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Balderton Capital

Coordinates: 51°31′47″N 0°07′08″W / 51.529792°N 0.118778°W / 51.529792; -0.118778
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51°31′47″N 0°07′08″W / 51.529792°N 0.118778°W / 51.529792; -0.118778

Balderton Capital
Company typeLimited liability partnership
IndustryVenture capital
Founded2000
HeadquartersLondon, WC1
United Kingdom
Key people
Bernard Liautaud, Daniel Waterhouse, Suranga Chandratillake, James Wise, Rob Moffat, David Thevenon, Rana Yared, Colin Hanna
Total assets$6.0 billion
Number of employees
60
Websitewww.balderton.com

Balderton Capital is a venture capital firm based in London, UK, that invests in early-stage, technology and internet startup companies in Europe. It is considered to be among the four-biggest venture capital firms in the English capital.[1]

Founded in 2000 as Benchmark Capital Europe, Balderton Capital became fully independent in 2007.[2][3] The company made over 100 early-stage investments between 2000 and 2020, including Revolut, Betfair, The Hut Group, MySQL, Yoox, Depop, Talend, Recorded Future, NaturalMotion, Kobalt Music Group, GoCardless, CityMapper, and Sophia Genetics.

In November 2019, Balderton announced Balderton VII, a new $400m fund to invest in European companies at Series A.[4] The new fund will reportedly make approximately 12 investments annually.[5] In 2018, Balderton announced the first fund dedicated to buying equity from existing shareholders of European technology startups.[6] In 2021, Balderton announced the first fund dedicated to growth, with $680M under management and a further $600M for early stage investing, bringing its total assets to over $5B.[7][8]

Partners

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The partners of the firm are: Bernard Liautaud, Tim Bunting, Suranga Chandratillake, Rob Moffat, Daniel Waterhouse, James Wise, David Thevenon, and Rana Yared.[9][10][11][12][13][14]

Investments

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Notable investments have included:

Exits

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Since 2008, Balderton has had many prominent exits, including Betfair ($2bn IPO of which they owned 3.95%),[25] Bebo ($850m sale to AOL),[26] Depop ( sale to Etsy for $1.65B ),[27] Scansafe (sale to Cisco, 30% stake[28]), Lovefilm (sale to Amazon.com, 5% stake[29]), Yoox ($700m IPO), MySQL ($1bn sale to Sun Microsystems, 15% stake[30]), Big Fish Games (sold to Churchill Downs for $885m),[17] Recorded Future ($780m sale to Insight Partners,[31] Sunrise (sold to Microsoft),[32] Talend (2016, Nasdaq IPO at $1.5B), Sophia Genetics ( 2021, Nasdaq IPO at $1.2B), Darktrace (2021, FTSE IPO at $3.5B ), Frontier Car Group (majority bought by OLX in 2019 for $700M),[33] and Magic Pony Technologies (sold to Twitter).[34][35]

References

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  1. ^ "Balderton Capital raises new $400M fund to back European tech startups at Series A". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  2. ^ "Balderton Raises $680 Million Growth Fund To Help European Tech Compete Globally".
  3. ^ "Benchmark Europe declares independence; now "Balderton Capital"". VentureBeat. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  4. ^ "Balderton Capital raises new $400M fund to back European tech startups at Series A". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  5. ^ Browne, Ryan (2019-11-12). "A new $400 million tech fund wants to help European start-ups compete with Silicon Valley and China". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  6. ^ "Balderton pioneers fund for buying stakes in European start-ups". Financial Times. 13 October 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  7. ^ "Balderton launches $680M 'early growth' fund to lure startups looking for a different kind of capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  8. ^ Martin, Iain. "Balderton Raises $600 Million Early Stage Fund". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-11-18.
  9. ^ Bradshaw, Tim (15 June 2008). "Liautaud joins Balderton Capital". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  10. ^ Li, Charmaine (17 October 2013). "Balderton Capital hires Wellington Partners' Daniel Waterhouse". venturevillage.eu. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  11. ^ "Suranga Chandratillake joins Balderton Capital as GP". Thomson Reuters. 20 January 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  12. ^ Uber executive joins London venture capital firm Balderton - Telegraph
  13. ^ Balderton Capital Promotes Rob Moffat And James Wise To Partner | TechCrunch
  14. ^ Weil, Dan. "Goldman Sachs Partner in Technology Investments, Rana Yared, Leaves Firm". TheStreet. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  15. ^ Fowler, Nina (27 August 2013). "Balderton Capital backs crowdsourced 3D printing network 3D Hubs". venturevillage.eu. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  16. ^ "Aircall Rides Work-From-Home Wave, Now Valued at $500 Million". Bloomberg.com. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  17. ^ a b Wingfield, Nick (13 November 2014). "Churchill Downs to Buy Big Fish Games for up to $885 Million". The New York Times.
  18. ^ "Portfolio - Balderton Capital". Archived from the original on 2014-07-04. Retrieved 2014-09-21.
  19. ^ "Funnel raises $10m to expand its platform for fully automated marketing reporting". balderton.com. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  20. ^ Sun Picks Up MySQL For $1 Billion; Open Source Is A Legitimate Business Model | TechCrunch
  21. ^ Edwards, Cliff (31 January 2014). "Zynga Buys NaturalMotion to Bolster Mobile, Cut Staff". Bloomberg. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  22. ^ "Hybrid real estate agent McMakler welcomes Balderton Capital and GR Capital as new investors".
  23. ^ Grant, Rebecca (17 July 2013). "Vivino uncorks $10.3M to turn anyone into a wine snob". VentureBeat. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  24. ^ Butcher, Mike (28 November 2023). "As pet owners turn to mobile insurance apps, Lassie raises $25M Series B led by Balderton". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  25. ^ McDermid, Riley (22 October 2010). "Betfair's IPO soars as investors embrace social gaming". VentureBeat. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  26. ^ Johnson, Bobbie (14 March 2008). "Bebo sale to AOL nets founders a fortune in 3 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  27. ^ "Etsy buys secondhand clothing app Depop to tap into gen Z". the Guardian. 2021-06-02. Retrieved 2021-11-18.
  28. ^ Hancock, Ciaran. "ScanSafe sale nets Balderton $55m". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  29. ^ "Shareholders at LoveFilm cash in on bid". CityAM. 2011-01-20. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  30. ^ "Index Ventures, Balderton and Benchmark share in $1bn spoils | Private Equity International". www.privateequityinternational.com. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  31. ^ "Insight Partners acquires threat intel company Recorded Future for $780M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  32. ^ "Microsoft acquires Sunrise calendar".
  33. ^ "OLX Group invests up to $400M in used car marketplace Frontier Car Group at $700M valuation".
  34. ^ Lunden, Ingrid. "Twitter pays up to $150M for Magic Pony Technology, which uses neural networks to improve images". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  35. ^ "Twitter is buying Magic Pony technology".
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