The United States has had venture capital managers alone for many years, but the trend is only just beginning to take hold in Europe. One of the newest is underline adventurestarted this year by Bogdan Iordache in Romania. His career path to becoming a Solo GP matches the profile: a former entrepreneur, key figure in the Eastern European tech sector, How to Web conference founder and a former VC on the team. many Partners.
Above all, what Europe needs most are ‘funds of funds’ dedicated to working with this new wave of European GPs alone.
supernovaa $25 million fund launched in June already established by experienced investor Tugce Ergul. She plans to not only invest in other funds, but also directly invest in startups. Ergul previously worked for Angel Labs, an “investment accelerator” spanning 44 countries.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Ergel said: “There is a new wave of funding coming. We are talking about successful founders who are now starting to raise their own funds to invest in new entrepreneurs. There are partners who leave their old fund to start their own, because it is now easier and cheaper than ever to set up a fund. And there is more support for individual capitalists.”
So how does it work? Hypernova puts 40% of its funds into the Solo GP fund and the rest directly into startups, with 50% in the US and 50% in Europe.
Ticket sizes will be $500k-750k for their first Solo GP fundraising and Hypernova will not only target financiers but potentially journalists, angel investors, former entrepreneurs or Associates/Partners withdraw from their previous VC funds.
Hypernova provides new GP support in terms of fund management, required technology, LP introduction, branding support and co-investment opportunities
Ergel added that previously there were no LPs that brought money to Solo VCs: “Now there is a new world out there where you can find LP coins if you are just one person and a solo GP. Initial capital has become cheaper. You can set up a fund with $10,000 and your fund management costs are very low. So it just makes access much easier for these fund managers. So we want to support those fund managers. Then that’s where the matching game comes in as the other half of the fund is a direct investment vehicle. And we will either co-invest with the funds we invest in, or we will invest in subsequent rounds in the winners of these fund managers.”
As for its direct investments, Hypernova plans to focus on automation, retail, finance, logistics, transportation and shipping, with ticket sizes ranging from $250k to $500k and will not accept seats on board.
Hypernova is claiming to be the first female-led solo GP fund in Europe and the first female-led solo GP fund in the US
Since its lightweight launch in June, Hypernova says it has:
– Invested in an early stage infrastructure fund based in San Francisco
– A London-based fund that manages athletes’ money
– A personal GP fund, based in Berlin
– LA .-based deeptech foundation
– San Francisco-based fund that invests in LP secondary securities (Fund II).
– Direct investment in the hydrogen market based in San Francisco
– DevOps for carbon removal companies based outside of Berlin
– London-based team-based learning and talent platform called Neol
– a Micro-fulfillment platform for last mile optimization
It currently plans to open an office in London and hire a London-based partner from January 2023.
And it is launching an LP diversity and inclusion program to attract new investors to the fund investing game where they can co-invest for very small amounts.
“I am a venture capitalist myself,” added Ergel. And that’s also one of the things that’s new to the market. I started this because I went through a lot of difficulties and problems as a solo GP. If I were to start this in the US as a purely US-focused fund, I would close it in six months. But because I wanted to do something connecting the US and Europe, it took longer.”
