Originally published here.
This year so far, we’ve been spending more time in major European tech and start-up hubs including Berlin, Paris and Barcelona, with the Nordics to come in Q2, meeting with other VCs and founders with a view to increasing our investments in European markets.
One of the best things about working at True is the flexibility of our investment mandate.
Unlike many funds, we aren’t tied to specific geographies or founder nationalities. Instead, as Joe wrote about last month, we take a sector-specialist approach, which helps us narrow down the universe of investable opportunities in a way that isn’t defined by borders.
This year so far, we’ve been spending more time in major European tech and start-up hubs including Berlin, Paris and Barcelona, with the Nordics to come in Q2, meeting with other VCs and founders with a view to increasing our investments in European markets.
UK and US companies comprise most of our existing VC portfolio, mainly as a function of True’s deep expertise, networks and track record in these markets, but we are increasingly excited about the European opportunity. We made our first Germany-based investment in 2023 when we backed Milano Vice, a Berlin-based online-first pizza brand, and have been investors in France-based Ray Studios, a chain of tattoo removal clinics, since 2021. We are convinced there are many more exciting opportunities for us to be part of over the coming months and years.
A crucial element to uncovering them is the strength of our network. One thing we all learned from COVID was that we can do much of our work from a distance, and since joining True, I have had many calls with investors from our network to build relationships with my peers at other funds. But on-the-ground, face-to-face interaction over the last few months has been invaluable. True’s sector-specialist model of VC, PE and Innovation Advisory all under one roof is unique and being able to explain it in-person allows us to bring it to life in a way a video call can’t.
Spending time with others in-person also gives us a great opportunity to learn and compare notes on the VC ecosystem, interesting startups in our pipelines and general market trends.
At True, we have the benefit of the expertise and insight of our Innovation Team who offer global coverage of emergent trends and latest technologies, which we can overlay with geographical nuances from and in conversations with European co-investors.
Our global perspective and network is one of the key reasons we believe we have a lot to offer to European founders and co-investors. Co-investing alongside VC funds with complementary expertise is a fundamental element of our VC strategy, and in a European context we see an exciting opportunity to work with co-investors who have strong local market or domain expertise and combine that with True’s extensive network to support European founders and companies with scaling into the UK and US markets.
Back in London, our deal flow data is showing a meaningful shift towards European opportunities and we are excited to see more of that flow becoming portfolio companies in the foreseeable future. If you’re a Europe-based founder or investor with an early-stage opportunity in the Consumer and Retail space, we’d love to hear from you – please get in touch at [email protected].
