Venture capital fund run by former Facebook and Deliveroo employees raises $85m
A venture capital fund run by former Facebook, Deliveroo and Klarna employees has raised $85m. (£64.5m)
The Blossom Capital fund is the first launched by ex-Index Ventures and Localglobe investor Ophelia Brown, 32, and is the fastest ever first time fundraise from a female VC in Europe.
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The fund’s partners include former Deliveroo chief technology officer and director of product at Facebook Mike Hudack, Louise Samet, who spent six years leading the technical sales team at Klarna, and Imran Ghory, who previously led data-driven deal sourcing at Index.
London-based Blossom Capital is aiming to bring the “best of West Coast investing practice” to European technology startups, with typical investments between the $5m to $10m range.
The Silicon Valley experience means the team are able to “work closely with the founders, knowing how to set the foundations for exponential growth,” and replicate that success in Europe, Brown told City PM
“That is the outcome that we are thinking about,” she said.
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"Traditionally European Venture has been dominated by non-technical investors,” Ghory said.
“We’ve found having the majority of the investment team with engineering, product and data backgrounds at Blossom makes a huge difference to founders who know we speak their language."