Sources in the industry report that Atomico, the venture capital firm based in London and set up by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, is about to announce a new start-up fund which is worth around $1.2 billion.
The investment company is close to raising what is referred to as an “early stage” fund of about $400 million, tailored to helping young start-ups. The information was provided to the CNBC by two venture capitalists, who required their identities to be concealed due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
These capitalists further mentioned that Atomico is developing a “late stage” fund of about $800 million, to support the more established start-ups that require larger amounts of capital to continue their growth. The CNBC received no response from Atomico when a request for comment was made.
The CNBC spoke to a third source, a start-up executive who also did not want to be named due to the nature of discussions. This source told the CNBC that Atomico had informed his own company that it was in the process of raising even more capital from limited partners.
Many other Venture Capitalist (VC) sources stated that they were unaware of any fundraising plans, but would not be surprised if Atomico announced a new fund anytime soon.
It however remains unclear how much more capital Atomico still needs to raise for both the early and late stage funds, and when these funds will be announced officially.
From its inception till date, Atomico – which has its headquarters in Mayfair – has raised five funds. The last fund which the company raised was worth $820 million, and was announced in February 2020.
In the past, Atomico has used its funds to support some of the world’s most valuable start-up companies. These companies include Stripe, Klarna, flying car start-up Lilium and AI (Artificial Intelligence) chip designer Graphcore.