Crowberry Capital raises $90m fund

Crowberry Capital has raised a $90m fund and expect to $40m to close in 2022.

The EIF (European Investment Fund) is the lead LP having signed a €20 million participation in Crowberry Fund II, with backing from the EU’s “InnovFin Equity” programme. Other investors include Icelandic Pension funds, several family offices, and angels including David Helgason, founder of Unity Technologies.

Crowberry Capital was founded by Hekla Arnardottir, Helga Valfells and Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir in 2017 and their first fund was $40m which backed 15 companies.

With its new fund, Crowberry Capital is happy to commit early either as a lead investor or as part of a syndicate. According to Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir, “Crowberry is focused on seed stage tech companies and monitors trends and innovation emerging from the Nordics.

Furthermore, the team behind Crowberry wants to enhance its mission to support different voices, correspondingly bringing new opportunities and strengths to the Nordic startup ecosystem. As Hekla Arnardottir comments, “An incorrect assumption is that because we are women, we are only interested in supporting female founders. As our investment record shows, we support companies because they are game-changers, irrespective of the gender of their senior team members.” She goes on to say that “Inclusivity is good for business, and through being open and approachable, your deal flow multiplies in parallel to your talent pool, and businesses are built with a broader potential user base. It’s crazy that in 2020,female-led startups received just 2.3% of VC Funding, yet Crowberry considers this to be an opportunity”