Dawn Capital, headquartered in London and specializing in B2B software investments, unveiled exciting news: It has successfully secured $700 million (equivalent to approximately €657 million) in funding to fuel its investments in the emerging global software frontrunners of tomorrow.
The fund has drawn significant support from a diverse range of investors, including prominent sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, funds of funds, family offices, high net-worth individuals, and even Dawn’s own portfolio founders.
This fundraising effort encompasses Dawn Capital’s flagship fund, Dawn V, which secured an impressive $620 million (approximately €582 million). This marks a historic milestone, as it is the largest dedicated early-stage B2B software fund ever raised in Europe.
Dawn V’s mission is to champion European software innovators at the critical Series A and B stages, providing initial investments ranging from $10 million (approximately €9.3 million) to $40 million (approximately €37.5 million) and additional funding for subsequent rounds of financing.
In addition to Dawn V, the new capital includes an $80 million (approximately €75.1 million) follow-on fund known as Dawn Opportunities III. This fund is designed to enhance Dawn Capital’s capacity to invest in sector-leading companies from the Series C stage onward. With these resources in place, the firm is well-positioned to support European B2B software companies throughout their entire lifecycle, from the early Series A stages to successful exits.
Furthermore, Dawn Capital proudly announced the elevation of Hannah Gubbins to the position of Partner in recognition of her invaluable contributions to the firm. Hannah joined Dawn Capital from Inflexion Private Equity in April 2020 and has played a pivotal role in shaping the firm’s strategy and elevating its profile within the global investment community.
Speaking on her promotion, Hannah Gubbins, Partner at Dawn Capital, expressed her gratitude, stating, “I’m honored to have joined Dawn’s Partnership, and it is incredibly rewarding to be part of a firm that continually champions and recognizes team members’ contributions and achievements. Our commitment to European entrepreneurs is unwavering; we are dedicated to supporting them as they scale their products, teams, and capabilities and expand into new global markets.”
With the newly raised funds, Dawn Capital intends to further strengthen its platform, enhancing its support for portfolio companies over the coming decade. This will involve expanding their pool of advisors, enhancing in-house talent offerings, and implementing a transformation toward data-driven operations, harnessing technology’s power to become a more agile and effective investor.
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About Dawn Capital
Since its inception, Dawn Capital has successfully raised over $2 billion from prominent global investors, earmarked for investment in top-tier European B2B software companies.
The firm has extended its support to more than 80 category-leading enterprises founded across 16 European countries. Notable among these are multi-billion-dollar industry leaders such as Mimecast, iZettle, Tink, LeanIX, and the currently thriving unicorns Collibra, Dataiku, and Quantexa.
In addition to providing funding, Dawn Capital offers an invaluable array of resources to its portfolio companies, including mentorship, deep-seated industry expertise, strategic counsel, and access to a unique community of fellow founders.
With the backing of Dawn V and Dawn Opportunities III, the firm is steadfast in its commitment to reinforcing its established strategy, which revolves around empowering founders to build groundbreaking software solutions spanning the entire technology spectrum, from infrastructure to end-user applications.
Dawn Capital has already made three exciting investments from the Dawn V fund, supporting promising ventures such as Fonoa (a platform for embedded insurance), Cover Genius, and FlowX.AI (an application modernization platform).
This flagship fund reached its ‘hard cap’ this year, securing investments from a diverse pool of backers, with 50 percent of commitments coming from existing Limited Partners (LPs) and the remaining 50 percent from new investors spanning the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Haakon Overli, General Partner at Dawn Capital, underscores the firm’s enduring commitment, saying, “Over the last 18 months, we have all witnessed the challenging macro environment. We founded Dawn to support founders building global B2B software leaders from Europe, and this ethos has not changed. We firmly believe it is a great point in the cycle to be investing and see the opportunity in Europe only increasing.”
“Our two decades of experience have shown us that companies forged in challenging times are forced to deliver even more value, with compelling propositions and deep-rooted resilience,” he adds. “Our new funds will enable us to remain laser-focused on opportunities, with the capital to meaningfully support founders from Series A to exit. We can’t wait to see where our future entrepreneurs take us with our new funds and greatly appreciate the support of all our investors, team, and founders.”
Norman Fiore, General Partner at Dawn Capital, emphasizes the pivotal role of technology’s evolution, stating, “We are at the very beginning of another major technology shift. As our entrepreneurs like to remind us, AI has been around for a long time. The change today is that AI has pushed its way from the engineering teams into the boardroom. Its coming prevalence makes it both an investment area in itself as well as a disruptor to every software category we’ve been investing in since we founded Dawn. We were therefore determined to raise funds of commensurate scale to the enormous opportunity before us.”
