London-based Connect Ventures has secured a $55 mn first close for its fifth fund, which is targeting $80 mn at final close. The venture firm will continue leading pre-seed rounds across Europe, writing cheques between $500,000 and $5 mn.
Fund V sharpens Connect’s focus on founding teams with deep technical expertise. Target sectors include AI and infrastructure, hardware, robotics and biotech, where technology forms a substantial part of the product and business model.
Connect has invested at inception and seed stage since 2012. The firm has backed more than 120 companies, including AI cybersecurity company Aikido Security and open banking business TrueLayer.
Its fifth fund follows the same low-volume investment model used across previous vehicles. Connect operates with a GP-only investment team, meaning founders work directly with the partner responsible for each investment rather than going through associate-level investment staff.
The firm describes its preferred founders as people with earned insight developed through direct technical or industry experience.
Fund V will focus on teams whose specialist knowledge shapes the technology they are building and gives them an advantage when addressing technically demanding problems.
Connect has already started deploying capital from the new vehicle. Recent investments include ai-coustics, which develops AI audio infrastructure, robotics startup Mosaico and techbio company Molecular Glue Labs.
The British Business Bank anchors Fund V, continuing its relationship with Connect across earlier funds. Returning limited partners include Aldea Ventures, Sella Venture Partners and Molten Ventures, while new investors include European family offices and founders of companies previously backed by Connect.
TrueLayer founder Francesco Simoneschi has also invested in Fund V as an LP. His participation extends a pattern in which founders from Connect’s existing portfolio return as investors in later funds.
Connect raised its previous $80 mn Fund IV in 2023, maintaining its focus on early-stage European technology companies. Fund V keeps the same targeted investment style but places greater weight on technical founders working in areas requiring specialist engineering or scientific knowledge.
Managing Partner Pietro Bezza said more than a decade of early-stage investing had strengthened the firm’s view that technical depth increasingly separates exceptional founding teams. Connect intends to invest from the earliest stage rather than waiting for companies to establish commercial traction.
The new fund arrives as European venture investors direct more capital towards AI infrastructure, robotics and technically demanding software businesses.
Connect is keeping its investment volumes relatively limited, with partners remaining closely involved after each deal rather than increasing the number of companies backed.
Fund V also continues Connect’s activity around its Built By Few event series. The firm has been expanding the programme across European technology centres including London, Ghent, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin and Amsterdam.
With $55 mn now committed toward its $80 mn target, Connect has already started investing from Fund V while continuing fundraising.
The vehicle will concentrate on European pre-seed companies whose technology requires substantial technical expertise from the founding team.
