Peak Capital launches 66 million startup fund for saas

Dutch venture capitalist Peak Capital is launching its fourth start-up fund, with a capital of 66 million euros. The fund will invest in online marketplaces, platform and SaaS companies.

Peak Capital’s new fourth fund will focus on investments of an average size of 3.3 million euros, according to Peak Capital partner Johan van Mil. The previous fund still had an average investment size of 1.2 million euros. This third fund amounted to 12 million euros, from which a total of ten investments were made.
Follow-up investments

The new fund, called a jump to new heights, focuses on three types of investments: seed investments of 2.5 tons to 1.5 million euros, followed by Series A investments of 3 to 5 million euros and Series B investments. from 6 to 10 million euros. This will always involve follow-up investments in the same companies. This is new to Peak Capital; previous funds had more limited capital for follow-up investments.

According to Van Mil, Peak Capital is looking for so-called early stage startups with a complete team, its own technology, a product that is live and with the first signs of success. “For example, the first transactions that arrive at a marketplace,” explains Van Mil.
Scalable companies

The capital is exclusively for online marketplaces, platforms and Saas companies, which stands for software-as-a-service. According to Van Mil, there are highly scalable companies in these sectors with interesting business models, where you as an investor can steer well on the basis of figures.

The 66 million euros comes from no fewer than sixty entrepreneurs, who, according to Van Mil, invest on average 1 million euros. They include Joost Romijn (Sundio), Paul Nijhof (Wehkamp), Maarten Esser (@Leisure), Marijn Pijnenborg (Funda), Hippo entrepreneurs Jeroen Verberg and Tjeerd Brenninkmeijer and World Ticket Center entrepreneurs Jolanda Degen and Phillippe de Knijff.
Across the border

We always had to sell “no” to foreign companies

Peak Capital wants to make a total of twenty investments with the 66 million euros. In addition to Dutch companies, the venture capitalist will also look at Belgian, German and Scandinavian companies. “We have been looking across the border for some time and have already made an investment in Belgium,” says Van Mil. “However, it is the first time that we have opened the door wide to companies from other countries. We receive a lot of requests from foreign companies and have always had to say ‘no’ until now. ”

Peak Capital is now settling this “no” sale. Yet this internationalization move does not mean that Peak Capital now has global plans. “We will not be investing in Kazakhstan so quickly. The markets must be accessible for us and we must have a good connection with the market. ”

“We also call it proximity to the founder. Culturally and geographically, the area must be nearby, so that in addition to investing capital, we can help entrepreneurs with, for example, finding the right people, internationalization and realizing an exit. ”

Van Mil is not yet able to say whether the majority of the participations will be made in Dutch or foreign companies. According to the investor, this will depend on the specific market opportunities offered by the individual companies. A first investment is currently in the making, says Van Mil. He cannot say more details about it yet, except that the details will be announced in “a few weeks”.