London-based venture capital firm Blossom Capital has recently announced its plan to launch an angel investment program called “Cultivate” to support 20 European startups at seed and pre-seed stage.
The Ophelia Brown-led VC firm will bring together Europe’s next-generation of ambitious founders with established unicorn pioneers such as Des Traynor (Intercom), Guillaume Pousaz (Checkout.com), Nilan Peiris (Transferwise) and Shakil Khan (Spotify).
The program looks to create a 30-strong angel network made up of founders or operators from European unicorns or those with a European HQ, who will be tasked with backing alumni starting up.
As per the program, each startup will get an equal investment of $250,000. Beyond the capital, each founder who receives investment via Cultivate will be given unprecedented access to individual angel members throughout the year to gain insight, ask advice and learn from their lessons.
Ophelia Brown said in a press release, “Europe’s tech ecosystem continues to thrive and is home to some of the greatest, most ambitious, most courageous founders in the world.”
“We set up Cultivate with the aim of giving these founders as much access to capital and experience in Europe as they need to scale. Our ambition is to democratize this access and continue to help tech founders punch well above their weight on a global scale,” she continued.
Blossom Capital, founded in 2017 by former Index Ventures and LocalGlobe VC Ophelia Brown. The firm has a track record of investments in many of Europe’s fastest-growing and most innovative tech firms, from payments unicorn Checkout.com, to travel visionary Duffel, to cybersecurity platform Tines.
Blossom has rapidly become the first choice for European founders building with global ambitions, combining on the ground expertise focused at the early-stage with close ties to the leading US later-stage funds enabling founders to have access to the best growth investors.
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