Today Runa Capital, an international venture capital firm founded and led by serial tech entrepreneurs, today announced the final closing of the €144 million Runa Capital Fund III. The fund was oversubscribed, exceeding its original target of €124 million. The fund will be looking to invest in innovative deeptech startups across both Europe and the US.
Runa Capital typically invests between €920K and €9 million in early-stage companies, predominantly Series A rounds. The firm has a strong interest in cloud infrastructure, open source software, AI and machine intelligence, B2B SaaS, and tech companies that aim to revolutionize traditional regulated markets such as finance, education, and healthcare. With the third fund, Runa Capital plans to additionally focus on deep tech and quantum startups.
“We’ve been around as VCs for 10 years building a truly global and founder-friendly firm, accumulating tremendous experience, and a deep understanding of markets and founders’ needs,” Dmitry Chikhachev, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Runa Capital, said. “Now, we are excited to see many of our portfolio companies’ founders investing in Runa Capital III, along with tech-savvy LPs from all parts of the world, who supported us in all of our funds from day one. In my view, it is an enormous compliment to our efforts. We invested in deep tech long before it became the mainstream for venture capital, betting on Nginx in 2011, Wallarm and ID Quantique in 2013, and MariaDB in 2014. Our tech expertise allows us to swiftly navigate the fields of open source software, machine learning, and quantum computing as they become increasingly important in our changing world”.
Through ongoing support offered to its portfolio companies, Runa has created a tight-knit and collaborative community of founders. Founders of current and previous portfolio companies, including Nginx, Brainly, Ecwid, Final and Rocketbank, have also invested in the third fund. In addition, Jinal Jhaveri, ex-CEO and founder of Schoolmint, a former portfolio company of Runa Capital which was acquired by Hero K12, joined the firm as a Venture Partner.
“I was very impressed with Runa because they are founder-friendly and very helpful with everything, including strategy, sales growth, marketing, talent acquisition, M&A, and facilitating connections with industry leaders. Their prior entrepreneurial experience helped Schoolmint tremendously,” Jhaveri adds. “I am fortunate to join Runa as a Venture Partner, and I am excited to continue leveraging my prior experience to help entrepreneurs build their companies. I have been making angel and secondary investments for years and love to help other entrepreneurs in their journey.”
Runa Capital operates globally, from its HQ in Palo Alto to its offices throughout Europe, including Paris and London. Its newest office opened in Berlin in early 2020. German investments have included Berlin-based Smava and Mambu, as well as and the recently added Monedo (former Kreditech), Vehiculum, and N8N (a co-investment with Sequoia Capital). However, the firm is not just looking for German startups – it’s scouting Europe-wide, having invested in more than 70 companies both in Europe and North America between 2010-2019.
