TechCrunch
Atomico, the VC firm co-founded and led by Niklas Zennstrom of Skype fame, has just announced its third and biggest fund, $475 million, which the firm says it will use mainly for later-stage rounds in startups to help them scale. Taking a page from Zennstrom’s own entrepreneurial trajectory — Skype started in Estonia — Atomico has put a lot of emphasis on finding and funding startups outside of Silicon Valley, and that is exactly where it plans to invest this latest fund, too. “This is absolutely global,” a spokesperson told me, “but primarily outside Silicon Valley.” Total funds under management by Atomico are at $850 million.
Atomico notes that this third fund is three times the size of its previous fund and was oversubscribed — a testament to the company’s track record, but also to how investors are increasingly looking beyond tech’s epicenter to find new opportunities. This was not the case a decade ago.