Dublin-based early-stage VC firm Act Venture Capital has raised €140m (£120m) in the first close of its sixth fund, ACT VI.
A spokesperson for the venture capital firm told UKTN it looks to invest in the UK, Ireland, and Europe.
“The Irish market has doubled in size in the past 4 years, and we are excited about the future of Irish tech companies and the increasingly ambitious founders that are building them,” said John Flynn, managing partner, Act Venture Capital.
Act Venture Capital will invest in 35 companies covering artificial intelligence/machine learning, enterprise, deeptech, health, energy and climate.
The ACT VI fund has received investment from institutional investors and family offices alongside several funds including the European Investment Fund, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and Enterprise Ireland.
Debbie Rennick, general partner, Act Venture Capital said: “We will continue backing founders that have a mission and values that go beyond financials.
“Companies that prioritise their ESG impact have proven that, on top of making a positive change, they attract better talent and provide better returns for investors.”
The new fund can invest up to €10m into a company from seed and has raised over €600m (£516m) to date. The fund recently invested in the Series A round of analytics e-commerce platform Conjura.
It has additionally invested in seed startups Plasmabound, Trustap, Clearword and Inferex through a partnership with Enterprise Ireland for a “Seed Sidecar Fund”, allowing for 70% of its investments to be at the seed stage.
“A feature of our maturing market has been the recycling of capital and talent from the increasing number of successful exits, and we are seeing very strong network effects from repeat entrepreneurs,” said Flynn
He added: “This will see Ireland build larger and more impactful companies.”
Act’s portfolio has 47 companies counting the likes of Ekco, Gridbeyond, Cubic Telecom, Deciphex and Provizio.
ACT VI follows on from the firm’s previous fund of €92m (£79m) in 2016.
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