Dawn Capital raised $400 million for European B2B software, while DNX Ventures closed on $315 million for B2B startups in Japan and the U.S.

It’s a measure of the interest in business-to-business (B2B) that two VC firms raised an aggregate of $715 million in funds dedicated to such startups in Europe, Japan, and the U.S.

Dawn Capital, a large European venture capital fund dedicated to B2B software, today announced the closing of its fund Dawn IV at the hard cap of €333 million ($ 400 million). (EU-Startups)

Meanwhile, DNX Ventures mopped up $ 315 million for its third flagship fund for early-stage B2B startups in Japan and the United States. (Tech Crunch)

Dawn IV – To capitalize on “system-wide shocks”

The fund received a solid response from existing investors, as well as new investors from the US, Europe, and Asia. The oversubscribed fund closed within six months of launch.  Well-funded investors such as pension funds, endowments, funds of funds, family offices, and high net worth individuals participated.

The fund will invest in Series A and B rounds in leading European B2B software start-ups. These would be from Dawn’s favorite sectors such as data and analytics, security, fintech, and future of work. Typically Dawn will write investment checks in the range of € 4 million-€ 17 million ($5–20 million). Dawn’s portfolio success stories include Mimecast, iZettle, Collibra, and Dataiku.

Dawn’s co-founder and General Partner, Norman Fiore said: “System-wide shocks drive change that startups can exploit ruthlessly, while incumbents are incapable of adjusting. Historically, these shocks were either financial, technological, or societal.  In 2020, we’ve had all three at once: technology shock as the cloud came into its own, financial shock which will force society to do more with less, and a fundamental change to the way our working society is organized.”

Talking to Sifted, Evgenia Plotnikova, partner at Dawn, said the fund completed 85% of the fundraising work on Zoom.

“The opportunity is massive; the software market is worth around $4tn today — and that’s still with just 20–25% penetration of cloud,” she said.

DNX Ventures Fund III

The DNX fund will focus on seed-plus and Series A rounds for B2B startups in the U.S. and Japan. Typically, the fund will seek opportunities in the industries of cloud and enterprise software, cybersecurity, frontier tech, fintech, and retail tech.

Start-ups will receive funding in the range of $ 1 million-$ 5 million per round.

DNX commenced fundraising in 2019 with an initial target range of $ 250 million-$ 275 million. However, the fund was oversubscribed.

“Supporting category-defining startups in the U.S. and Japan has proven to be amazing for us,” DNX General Partner Q Motiwala said in an interview to Crunchbase. “We have been able to help U.S. companies expand into Japan and then Japanese companies go to Southeast Asia.”

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