Highland Europe, a technology-focused venture capital (VC) firm co-founded by Irishman Fergal Mullen, has raised €700 million for a new fund in just two months, and is actively on the lookout for Irish companies to back.
Mr Mullen, said the VC, whose portfolio includes Limerick-based waste and recycling management software group AMCS, intends to invest in approximately six to eight companies per annum over the next three years.
The new fund is Highland’s fourth in eight years, and brings its total assets under management to €1.8 billion. Investments cross the US, Europe and China includes 46 initial public listings (IPOs) and $19 billion-plus companies.
Other companies that have received backing include WeTransfer, Malwarebytes, Huel and Modulr, a fintech which recently secured an e-money licence from the Central Bank.
Mr Mullen, a Dubliner based in Geneva, said Highland was keen to back more Irish tech companies.
“We are always on the hunt for the next great Irish company,” he told The Irish Times.
"AMCS is a huge winner on the international stage. They are the equivalent of SAP in their vertical because they dominate the space and as a result are hugely profitable. There are other businesses in Ireland that we have a very close eye on, and for obvious reasons I'd love us to have another couple of companies to our portfolio."
Investment
Mr Mullen said portfolio companies had attracted €730 million in follow-up investment over the last 12 months.
Over the past year the firm invested in seven new companies at a total cost of nearly €200 million. It also did 10 follow-on investments. The new companies joining Highland’s portfolio were Alkemics, Cobalt, DominoDatalab, Farewill, Meditopia, Modulr and Supermetrics.
“This has been our most successful year despite the pandemic,” he said.
Mr Mullen said Highland started fundraising for the new fund on July 26th and completed it on September 24th, with the whole process conducted via videoconferencing and phone calls. The majority of backers for the funds are existing investors.
“The reason we’re only announcing it now is that we had a few investors who wanted to close at year-end,” Mr Mullen said.
Mr Mullen was previously a director of VistaPrint, an online supplier of printed and promotional material which raised $120 million in an IPO in 2005, and is now owned by Irish-domiciled printing group Cimpress.
He said the firm’s strategy is to invest in “globally ambitious” European software and internet-enabled businesses, with the VC typically putting in between €10 million and €30 million in companies it backs.
Positive
“We are extraordinarily founder-focused and massively collaborative in our approach and ridiculously positive. So when the shit hits the fan in a company we tend to be the ones that try to convince them to stop looking back and look forward instead,” he said.
“We are not going to cheer-lead companies to the point of disaster but we are keen not to be negative. Our objective in the end is to help founders achieve their full potential, and if they can do that then we’ll get a great financial return too,” said Mr Mullen.
