OTB Ventures announced that it has closed a €170 million significantly oversubscribed fund, to build and scale Europe’s most promising early-stage deeptech startups. Fund 2 will be backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), Isomer Capital, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Foundation for Polish Science, TDJ Venture, Snowflake co-Founder Marcin Zukowski and OnDean, the family office of the Founders of Relativity.
The dedicated Deep-Tech fund, which is the largest VC with roots in Central Eastern Europe, will invest in four core verticals across Europe; SpaceTech, Enterprise Automation & AI, Cybersecurity and FinTech Infrastructure. Mirroring the funding strategy of OTB Ventures’ Fund 1 and utilising the Partner’s strong track record for identifying winners in emerging technology sectors at an early stage, Fund 2 will be used predominantly for Series A investments, with a new up to 10% allocation for Seed funding to support the growth of promising ventures at their inception.
OTB Fund 2 will reserve more than 50% of its capital for follow-on investments to support additional funding rounds in the best-performing portfolio companies. OTB Ventures will continue to maintain meaningful minority stakes in its portfolio companies.
Adam Niewiński, co-Founder and Managing Partner of OTB Ventures, said: “We are thrilled to announce the successful closure of our latest fund, a testament to the enduring confidence our investors have shown in us. This achievement comes despite the market still being somewhat challenging, building on the proven success of Fund 1. Our new fund empowers us to further our mission of supporting disruptive DeepTech startups that are leveraging Europe’s outstanding tech talent pool – the biggest natural resource that our continent can offer.”
Marcin Hejka, co-Founder and Managing Partner of OTB Ventures, commented: “This is our largest fund yet and a reflection of Europe’s emergence as a growth market for DeepTech startups and technology talent. DeepTech is in our blood and has been our core strategy since we founded OTB in 2017, so this milestone not only marks a significant achievement for our firm but also reaffirms our dedication to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.”
The announcement follows the first close of Fund 2 in November 2022. It has already made nine investments from the fund across the target sectors, three Series A and six Seed investments. This includes a Series A investment in productivity and task mining platform KYP.ai and Seed investments in AI enterprise automation startup akirolabs and enterprise database enrichment company Veridion.
It also follows a recent seed investment in SEMRON, the Dresden-based startup that produces AI chips with the highest compute density, marking an increased focus for OTB Ventures in semiconductor technology. OTB Ventures has also strengthened its SpaceTech line up within its portfolio, having invested in space debris removal leader ClearSpace, Atmos Space Cargo, and Kurs Orbital, an Italian startup that aims to democratise in-the orbit servicing and space logistics markets.
Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), added: “OTB and the NATO Innovation Fund share a passion for deep tech dual-use technologies, investing into ambitious founders to secure an enduring future for the Alliance’s one billion citizens. Our first 1 billion flagship fund invests at the intersection of deep tech, defence, security, and resilience, with themes including energy, quantum computing, autonomy, climate, industrials, space, and biotechnology. OTB fully aligns with our mission. NIF operates as a standalone VC, leading both early stage direct investments and fund-of-funds.”
Marjut Falkstedt, CEO of the European Investment Fund (EIF), said: “Our aim is to foster innovation, build new markets, strengthen competitiveness and boost jobs and growth throughout the EU. This is why we are delighted to be renewing our collaboration with OTB Ventures, with the financial backing of the InvestEU programme, in order to support deeptech companies across Europe and help them to overcome their financing challenges. This is important as much for the companies that we will be supporting, as it is for the EU’s competitiveness on the global stage.”
Mateusz Sumara, Investment Director, TDJ Venture, commented: “Looking at the achievements of Adam Niewinski and Marcin Hejka’s team, I am convinced that we have joined the ranks of partners to the European leader in the deep tech sector. Their exceptional ability to identify innovative projects with high potential is confirmed by the investments of the first fund, and the second fund looks equally promising. I’m glad that even though TDJ Venture focuses on projects in the growth stage, we can support startups in earlier stages thanks to teams like OTB Ventures.”
