By Elliot Gulliver-Needham
Venture platform Plural has launched a second fund aiming to raise €400m (£342.6m) for early stage ‘tech titans’.
The firm, which began in June 2022, was founded by Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, along with other entrepreneurs such as Songkick founder Ian Hogarth and angel investor Khaled Heloui.
Over the last 18 months, the firm’s original fund has financed over 26 firms working in climate and energy, AI and frontier tech.
The new fund will continue the firm’s mission to have ‘GDP-level impact’ in Europe, as well as addressing systemic risks and reducing the opportunity gap.
Plural has previously raised funds from a wide range of sources, including UK and US university endowments, US foundations and insurers, strategic family offices from Europe and the US and VC fund of funds.
Carina Namih, partner at Plural, said: “When we launched Plural 18 months ago, we knew that European founders were being underserved by a lack of operators turned investors but even we couldn’t have predicted so much appetite for a different approach.
“We’re galvanised by the trust the founders have placed in us to support them on their journeys tackling serious problems from developing clean energy that will save the planet to making the internet safer.
“With Fund II, we want to take this new model of investing even deeper into the European ecosystem, where startup creation continues to outpace the US, providing a huge opportunity that we have a responsibility to maximise.”
Hinrikus added: “We know that significant technology is being built across Europe – more than 40 per cent of European tech investment in the past year has gone into frontier and deep tech.
“Founders tackling major world problems through technology are exactly the types of companies we are backing at Plural.
“By supporting the most ambitious founders with our hard-won experience, we’re determined to build enduring global companies that will have a GDP-level impact and be transformative for economies and society.”
