, he has written the primary test into greater than 50 corporations, with a portfolio together with the unicorn Lovable and the distant employee insurance coverage firm SafetyWing, and exits like the UI design firm Uizard.
As TechCrunch beforehand reported, the Nordic ecosystem (which incorporates Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) is now valued at greater than half a trillion {dollars} and obtained greater than $8 billion in enterprise funding in 2024, making the area one of many hottest rising markets in Europe. Murray mentioned Fund III had greater than $20 million in investor curiosity, however he determined to cap it at $6 million as a result of he cares “extra about alignment than AUM.”
Staying small, he mentioned, means he can higher tie incentives to efficiency somewhat than administration charges. He additionally mentioned staying small, particularly as a solo GP, offers him extra flexibility whereas “everybody else continues to be debating.”
“Capping the fund wasn’t a constraint,” he mentioned. “It was the technique.”
The test sizes for the fund will likely be round $200,000, and he hopes to again between 30 and 35 corporations. “I imagine it’s extra vital to be investing in Tier 1 founders than to again Tier 2 founders and over-optimizing for possession,” he mentioned.
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Murray’s restricted accomplice base consists of institutional backers comparable to Allocater One, founder Christoph Janz, and Pacenotes. Founders from Kahoot! And Pleo, along with operators from Meta and Google, can be LPs in Fund III.
“Many founders from my first two funds have invested in my new fund, which can be an extremely vital metric to me,” he mentioned, including that he’s already returned greater than half the capital he raised throughout Fund I and Fund II.
His Fund III focuses on AI, robotics, and client, he mentioned, as a result of these are among the prime sectors within the Nordic area. Shopper has at all times been a prime class within the sector, as TechCrunch beforehand spoke about on a podcast in regards to the area.
The area can be recognized for its pc science, engineering tradition, and manufacturing, which, paired with a “calm methodical construct model,” positions the Nordics nicely for “AI-powered robotics in industrial, healthcare, logistics, and more and more client context.”
Although he has a eager curiosity within the Nordics, Murray truly hails from the UK and moved to Denmark in 2013 with out figuring out a single particular person, he recalled.
“I used to be very serious about tech startups, having labored in digital merchandise in London,” he continued. When he moved to Copenhagen, he realized the ecosystem has had a giant contribution to the tech world, although individuals hardly spoke up about it. That led him to start out the web site “The Nordic Internet,” the place he broke down what was occurring behind the curtains of the bugeoning tech scene there.
That web site noticed him monitoring investments and exits and shortly, VCs have been asking him which founders have been on the lookout for capital. Quickly, Murray wished in on the motion, and in 2017, launched a $500,000 Fund I. He stopped writing The Nordic Internet shortly after to focus extra on investing. And all of that has led him right here.
“Total, the Nordics aren’t experiencing a ‘second,’” he mentioned. “They’re experiencing a compounding. The depth of expertise, the ambition stage, and the maturity of the ecosystem imply this wave isn’t a spike; it’s the inspiration of the subsequent decade of Nordic breakout corporations.”
