NordicNinja, a European-Japanese VC firm, has unveiled a new €200 million ($214 million) fund to expand its investments in Europe.
The firm’s second fund will target start-ups in the U.K., Ireland and the Benelux countries. Its initial fund focused on the Nordic and Baltic region with a particular eye on mobility and cleaner transport, including investments in Einride and Voi.
Tomosaku Sohara, managing partner, said that Japanese investors are keen to invest in start-ups globally and that NordicNinja is trying to direct more of that attention to Europe.
“That’s why I wanted to turn their eyes onto Europe. We launched our first fund, €100 million ($107 million) in 2019. [With] our track record, we feel that the local ecosystem has already embraced us, so that’s why we want to continue our journey,” he said.
Backers of the fund include carmaker Honda and the Japan Bank of International Cooperation while European backers include BaltCap and Swedbank Investment Funds.
Sohara said that Japanese investors are particularly interested in clean energy investments.
With the expansion of NordicNinja’s regional focus, Sohara, who is currently based in Helsinki, will relocate to London to lead the operations there and scout investments in the U.K., Ireland and the Benelux countries.
“Coming up we feel that more of those opportunities will come from outside of the Nordics and Baltics,” Sohara said.
Each of the new markets present their own investment opportunities, he added, in areas like energy and logistics.
NordicNinja will invest in Series A rounds with check sizes of between $3 million to $5 million.
While the first fund invested heavily in mobility, the firm is expanding that horizon into more areas with a sustainability objective.
Marek Kiisa, managing partner, said that deep tech investments are on the agenda for NordicNinja and its second fund.
“It’s quite a unique combination that we have been running here with fund number one. Nearly half of our managers have been founders, entrepreneurs and there are two engineers in the team and I have a mechanical engineering background. This is my angle where I’m going into the deals,” he said.
Areas like AI continue to evolve and develop rapidly, he added, and the fund will back both software and hardware start-ups.
“For us, it’s like our bread and butter because we are deep tech people and we love this area in the fusion of hardware and software,” Kiisa said.
“Even fund number one is very much reflecting that. There are quite a lot of investments done in the future mobility area and future mobility will be a fusion of hardware and software. You cannot do this only with software.”
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