This week, investment firm Lakestar closed its latest funds, Lakestar Early IV and Lakestar Growth II, at approximately $600 million to inject fresh capital into the next generation of European startups, bringing Lakestar’s assets under management to €2 billion.
Both new funds will invest across the region, with a focus on Europe, in sectors including AI, digitalisation, deep tech, healthcare and fintech.
The funding is in line with Lakestar’s commitment to foster the region’s innovation and technology ecosystem and build a stronger European future through funding business models that support economic growth and social prosperity.
These new funds have already led investments in technology companies such as energy delivery platform Fuse Energy (UK), embedded finance solution Swan (France), health tech company Nelly (Germany), preventive health technology company NEKO Health (Sweden), co-founded by Daniel Ek, and AI text-video tech platform Colossyan (UK/Hungary).
With the closing of the two funds, Lakestar will deploy new capital with the backing of a range of limited partners (LPs), including sovereign wealth funds, family offices, fund of funds investors and other institutional and private investors (including founders). The closing of Lakestar Early IV and Lakestar Growth II puts Lakestar in a strong position to further deepen its impact on the European entrepreneurial community.
Klaus Homels, Founder and Chairman of Lakestar, said:
“With its world-class universities and cutting-edge research facilities, Europe is home to some of the world’s best innovation centres at the forefront of areas of vital importance to European sovereignty, including AI, digitalisation, healthcare, deep tech and fintech.”
“I firmly believe that nurturing technology is the foundation of our prosperity. At a time when European sovereignty has never been more important, Europe’s strength depends on the strength of its innovation ecosystem. We are proud to be attracting new and existing investors to our new fund, which is built on a proven strategy.”
Lakestar’s new funding is complemented by the company’s partnerships with some of Europe’s leading technical universities, including TUM (UnternehmerTUM), ETH, Aachen and Oxford.
The company’s advisory board includes prominent figures from both business and politics who help the founders with connections and questions in the political and regulatory environment.
