The Frontline team in its Dublin office. Image: Matthew Thompson
Irish-founded venture capital firm Frontline Ventures plans to expand its European client base after closing a €60m fund targeted at B2B software start-ups.
Having grown out of Dublin to include an office in London, Frontline Ventures and its partners have established one of the continent’s largest investors in software start-ups.
The venture capital firm has announced one of its largest funds to date, with the closure of a €60m fund that will invest in B2B software start-ups in Europe that have an eye on making it in the US.
The funding for ‘Frontline Fund II’ was raised with help from Irish State enterprises, including the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Enterprise Ireland and AIB.
It is also backed by the European Investment Fund as well as some other undisclosed pension and family funds.
Frontline Ventures partner Will Prendergast said: “The pace at which software companies are redefining industries is accelerating.
“Our first fund has shown us that some of the world’s most ambitious founders are right here. With this Fund II, Frontline is positioned to be the investment partner of choice for ambitious software entrepreneurs building out from Europe to the US”.
Helping start-ups make it in the US
Speaking to TechCrunch, Prendergast said that US expansion was the focus of this fund, having tracked the average amount of time it takes for a European start-up to make the move to the enormous US market.
“This [tracking] is both in terms of time for a founder to relocate there, and time for more than 50pc of sales to be from the US, which is the biggest market for most B2B software companies,” Prendergast explained.
“This time has contracted aggressively since we set up Frontline, and now we expect both to be achieved within 12 to 18 months of the company being founded.”
Frontline Ventures said that the investment for start-ups will range from €200,000 to €3m, up from previous typical funding amounts that ranged from €100,000 to €2m.
Some of its most successful start-ups from Ireland include Qstream, which raised $4m in 2015 out of a total of $22m, and CurrencyFair, which has so far raised a total of $25m.
