MassMutual hands over Europe and Asia-Pacific startup portfolio to VC –

VC firm Crane Venture Partners will oversee the insurer’s $450m Europe and APAC funds and manage existing and new investments.

MassMutual Ventures, the corporate VC arm of US insurance company MassMutual, has entered an agreement with VC firm Crane Venture Partners to oversee its Europe and Asia-Pacific investment funds totalling $450m and including 40 portfolio companies.

Crane Venture Partners will also manage all new Europe and Asia-Pacific investments. MassMutual Ventures will continue to hold ownership positions in its existing portfolio companies in the region.

“This agreement marks the next evolution in MassMutual Ventures’ longstanding relationship with the Crane team that was established seven years ago,” declared Doug Russell, managing director and head of MassMutual Ventures, in a release. MassMutual Ventures has been a minority investor in Crane since 2018 and an anchor investor in all its funds.

By combining forces with Crane, MassMutual Ventures aims to leverage strengths and capabilities of both organisations. Crane has a longstanding involvement in the European VC ecosystem while MassMutual Ventures has been investing across Asia and India for nearly eight years.

“MassMutual Ventures sees continued strong opportunities across Europe, India and Asia and believes that by expanding our partnership with Crane, we’ll be better positioned to back founders and support portfolio companies building innovative businesses,” a company spokesperson confirmed with GCV.

MassMutual Ventures, a multistage CVC investing in fintech, enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity and data analytics, will continue to manage its existing portfolio of more than 60 companies in North America and Israel. it will also invest in new companies through its Boston-based MassMutual Ventures US and MassMutual Ventures Climate Tech Fund teams.

Signs that the insurer was seeing to pull back from Europe and Asia-Pacific came in February this year when the managing partners of its Europe and Asia-Pacific funds left. It combined the Europe and Asia-Pacific teams with its North America and Israel team.