British Business Bank announces €20m commitment to Notion Capital Opportunities III
The British Business Bank has announced a €20m commitment to Notion Capital’s new €114m (£98.6m) growth fund, Notion Capital Opportunities III.
Notion Capital (Notion) is a venture investor in innovative business software and fintech companies across Europe. The British Business Bank has been a long-term partner of Notion Capital, investing in their last four core Venture funds, and supporting them expand their growth capital capabilities by investing in three Opportunities Funds.
The new growth fund complements Notion’s flagship venture strategy, providing vital additional capital to its venture fund ‘winners’ and selected new external deals at growth stage, a model that has supported high-growth, UK companies such as GoCardless, Paddle and YuLife.
The fund will focus on investing in UK and European business software companies and will specifically target companies across Knowledge (SaaS accelerated and compounded by AI), Money (fintech and adjacent industries), Labour (AI reshaping the services market), and Machines (AI interacting with and learning from the physical world). Notion has invested across all four categories in the past year with demand also increasingly fuelled by European sovereign resilience strategies spanning cyber security, supply chain and defence tech.
The fund has already made several investments including existing venture portfolio company Upvest plus new investments into Nelly and Kraken. Notion expects to make around a dozen core investments in total from the fund.
Stephen Chandler, managing partner at Notion Capital, said: “I am delighted to announce this, our latest, growth fund. Our team has built a strong brand and reputation, and LP demand for the fund in a challenging fundraising environment is testament to this. We are a diverse team spanning 12 nationalities which gives us extraordinary reach and access across the market with AI driving huge innovation in the software landscape.”
Christine Hockley, managing director and co-head of funds, British Business Bank, said, “Funds like Notion’s are critical to the UK venture landscape. While we’re very good at funding startups in the UK, there is a distinct lack of funding available when it comes to growth stage companies. The amount of capital received by US companies in the fifth or sixth funding round is often more than double what UK companies raise. Our goal is to close that gap and ensure that high potential companies can access the capital they need to expand.”
Michael Laycock, investment director, Funds, British Business Bank, said, “We are pleased to be backing Notion’s latest growth focused Opportunities Fund. Notion is a long-term partner for the British Business Bank and a key player in the UK ecosystem to support innovative UK software companies scale into category leaders. Their latest Opportunities Fund helps provide continuity of capital and support to ambitious founders as they look to build, scale and internationalise their businesses.”