Female VC investor raises £64m to support European tech startups

Venture capital investor Ophelia Brown has raised eight-figure funding to support tech startups across the UK and Europe.

She managed to secure $85m (£64.4m) for her first ever fund, Blossom Capital, which will look to bring West Coast investing practices to the continent.

The London-based Blossom team, hand picked by Ophelia, features a mix of investors and operators who have helped build some of the biggest names in the tech sphere, including social giant Facebook, delivery platform Deliveroo and fintech company Klarna.

The firm has an even split between female and male partners. The latest addition to its team, Louise Samet, is an active angel investor and joined Blossom following six years with Klarna.

Blossom is particularly interested in making itself approachable to anyone, regardless of their background or gender. It plans to hold dedicated office hours for female founders, which it said will “level the playing-field” and give women the chance to pitch ideas to its investing team.

According to Blossom, the European tech sector is on the cusp of “further explosive momentum”.

The firm plans to back Series A stage consumer and enterprise startups across most sectors, with investments typically ranging from $5m to $10m (£3.8m to £7.6m).

Founders supported will also be able to take advantage of Blossom’s links, forged through past co-investments, with some of the most active Silicon Valley VCs - including Greylock Partners, DST Global, Sequoia Capital and Social Capital.

These connections, Blossom said, could be useful when the founders are looking to raise their next round of finance.

Ophelia Brown, who also established networking and mentoring group Ambitious Ladies in Tech, commented: “We founded Blossom to offer Europe’s leading entrepreneurs a new top-tier VC fund that understands exactly what it takes to scale an early stage company into a global category leader.

“The European ecosystem has changed dramatically over the last decade; we believe that mission-driven entrepreneurs today want investors who match their ambitions and can help them reach goals far beyond what they thought possible.”

She added: “Too often founders have felt they need to go to the West Coast to raise their Series A - with our unique Silicon Valley ties and deep networks, we’ve set up Blossom to help change that.”

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