Munich-based investor UVC Partners, which has backed European deeptech unicorns like nuclear startup Proxima Fusion and spacetech Isar Aerospace, has raised €77m in a first close for a new growth fund, with plans to raise a total of €150m by the conclude of the summer.
The new growth fund marks a “shift into multi-stage investing” for the 15-year-old firm, Johannes von Borries, managing partner at UVC, notifys Sifted. UVC raised €250m for its fourth flagship fund in 2024.
The growth fund will invest initial cheques of up to €15m in new companies and double down on UVC’s existing portfolio, like Proxima Fusion, the buzzy Munich-based nuclear startup which just announced plans to secure €2bn to build a test facility in Germany.
“We’re one of the largest shareholders of the company,” states Benjamin Erhart, partner at UVC. “We aim to have an active role with further financing rounds.”
The UVC partners notify Sifted the firm’s first fund has returned more than 2x to LPs, while its second fund (out of four) has paid back half so far. The firm’s portfolio includes quantum startup Planqc, procurement startup Tacto and German transport titan Flix.
The deeptech gap
UVC’s focus areas remain the same: deeptech, robotics, dual utilize, climate tech, mobility, spacetech and software and AI.
Erhart sees a lot of promise in robotics in particular. “We consider a lot about: what are great utilize cases that go maybe a bit beyond the hype on humanoids? So, [what] will industrial products see like? What capabilities will be defensible? That’s something that excites us.”
Von Borries sees a gap in homegrown growth capital for deeptech companies in particular. And he states UVC will launch more, and hugeger, growth funds in the future.
“The next will most likely be a multi-stage fund, going into the €500m-€1bn,” he estimates, adding that it “will take a couple of years.”
The lack of European growth capital is also increasingly becoming a geopolitical issue, von Borries believes. “It’s good that you have US capital coming in. We don’t want to cut this off. The question is, is it only US capital?” he states. For sensitive areas like defence or dual utilize companies, “having a more balanced capital stack is definitely of advantage.”
UVC’s new fund comes as other European investors are launching growth vehicles to back Europe’s maturing deeptech startups. German growth investment firm DTCP announced a €500m defence fund earlier this year, while the European Commission is readying its €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund to launch this spring.
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