Felix Capital doubles AUM to $1.2bn ahead of fundraising environment becoming more cautious

Jun 8, 2022 | News | 0 comments

Felix Capital has doubled its funds under management to $1.2bn thanks to a new fund close.

The UK venture capital firm has closed its fourth fund on $600m, doubling the size of its predecessor and beating its $500m target after just four months in the market.

Frederick Court, founder and managing partner at Felix Capital, told AltAssets it had caught good timing by completing the fundraising ahead of the market slowing down. “It was good timing. I think probably if we would fundraise now, it might take a little bit longer. Every process starting now will take longer the same way that for our portfolio companies, if they go out to fundraise what might have taken two to four weeks before is going to take one to three months.”

Court said the slowdown is mainly caused by investors being increasingly cautious.

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“It is quite natural, now that people are more worried, they will need to spend more time with investors. I have taken a few calls from our investors checking in and saying ‘okay, what is the impact of the situation?’”

With the new funds, Felix plans to back another 20-25 companies over the next couple of years across Europe and selectively in North America. The new fund will continue to focus on cultural shifts and emerging consumer needs but will have the flexibility to extend to growth stage investments.

Felix typically invest early at first or second rounds, mainly in Europe and in the US. The firm says it has the flexibility to invest from $500k to $10m early, and up to $15m in growth opportunities.

The firm will continue to grow its exposure to Web3 and base its future investments around the theme of having a more sustainable lifestyle.

Court said the pandemic has definitely accelerated the adoption of more digital lifestyles, across people’s personal and professional lives, but the firm is looking more at hybrid lifestyle rather than complete digitization.

Taking the example of portfolio company, jeweller Mejuri, he said the company can create a dialogue with consumer online through social networks but a lot of growth is coming from them opening stores as well. The firm is looking to support companies through the whole journey to physical retail to capture the most out of the market.

Court said all the investors from previous funds has reupped and about one third of the fund IV investors are new to the firm.

“We are lucky to have investors who are investing in venture capital every year, across every cycle, so they know that its a cyclical industry. It is hard to time the cycles but actually it is probably a better time to invest when things readjust because the entry prices readjust,” Court said.

“It is not clear right now how long this phase lasts, it is really more down to the macroenvironment.”

Felix had expanded its investment team to manage the bigger fundraises. The firm has hired María Auersperg de Lera and Sophie Luck as investors and three advisors following the fund close.

It also brought in former Facebook exec Angela Chou and Vitruvian Partners’ Joseph Pizzolato in 2020 and added Susan Lin and Sarah Shanfield as investors in its team in 2019.

Source: Altassets

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