One Peak scales up and closes $1B fund geared toward European and Israeli progress rounds

There’s a prevailing logic (otherwise you may say hope) in tech that claims there is no such thing as a higher time to invent and make investments than when the market seems to be in a nasty place. With firms like Google and Apple born out of fallow intervals, that mind-set could also be comprehensible — and it’s resulting in plenty of contemporary enterprise funds, pushing capital into the market.

In the newest improvement, One Peak, a agency out of London that focuses on progress stage rounds in B2B startups throughout Europe and Israel — is at this time saying that it has closed its newest, and biggest-ever fund of $1 billion.

The fund is the third from eight-year-old One Peak. First launched in March of this 12 months, One Peak described the $1 billion ‘hard cap’ as oversubscribed and now the biggest centered on B2B software program firms in Europe. It plans to make use of the cash to take a position between $15 million and $100 million in progress rounds.

One Peak’s portfolio consists of the likes of Cymulate, PandaDoc, DataGuard, Paysend, Deepki, Neo4j and Spryker — an inventory centered on scaling enterprise startups throughout a variety of classes like cybersecurity, e-commerce, and knowledge administration and analytics — and the plan is each to proceed doubling down on these whereas additionally searching for others to affix the steady.

David Klein, who co-founded One Peak with Humbert de Liedekerke Beaufort, believes that even with world markets contracting and anticipated to proceed that sample subsequent 12 months, B2B tech will proceed to stay a “recession-proof” class, in his phrases.

And opposite to its identify, One Peak will not be alone in that line of thought. Even as we have a look at how costs for tech shares are crashing, and anecdotally and verifiably are seeing proof of traders and startups speaking concerning the lack of exercise and strain available on the market, satirically, in comparison with the remainder of the market, traders (and within the case of enterprise funds, LPs) seem like placing extra of their cash into tech, a class they see long term outperforming the remainder of the market.

Beaufort notes that whereas there’s undoubtedly a slowdown within the wider market and the gross sales cycles in B2B — a class some consider may also be hit, however maybe in a extra delayed means — “Currently we’ve seen no impact on the performance of our companies,” he stated.

One Peak’s $1 billion fund III comes amid plenty of different VCs elevating capital this 12 months each in Europe and additional afield. EQT Ventures has closed two totally different funds within the final couple of months, $2.2 billion for growth-stage investments largely in Europe and an additional $1 billion for early-stage bets. Index Ventures has dedicated $300 million within the final month particularly to fund new startups within the downturn. Northzone additionally introduced its newest fund, a file $1 billion for the agency, within the final quarter. Atomico can also be reportedly elevating $1.3 billion in new funds this 12 months, though the shut of these has not been confirmed.

Dealroom evaluation notes that in all, the primary three quarters of 2022 noticed VCs in EMEA increase some $24 billion in funds. Meanwhile, PitchBook analysis discovered that just about $151 billion was raised by U.S.-based corporations within the first three quarters of this 12 months, though it additionally identified that deal-making out of that cash was not matching that exuberance.

The message is evident: these trying to earn money out of their cash may even see tech as a comparatively secure harbor, however those that maintain the purse strings are typically being much more cautious how they distribute these funds.

One Peak is following a few of that sample itself.

“We believe multiples are down to 2018 levels,” stated Beaufort. Klein added that the highest-growth firms are cheap investments at 12-13 instances the income run charge. And he added that the agency just lately handed on at the least one huge deal that’s within the works as a result of the valuation a number of — 20 instances the income run charge — was simply too excessive.

Still, with plenty of B2B startups hatched throughout extra bullish years now searching for their subsequent capital injection, and One Peak’s personal portfolio together with at the least a number of startups that haven’t raised in over a 12 months, there seems to be no scarcity of targets for aiming its cash.