In 2021, Verve Ventures has invested EUR 56.8 million in startups, a third more than a year ago. What drove the investment volume?
We have strengthened our investment team considerably in the past. It has grown to close to twenty professionals in several countries and is able to consistently source attractive new investment opportunities across Europe. Volume was not only driven by the 30 new investments we made though. We did 57 follow-on financing rounds with our portfolio companies last year. On the investor network side, our growing European footprint helped to attract an important number of new investors. Among them are many experienced startup investors that have been watching our progress over the years and decided to join us to broaden their deal flow. And our existing investors have shown that they are serious about systematically building diversified startup portfolios.

Will you keep up the rapid pace of 30 new investments per year?
If you look at the large US and global funds, you can see that their pace is even higher at 100-200 investments annually but in Europe this is still very rare. The reason that many stick to a smaller portfolio size is simply manageability. Now, we believe that a high investment pace is a key differentiator in venture today. Verve Ventures does invest at a fast pace and has been recognized as one of the most active investors in Europe in several verticals. We can only do this because we have been building up the team and infrastructure to source at this scale, execute the investments and manage a large and growing portfolio. Developing this capability has been a strategic focus for us over the years, and it will allow us to increase the pace in the future.

Verve Ventures team now consists of almost 50 people, will it continue to grow?
Moderately. We already have one of the bigger investment teams in the industry. We’ll continue to hire to be able to source the best startups and help them and we’ll also continue to invest in our digital capabilities, to make startup investing as simple as possible, as well as professionals that take care of our investor needs.

For me, it is very satisfying that our investor network has supported our internationalization and is eager to invest across borders.

Last year, more than half of Verve Ventures’ investment volume went to startups outside Switzerland. What led to this?
We have pursued our internationalization strategy for a few years now, and this is the logical result. Verve Ventures works together with a number of renowned international co-investors, and we have colleagues present in important European markets. For me, it is very satisfying that our investor network has supported our internationalization and is eager to invest across borders. This brings us closer to our vision of building a truly pan-Europan investor network that can support startups in their internationalization efforts as well.

2021 was also a record year in terms of exits for Verve Ventures, with 6 trade sales and two companies going public.
I’m very happy to see these success stories that our entrepreneurs have achieved. On our side, we have invested in our portfolio management and exit facilitation capabilities, and it’s good that these initiatives are bearing fruits. And it is a big satisfaction that the entrepreneurs who exited their companies are becoming active investors in our network. This is good news for a new generation of entrepreneurs and strengthens the ecosystem.

It is a big satisfaction that the entrepreneurs who exited their companies are becoming active investors in our network.

What is Verve Ventures’ outlook for 2022 and beyond?
I think that we have strong tailwinds. Investing in private markets has become mainstream for institutional investors in Europe. Venture capital might have been an afterthought in the past, it certainly was in 2010 when we started out. But now there is an unprecedented dynamism in the European startup ecosystem and an increasing awareness of investors that they should have an opinion on how to allocate capital to this asset class in a systematic way. With Verve Ventures, everyone from small private investors up to very large family offices can learn about innovation in fields they are interested in, and, by investing in startups, promote innovation in these fields. Verve Ventures offers a wide topical and geographical choice, and now that we have also added institutional investment products to the mix, we have all the puzzle pieces in place to become the gateway to invest in European startups. It’s nice to see how after all the work our team has put in across the years to build the firm, the processes etc. the flywheel is gathering speed, in terms of investment volume, in terms of portfolio firms, and in terms of the strength of our investor network. We will continue to focus on offering our clients the best access to venture capital investments in Europe. And we will continue to focus on deep tech startups that improve the world through real technological advancement. We are planning to invest over EUR 300 million in Europe’s best deep tech startups over the coming 3 years.