Exclusive: Adams Street raises €270m for debut Europe fund
When I talk to LPs these days, the conversations often veer into bemoaning the lack of liquidity or questioning when the IPO window will ever open. But when I spoke with Ross Morrison, Europe-focused partner at Adams Street Partners, one of the world’s largest fund of funds, the mood was decidedly upbeat.
Of course, Morrison would be happy: his firm is now armed with a brand new VC fund. US-based Adams Street has raised more than €270m for its first European venture fund — which Morrison told me will primarily be invested in new VC funds, with up to 30% of the capital reserved for secondaries and co-investments into startups.
Adams Street isn’t new to the European venture game: it’s ploughed about $2bn into European VCs since 2000, backing more than 70 funds (including Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and Accel, according to PitchBook).
But Morrison, a Scot, is staunchly of the belief that doubling down on Europe now is a good idea, despite recent geopolitical turmoil. “Europe is on the medal panel at the Olympics alongside the best ecosystems. It's truly there,” he says.
“Europe is actually a hot house when it comes to company creation,” he adds. “If you look at the pipeline and what's been created, there's every evidence to say that we're following the same maturity trajectory — if not a little bit faster — than what the US went through.”
The new fund will back roughly 10 to 20 GPs over the next decade. Some of the LPs in the new fund include British Business Investments (now under the British Business Bank brand) and other European and UK clients, as well as Asian investors.
We dug more into what Adams Street is looking for from VC managers, Morrison’s take on what’s going on with secondaries and why he thinks the headline doom and gloom is misplaced.
— Anne Sraders, senior reporter
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