$115 million raised by Moonfire Ventures for European AI startups
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As reported by Reuters, a large investment fund called Moonfire Ventures has just raised $115 million to help invest in European technology and artificial intelligence (AI) startups. Founded by Atomico (a venture capital firm) co-founder Mattias Ljungman in 2020, this news will undoubtedly be welcomed by the tech industry across the continent.
"Europe has been a leader in AI, and we find our best fit is to support the next generation of founders solving some of our greatest challenges within health, work, finance, and gaming," said Ljungman. This new round of investments comes only a few years after they raised $60 million in 2021. With 20 years of experience at Atomico, Ljungman asserts that relying solely on personal relationships and gut instincts is not a viable approach for scaling up the traditional venture model.
“Venture will always be a relationship business, but it should be powered by data, software, and machine learning to hone and optimize everything we do, from discovery, screening, and evaluation to delivering better insights for our founders,” says Ljungman. “We [can] enhance traditional thesis-driven investing and make decision-making quicker and more effective,” he added.
The news also helps highlight the growth of AI innovation in Europe, which is causing politicians, and the public alike, to examine how AI will be used and where, if required, it should be regulated. Earlier this week, for example, Margrethe Vestager, the tech chief of the European Union, announced that the EU and the United States are collaborating on artificial intelligence to establish basic standards before enforcing any legislation.
“We are entering a new decade of AI that is transforming the possibilities of technology and redefining how tech companies are built through greater access, efficiency, and product quality. We want to be there for the founders at the earliest stages powering their growth and being true partners. Europe has been a leader in AI, and we find our best fit is to support the next generation of founders solving some of our greatest challenges within health, work, finance, and gaming," Ljungman explained regarding the firm’s AI-driven approach.
Moonfire Ventures invests in various fields such as health, work, knowledge, gaming, community, leisure, and capital & finance. They have already provided support to several European startups, including Humaans, Electric Noir Studios, Skunkworks, Pento, Awell Health, Mindstone, Business Score, Homerun, HiPeople, LoveShark, WillaPay, Oliva, and Equify.
“Moonfire is audacious, ambitious, and able to move fast. Mattias's vision is bold, which aligns with courageous founders dreaming big. It helped us access a network of incredible operators and entrepreneurs we can learn from and provided sound advice to scale our business,” adds Humaans co-founder Giovanni Luperti.
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