Verdane raises €540m for tech investments

Tech specialist Verdane has hit the hard-cap on its latest buyout fund, raised to complement its main direct secondaries business.

The Nordic-focused firm has raised €540 million for Edda II, which will be invested in companies focused on the digital consumer-, software-, and energy and resource-efficiency sectors, according to a statement seen by Secondaries Investor.

The fund was “significantly oversubscribed”, with more than 90 percent of commitments coming from existing investors based in Europe, North America and the Middle East, the statement said. More than 50 percent of commitments come from non-profit sources.

The fund was targeting €450 million, the firm confirmed. London-headquartered Rede Partners advised on the fundraise.

“With Edda II, we are pleased to strengthen Verdane’s ability to provide minority and majority investments from €10 million-€150 million and above in growth-stage businesses across Northern Europe,” said partner Henrik Aspén, in the statement. “We are looking to partner with ambitious tech-enabled firms who believe they can benefit from our sector knowledge, extensive networks and entrepreneurial mindset.”

Verdane has traditionally acquired portfolios of direct stakes but increasingly found itself taking minority- and majority- positions in single assets, Secondaries Investor noted in 2018.

It launched the Edda series of buyout funds to fill a gap between its direct secondaries funds, which can only investing €15 million in one company, and international tech-focused buyout funds which target large investments, managing partner Bjarne Lie said at the time.

Edda II has already made two initial investments: Hornetsecurity, a leading European provider of cloud-based email security and data protection, and Stratsys, a cloud-based strategic planning platform, according to a statement about the deal.

The debut fund in the series Verdane Edda raised SKr3 billion ($358.8 million; €296.3 million) by final close in 2018. Investors in the fund include Tesi, a Finnish government pension fund, according to PEI data.

Verdane’s nine direct secondaries and buyout funds have collected more than €3 billion and made more than 120 investments since inception in 2003, according to the statement. The firm has offices in Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Oslo and Stockholm.