Berlin’s Point Nine Capital Closes $60M Third Fund

Berlin-based early stage VC firm Point Nine Capital has announced it’s closed its third fund. The new $60 million fund will be used to invest up to $1 million in around 40 startups across Europe and North America, it said today. This brings its total capital under management to $110 million.

Point Nine Capital was established back in 2011originally spun out of the investment arm of German incubator Team Europe — and more like a friends and family fund, at that time, with around $6.7 million to invest. It went on to raise a second institutionalized fund, of just under $54m, in 2013.

“It seemed like we were really the first, and at that time, the only VC that was headquartered in Berlin,” says partner Christoph Janz. “That’s where we saw the opportunity to come in.”

Point Nine focuses on seed and Series A investments, and on SaaS and digital marketplace startups. Previous investments include Zendesk, Westwing, Delivery Hero, Vend, Clio, Kreditech and Fyber.

“Historically Berlin has always been very strong on the ecommerce side, probably… related to the fact that Rocket [Internet] has been focusing so much on ecommerce. In the last few years we’ve also seen a number of very interesting adtech companies in Berlin, as well as a number of really interesting SaaS companies… It looks like it’s getting more and more vibrant,” he tells TechCrunch.

“We’re very bullish, very optimistic about the development of Berlin as a great startup destination the last couple of years. I think the main factor is probably it’s such a great city for young people to live in — that the city is able to attract people from all over Europe and even beyond.”

Its third fund being a little larger than Point Nine Capital II reflects the slightly larger cheque sizes it is now writing, according to Janz. With its first fund, he says the firm was typically investing a “few hundred thousand euros” in an initial round. It’s now investing between half a million and one million per startup, with reserves for follow on funding too so it can give the companies a little more runway.

“The advantage of having a slightly bigger fund is that the impact you can have on a startup is just somewhat bigger. It means the company doesn’t have to raise money again as early,” he adds. “But at the same time we didn’t consciously increase the fund size too much… It doesn’t change the rules of the game. It doesn’t turn us into a Series A or Series B VC.”

Investors in Point Nine Fund III include multiple international institutional funds, such as Horsley Bridge Partners and Sapphire Ventures (both existing investors in its second fund), as well as new backers including Flossbach von Storch AG and Vintage Investment Partners. The fund is also backed by a number of Internet entrepreneurs, some of whom are repeat investing in Point Nine.

In terms of performance thus far, Point Nine says it has made a total of 62 initial investment across its first two funds. Five of the companies it has invested in have deadpooled, while eight have exited or been sold (either at profit or loss).

The number of active startups in its portfolio is 49. And the amount of follow on financing raised by its entire portfolio is $1 billion+. It pegs its portfolio companies’ total value (including exits — of which Delivery Hero is the largest, but excluding Zendesk, which was an angel investment by Janz prior to joining Point Nine) at $4 billion+.

Although it’s announcing Point Nine Capital III now it has already invested in three startups with the fund — including French services marketplace StarOfService and Swedish Cloud-based fleet management system Automile.