Pioneering data-intensive software ecosystems from Europe
We are on a mission to support relentless European founders to build solutions for the future where technology and data enable better decision making for consumers and businesses. But what makes OpenOcean unique as a software-focused venture capital fund and what specific benefits can LPs expect to gain by joining our upcoming Fund 2020?
Let’s be clear, there are hundreds of early-stage tech investors out there, so it’s more than reasonable to ask what makes us different. Why should our new fund be your best bet for reaping the benefits of the ongoing data explosion and AI-driven business software boom in Europe?
As a matter of fact, there are only a handful of software expert VCs in Europe with hands-on experience in scaling software businesses to a billion-dollar valuation and who truly understand the technology and software stacks needed for building data-intensive software businesses.
Having always worked in-depth with data and analytics, OpenOcean is today focusing on areas such as advanced enterprise automation, artificial intelligence, new computational paradigms, and the next generation of application-driven infrastructure. We are working with a strong network of global thought-leaders in these areas and beyond.
To ensure continued thought-leadership, OpenOcean launched in 2018 the Data Series Network of data experts and leaders, which has rapidly grown to reach an audience of over 100k. In DataSeries, founders of our portfolio companies and other industry leaders meet and exchange experiences, get answers to difficult data and AI-related questions, and learn from the curated thought leadership content generated by the community. We benefit from DataSeries through world-class knowledge, hiring and advisory connections, deal-flow, and more. Already now we have 1000+ founders in the DataSeries Network, and the over 20 corporate partners include AWS, City.ai, IBM, MariaDB, Samsung Next, and many more.
Foreseeing major disruptions
The OpenOcean Team has repeatedly succeeded as visionary founders and business leaders in foreseeing major disruptions in the software and data markets and has capitalized on these unique insights and opportunities:
- Founding and investing in MySQL — the database for the Internet 2000–2008
- Building Nokia Interactive Advertising — innovating in mobile data 2006–2009
- Founding and investing in MariaDB — the data(base) foundation for the Cloud 2010 — current
In addition to driving these globally impactful data-centric innovations, the team has a strong track record of investing in category leaders creating the new layer of applications built on top of these underlying technologies reshaping the world, for example:
- Artificial Intelligence, much before it became hot (investments including Graphcore, Import.io, LoopMe, Nosto, RapidMiner)
- Mobile Identity and Payments, long before other investors saw the opportunity (Truecaller investment)
- Application-Driven Infrastructure and DevTools (investments such as Bitrise, MariaDB, and Platform.sh)
- Data disruption in enterprise verticals such as Marketing and Advertising (investments including Supermetrics, Unacast, and Verto Analytics)
Our DNA of having a deep understanding of the underlying technology and data stacks, which drive the growth of innovative new digital platforms and services, allows us to identify and invest in the next game-changing start-ups, whose unique solutions can rapidly be adopted globally.
Why Founders select OpenOcean
Founders and co-investors sense our integrity, respect for the entrepreneurial challenges ahead, and subject matter expertise, be it product or business related. The dialogue is usually intense, collaborative, and value-adding, already before OpenOcean has invested.
Upon investment, we help inspire the entrepreneurial teams to think long term and often expand their ambitions. We of course also assume regular board member duties, such as developing a strong and differentiated strategy; ensuring there is the right team to execute; the company is professionally governed; and we often conduct various workshops to help problem-solve or take areas to the next level. We help open doors globally to hire advisors or team members, bring top-notch follow-on investors, or introducing strategic partners and potential customers.
Benefits to LPs
For Limited Partner Investors (LPs), we can offer significant leverage through our deep presence in the European market:
- Partnership beyond the capital, including industry thought leadership exchanges.
- High-quality deal flow with the deep theme-driven approach. Potential participation in deal flow calls and/or quarterly tailored updates about the market.
- Broad coverage of the European software opportunity (already invested in 9 European countries, actively covering the ground in all major European capitals and economies).
- Case-specific opportunities to co-invest and or to compare analysis on investments.
- Connection with OpenOcean’s broader ecosystem of founders, industry leaders, and investors, as well as via our data expert community DataSeries
OpenOcean Fund 2020 in a nutshell
Our next Fund 2020 will be a 10-year venture capital fund investing in European founders building unique B2B software with a focus on data-intensive businesses disrupting major industries.
The investment stage will be Series A and pre-emptive Series A. 65% of the Fund’s commitments will go to follow-on investments in the best performing companies. The Fund is seeking a minimum of 3.5x net return with a portfolio of 16–18 companies. The first closing of the fund is expected to be in Q2, 2020.
Contact us for more information
If you’d like to be part of our mission and want to join our Fund 2020, then please don’t hesitate to contact us. Tom Henriksson (tom@openocean.vc) and Niklas Rosenberg (niklas@openocean.vc) will gladly give you more information.
