Growth capital firm Oxx has raised $100m (£73.34m) to invest in B2B tech software companies in the UK, Israel and Nordic countries.
Oxx was launched in January 2017 by Richard Anton and Mikael Johnsson, who left Amadeus Capital to co-found the business. It now operates offices in London and Stockholm.
It has reached this first close target by securing backing from British Business Investments, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, and the largest single investor. Amadeus Capital co-founder Hermann Hauser KBE and Dr. Robert Easton, currently pro-vice-chancellor of Oxford University, also participated alongside a number of German and Nordic family offices and a strategic partnership with OurCrowd, a equity crowdfunding platform based in Israel.
Richard Anton, Oxx General partner, said: “We are delighted to achieve this milestone and look forward to supporting outstanding B2B scaleups to grow internationally. There is a clear funding gap known by entrepreneurs as the ‘valley of death’, which claims many promising scaleups stuck between early-stage venture capital and maturity. But these companies can bridge the gap and achieve explosive growth with the winning combination of capital and guidance from a hands-on investor with a deep understanding of the sector.
“We are deeply grateful to our investors for their support and confidence in our passion and experience and to our good friends at Amadeus Capital for their help in getting Oxx up and running,” he continued.
Mikael Johnsson, also an Oxx General partner, added: “Richard and I have both been investing in B2B software scaleups for more than a decade; we joined forces five years ago to intensify our efforts, so it’s an exciting moment to achieve this target in our first independent fund.
“The support from our investors has been fantastic and reflects belief in our focus. The difficulties that European companies face in breaking through to the global stage have been well documented. We’re excited to apply our expertise to take ambitious B2B software companies from promise to success.”
Oxx focuses on business-to-business software companies from the UK, Nordic region and Israel which are looking to expand internationally. In August 2017 Oxx made its first independent investment, in Stockholm-based infrastructure software provider Apica. Then in October 2017, Oxx’s portfolio company ForeScout Technologies; an Internet of Things security company which has a market cap of $1.5bn, closed its IPO. Oxx General Partner Richard Anton had been lead investor in and been a board member of ForeScout since the firm’s early days.
Oxx’s first fund will participate in funding rounds of $5m to $20 million and it is actively working on new investments.