London-based VC firm Boost Capital Partners, a new early-stage investor set up by Alvaro Alvarez del Rio — a former partner at Supercell backer Initial Capital and an early angel investor in food delivery giant Deliveroo — has announced the first close of its first fund at $30m, with a target of $40m.
Where will the money be spent?
Over the next three years Boost is looking to back 35-40 pre-seed and seed-stage user experience-focused startups across a number of sectors, including health, education, sustainability, entertainment and finance.
It’ll write initial cheques of up to $750k, but will also do follow-on deals of up to $2m. 50% of the fund will be spent on follow-on deals.
At least 60% of the deals will be in Europe, where the other four members of the investment team are based. There will be a particular focus on the UK, Germany, France, Scandinavia and Italy, but Boost will also look to back startups based in Latin America and North America.
The fund has already invested in seven startups:
- UK-based social calendar app Howbout
- UK-based streaming platform Volta
- UK-based fitness platform Krew
- Berlin-based couples’ therapy app Together
- Finland-based game developer Cosmic Lounge
- Mexico-based proptech Pulppo
- US-based clinical trials and patient platform Stitch
Alvarez del Rio is joined by ex-Meta and Google employee Ignacio Monereo and Pablo Morenes, who are also partners.
Where did the money come from?
Alvarez del Rio says that a number of European family offices and several unicorn founders backed the fund — but is coy about who. Boost deliberately avoided fundraising from institutional investors because of their lack of appetite for first-time funds, he adds.
