{"id":170428,"date":"2025-09-30T13:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/170428\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:05:06","slug":"notion-capital-raises-130m-growth-fund-to-tackle-europes-follow-on-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/170428\/","title":{"rendered":"Notion Capital raises $130M growth fund to tackle Europe’s follow-on gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lack of growth capital in Europe is such a persisting issue that some early-stage firms have taken the matter into their own hands. London-headquartered firm Notion Capital<\/a> is one of them.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Notion Capital was one of the first in Europe to close an opportunities fund<\/a> to provide its portfolio companies with follow-on capital. Now, it has closed a $130 million growth fund, nearly twice the size of its previous one, that will also invest outside of its portfolio, TechCrunch learned exclusively. <\/p>\n

U.S. VCs that used to fill the growth capital gap currently tend to focus more on their own market, said managing partner Stephen Chandler, noting that \u201copens up an opportunity for European firms like ourselves to make up some of that difference and be real European champions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the European companies Notion intends to \u201cchampion\u201d from its new Growth Opps III fund are tied to the growing demand for more sovereignty, including those specializing in defense and supply chain logistics. But like many, the VC firm is also drawn to AI, which Chandler sees as a super cycle causing \u201ca profound shift in the way that software is delivered and consumed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notion Capital won\u2019t invest in the infrastructure layer such as large language models. Instead, the firm sees opportunities in the application layer that will \u201cmassively increase\u201d the size of its market, Chandler said. While Notion\u2019s flagship fund has historically been known for its strong penchant for SaaS, cloud, and fintech, these will now be AI-infused, and joined by new verticals.<\/p>\n

The firm expects to make a dozen investments and has already started deploying its capital from the funds. Deals, to date, include Upvest<\/a>, a stock trading API out of its early-stage portfolio, as well as external companies Kraken<\/a>, which makes dual-use unmanned surface vessels, and Nelly<\/a>, a startup that builds software and financial products for the medical sector, according to Notion Capital.<\/p>\n

To give itself some \u201crobust objectivity,\u201d in Chandler\u2019s words, follow-on deals will be conducted by dedicated growth fund partners who will also \u201cgo out and source growth stage opportunities outside of the portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

One of them is existing Notion Capital partner Stephanie Opdam<\/a> (on the left of the picture). She will now drive this growth strategy alongside Jessica \u201cJess\u201d Bartos<\/a>, formerly a principal at Salesforce Ventures. A U.S. national, Bartos is also Notion Capital\u2019s first external partner hire (previous partners were promoted internally.)<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this was a new strategy, we felt we could benefit from external expertise at that growth stage,\u201d Chandler said. <\/p>\n

Subsequent growth funds may also be easier to raise. While Europe has suffered from a lack of pension funds investing in venture capital firms, incentives have started to change in several countries, including France with the Tibi initiative<\/a> and the U.K. with the Mansion House Accord<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite its British roots, Notion Capital isn\u2019t solely dependent on the U.K.\u2019s regulatory framework; this latest Growth Opps III fund is denominated in euros and Luxembourg-based.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To raise this new vehicle, which brings its assets under management to over $1 billion, the firm relied on its existing relationships with limited partners from across continental Europe, the U.K., MENA and the U.S. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like 85% of our money comes from institutions; and within that, we\u2019re very well geographically dispersed,\u201d Chandler said.<\/p>\n

But while recent initiatives to mobilize long-term institutional capital\u00a0 \u201c[weren\u2019t] really a feature in this fund,\u201d he added, \u201cthe signs are extremely positive, and that\u2019s great [for] addressing that fundamental problem we started with, in terms of some of the gaps in growth capital we have in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this finally works out and more LPs participate in growth stage investing, this could translate into more competition for Notion Capital. At least at the growth stage, where it is less established than at the early stage<\/a>. However, Chandler sees both as a continuum.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur real competitive advantage in this growth strategy is leveraging the reach that we have in our early stage strategy,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cMost growth funds don\u2019t have that. They\u2019re out there trying to do all of their sourcing at the growth stage once they put their head above the parapet in terms of scale and momentum.\u201d <\/p>\n

In contrast, he said, Notion Capital has many touch points with founders over the years, including through its very active platform team, and is flexible in terms of its check size.<\/p>\n

Despite its expanded scope, Growth Opps III\u2019s main asset arguably remains Notion Capital\u2019s portfolio. The firm has invested in more than 150 startups since its inception, including Currencycloud, GoCardless, Mews, Paddle, and Quantum Systems. While some are pre-AI or have been exited, the remaining companies likely include future champions \u2014 a track record that should make external companies more willing to take their growth checks, even if growth capital becomes less scarce in Europe.<\/p>\n

This article was update to reflect which company Notion Capital invested in; it was Kraken Technology<\/a>, not Octopus Energy spinoff Kraken<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lack of growth capital in Europe is such a persisting issue that some early-stage firms have taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,76705,76706,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-170428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-growth-stage","11":"tag-notion-capital","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}