Picus Capital Management announces First Close of new EUR 200M fund, Picus Venture Fund II

  • Picus Capital Management has announced the first close of its second vintage, Picus Venture Fund II, with 70% closed to date

  • Partnering with private markets platform Titanbay, Fund II underlying investors include anchor M&G – a leading savings and investment company – investing from the firm’s £5 billion Catalyst fund, a purpose-led private asset strategy which invests in innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest environmental and social challenges

  • Further partners include European family offices with deep-rooted entrepreneurial history across industry champions and prominent tech unicorns, some of whom are participating again after having invested in Fund I

  • Picus Venture Fund II will invest predominantly in the most promising portfolio winners globally, leveraging the invaluable access and information advantage generated by Picus Capital’s unique early-stage investment approach to seek outsized return outcomes via a de-risked setup

Munich, February 8th, 2024 – In the face of a challenging market environment impacting global private market fundraising globally, international venture capital firm Picus Capital Management announces its first close of the Picus Venture Fund II at 70% of its target fund size. This vintage is more than double the size of its predecessor, Picus Venture Fund I, which Picus Capital had sponsored in 2021. Picus Capital Management now aims for a final closing of the fund within the next months.

Fund II will continue the firm’s strategy of identifying and doubling down on portfolio winners globally, leveraging the unique insights and access advantages derived from the early-stage, privately-financed portfolio. With nine offices worldwide, Picus Capital continues to back entrepreneurs at the earliest stages whilst the Venture Fund strategy bolsters the capabilities in continuing to support the most promising portfolio companies and their founders throughout the important growth stages.

Partnering with blue-chip institutional and corporate investors as well as highly regarded family offices, Picus Venture Fund II is the next vintage of the double-down strategy following the successful launch of Fund I in 2021, a ~€100M fund that was raised amongst a closed network of investors and was oversubscribed in less than 7 months.

Raphael Mukomilow, Partner and Head of Growth, says: “We are really pleased to announce this strong first close for Venture Fund II with already good visibility towards our target fund size and beyond and deem this as a great testament to our unique strategy and our ability to provide great risk-adjusted returns even despite a volatile venture capital market. It is an exciting evolution for the Venture Fund strategy and we are delighted to be investing alongside an impressive set of partners, both new and existing. Our strategic collaboration with partners such as M&G’s Catalyst underlines our strength and commitment to backing purpose-led technology companies with strong focus on sustainability – an area of significant importance within the Picus Venture Fund strategy.”

Robin Godenrath, Founding Partner and Managing Director, adds: “Picus Capital’s unique approach of entrepreneurial sparring at the earliest stages means we are often the first investor for the most daring of founders. Now, with the reinforced capabilities from Picus Venture Fund II, we are well placed to continue backing these entrepreneurs at the most crucial stage of their company’s growth. Since the founding of Picus Capital in 2015, the firm has built a high-quality portfolio of over 200 companies which today represents a significant pipeline of opportunities to leverage our unique insights and access derived from backing these businesses at the earliest stage.”

About Picus Capital and Picus Capital Management
Picus Capital is an international venture capital firm with headquarters in Munich and offices in New York, Beijing, Berlin, London, Bangalore, Singapore, Paris and Mexico City. Picus Capital Management is the group’s fund management unit. Picus Capital partners with entrepreneurs from the earliest stages to growth with Picus Capital Management’s Venture Fund strategy. The firm focuses on technology companies in financial services, HR, energy & climate, healthcare, logistics & mobility, real estate & construction, crypto & web3, deeptech and e-commerce. As an entrepreneurial sparring partner, Picus Capital pursues a long-term investment philosophy and supports founders from the ideation phase to the IPO and beyond.

The privately financed investment firm, Picus Capital, has a strong track record in backing leading tech companies, having been the first investor in multiple unicorns such as Personio (last valued at 8.5B USD) and Enpal (last valued at 2.2B EUR), generating an annual IRR north of 50% since inception.

For further information please visit www.picuscap.com and www.linkedin.com/company/picus-capital

 

Press contact

Katryna Nolan
Communications Lead
katryna.nolan@picuscap.com


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