Hoxton’s first fund has delivered some of the highest returns in Europe, with three of its investments going public last year: Deliveroo, Darktrace, and Babylon Health.
Hoxton Ventures announced that it has closed a $215 million new fund, Hoxton III, which will be used to build and scale Europe’s most promising early-stage startups. The fund was significantly oversubscribed and exceeded its target of $150 million by 43 percent. The company also announced that Charles Seely joined the team as an equal partner.
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“This is our largest fund yet and a reflection of the emergence of Europe as a growth market for tech startups,” said Hussein Kanji, a partner at Hoxton. “When we started Hoxton eight years ago, there was doubt that Europe could produce winning tech companies. Last year, Europe attracted more capital than China with $116 billion invested, up from $8 billion a decade ago. There are great companies being built in Europe, and we’re proud to be one of the earliest American VCs to spot this opportunity.”
Hoxton’s first fund has delivered some of the highest returns in Europe, with three of its investments going public last year: Deliveroo, Darktrace, and Babylon Health. The firm invests in seed-stage companies that are building new market categories and that intend to expand into the U.S. market.
“We look for companies that have the ambition to scale globally, not just locally.” said Charles Seely, an entrepreneur and investor who relocated to London from Silicon Valley. “Our goal is to be the first and best partner for European founders with the ambition to scale. I spent most of my life building and investing in companies at a seed stage, and look forward to using my connections in the U.S. to help our portfolio expand outside of the European market.”
Hoxton has made 63 investments to date, with 19 from the new fund. Four investments are currently worth over a billion dollars. The new fund gives Hoxton the ability to make larger investments at inception, and to make follow-on investments in the portfolio’s future rounds.
One of those startups is UK grocery delivery company, Bother. Hoxton led a $6 million seed round in October 2021 in the company, which uses AI to pre-fill customer’s baskets with items based on previous buying frequency. Today, Bother is one of Europe’s fastest growing startups.
Seely co-led the investment in Bother with Hoxton partner Rob Kniaz. “With Bother, we’re the first check in an entirely new category of grocery delivery. Hoxton isn’t scared to be contrarian and invest early, as long as we believe the company has the potential to grow into a global leader,” said Kniaz.
Seely was most recently an advisor to Cambridge Quantum, which merged with Honeywell Quantum Solutions to form Quantinuum. He also led 60+ early stage investments at his prior fund, including investments in Honey, Maven, Ouster, Zipline, and Zume.
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