Innovaton Industries raises €500 mln for deep-tech investments

By Team IO

Earlier this year, Innovation Industries also raised €100 million for another fund, the Strategic Partners Fund, which invests in scale-ups from its existing portfolio. These companies are already at a stage beyond startups and are moving to scale their service or products. The venture capital fund said in a press release that this brings the total capital raised this year to €600 million.

Deep-tech companies develop breakthrough technologies and bring them to market. These types of companies have the potential to provide innovative solutions to global challenges such as climate change, security, aging, food shortage, and energy supply. Because of the complexity and advanced nature of the products, deeptech companies have higher capital requirements, and development times can be longer than those of more conventional companies.

Pension funds as catalyst for NL deep tech and energy transition: ‘We can help close funding gap’

Recently, Effect Photonics announced it had raised 35 million euros in funding. The vast majority of that amount – twenty million – comes from pension funds PMT and PME.

Investors

Investors in the third fund include PME and PMT. These pension funds have also already been invested in earlier funds from Innovation Industries. The pension funds ABP, bpfBOUW, Pensioenfonds KPN, and TNO Pensioenfonds participate in the newest fund. In addition, the fund also includes ABN AMRO, Athora Netherlands, Rabobank, Oost NL, Brabantse Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij, Invest-NL, InnovationQuarter, European Investment Fund (EIF), KfW Capital, and Wachstumsfonds joined as investors.

“Investing in deep tech is very interesting from different perspectives. Nevertheless, deeptech companies still face significant challenges in raising capital,” says Nard Sintenie, partner at Innovation Industries. 

Harm de Vries, partner at Innovation Industries: “Thanks to pension funds PME and PMT as investors of the first hour, we have now also been able to convince other pension funds that invest in the Dutch deeptech ecosystem is beneficial from a financial perspective and also essential for a better future for society. With some €900 million in the capital, we act as a magnet for pioneering technologies in Europe.”