A conversation with ‘the most ambitious female VC in Europe’

January 29, 2020

Blossom Capital, the venture capital firm co-founded by ex-Index Ventures and LocalGlobe VC Ophelia Brown, just raised a new $185 million fund.

The firm’s remit remains broadly the same: to be the lead investor in European tech startups at Series A, along with doing some seed deals, too. In particular, the firm says it will continue to focus on finance, design, marketplaces, travel, developer-focused tools, infrastructure and “API-first” companies.

Pitched as a so-called “high conviction” investor, Blossom backs fewer companies by writing larger cheques and claims to have close ties to U.S. top-tier investors ready to back portfolio companies at the next stage.

Just two years old, its portfolio companies include travel booking platform Duffel, which received two follow-on investment rounds led by Benchmark and Index Ventures; cybersecurity automation platform Tines, which received follow-on investment led by Accel Partners; and payments unicorn Checkout.com, which is also backed by Insight Partners.

Good timing, therefore, to have a catch-up call with Brown, where we talked investment thesis, why Europe is at an “inflection point,” diversity in the investor community and the increasing money coming into Europe from American VCs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.