(This press release was issued by Frontline Ventures on Tuesday 7 February 2017)
DUBLIN, IRELAND - 7 FEBRUARY 2017 - Frontline Ventures, a leading early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Dublin and London, announced today the closing of Fund II at €60 million. The firm invests in B2B software companies at the pre-seed and seed stages, with investments ranging from €200,000 to €3 million.
Frontline raised its first fund of €50 million in 2013 and to date has invested in 27 software companies across Europe. Exits to date include Logentries, acquired by Boston-based Rapid7 (NASDAQ:RPD), and Orchestrate.io, acquired by CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL).
Notable investments in the Frontline portfolio include Qstream (total funds raised $22M), Dublin-based money transfer company CurrencyFair (total funds raised $25M), and London-based StreetTeam (raised $10M in October 2016).
The firm is led by partners Shay Garvey, Will Prendergast, William McQuillan, and Stephen McIntyre.
“The pace at which software companies are redefining industries is accelerating. Our first fund has shown us that some of the world’s most ambitious founders are right here. With this Fund II, Frontline is positioned to be the investment partner of choice for ambitious software entrepreneurs building out from Europe to the US,” said Frontline partner Will Prendergast.
Investors in Frontline Fund II include Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Enterprise Ireland, European Investment Fund, Allied Irish Banks, and a number of pension funds and family offices. This transaction benefits from the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe.
Eugene O’Callaghan, Director of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, said, “We are delighted to extend ISIF’s partnership with Frontline through this latest Fund given the encouraging performance and impact of Frontline Fund I, which has already seen the creation of 350 new Irish jobs and played a major role in supporting the development of innovative start-up software companies in Ireland.”
Walter Hobbs, Executive Director, Investment and Finance, Enterprise Ireland said, “Ireland is fast becoming an international leader in business and a world-class innovator in some of the technology sector’s most exciting and disruptive new fields. One of Enterprise Ireland’s key roles is to develop and support this innovation and we recognise the value of venture capital funding to high potential growth companies in the software sector. We are delighted to support Frontline, whose portfolio is a testament to the calibre of high-quality entrepreneurs coming out of Ireland.”
European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen said, "There’s no shortage of ambitious ideas in Europe. I am glad that the Investment Plan can play an important role in backing those who back the startups that bring these ideas to life."
Commenting on the signature, EIF Chief Executive Pier Luigi Gilibert said, “EIF is very pleased to invest in Frontline, one of the key funds in the early stage Irish ICT-sector. The investment activity of Frontline clearly contributes to a strengthening of the Irish VC and start-up ecosystem and we are happy to be able to support this effort.”