General Catalyst, one of those US VCs with names like Airbnb, Canva, Classpass, Instacart, Snap and Stripe in its portfolio, opened an office in London last December to up the ante on its European deals.
And up the ante it has.
General Catalyst has invested in 17 European startups since opening its London office late last year (two of which remain unannounced), writing cheques from $500k all the way up to $100m and beyond at the later stages. Its latest investment, announced today, is in Swedish healthtech startup Doccla.
Seven of its announced investments are into startups based in the UK, two in Germany and two in Barcelona.
We profile the publicly announced General Catalyst deals here.
General Catalyst’s European startups
Doccla
- Sector: Healthtech
- Founded: 2019
- HQ: London
- Last raise: £15m Series A (September)
- Investors: General Catalyst
General Catalyst’s latest investment is Swedish startup Doccla. Its technology, which is being used by the UK’s National Health Service, helps clinical staff monitor patients remotely. It says these “virtual wards” help free up hospital beds by enabling patients in hospital to be discharged faster and helping other patients avoid visiting hospital altogether because they can be monitored from home. With the new Series A funding, it plans to expand into more markets in Europe.
Localyze
- Sector: HRtech
- Founded: 2018
- HQ: Hamburg
- Last raise: $35m Series B (September)
- Investors: General Catalyst led the Series B, with other VC firms like Visionaries Club, Frontline Ventures and Web Summit Fund participating.
Talk about timing — Localyze, a SaaS platform that helps employers with the admin around hiring and relocating international talent, launched just before the pandemic and is now growing at pace. It says its revenue has grown six-fold since raising a $12m Series A in mid-2021.
Lottie
- Sector: Healthtech
- Founded: 2021
- HQ: London
- Last raise: £6.1m seed (July)
- Investors: General Catalyst led the last round, an extension of a seed round closed in January, led by Kindred
Lottie helps families find and compare care homes around the UK, and makes digital tools for care providers, which it sells to big companies as a perk for their employees who have caring responsibilities. The founders, Will and Chris Donnelly, are brothers.
Multiverse
- Sector: Edtech
- Founded: 2016
- HQ: London
- Last raise: $220m Series D (June)
- Investors: Lightspeed (another US VC with an office in Europe) co-led the Series D with General Catalyst
Famous for being founded by former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s son Euan Blair, Multiverse connects companies with young people looking for apprenticeships. At its last raise, it hit a $1.7bn valuation and announced plans to expand its presence in the US.
Huuva
- Sector: Foodtech
- Founded: 2021
- HQ: Helsinki
- Last raise: €4.9m seed (June)
- Investors: The seed was led by General Catalyst, with Lifeline Ventures also participating.
Another Finnish startup, Huvva sets up delivery-only kitchens which group several existing restaurant brands under one roof, to boost the cuisines on offer on takeaway apps. It plans to expand further into central Europe and hire around 100 people with its seed funding.
Charm Therapeutics
- Sector: Biotech
- Founded: 2021
- HQ: London
- Last raise: $50m Series A (June)
- Investors: The last round was led by F-Prime Capital and OrbiMed. General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Braavos, Axial and Grep VC also participated.
Charm Therapeutics discovers and develops medicines to target “hard-to-drug targets”, which play a role in treating cancer. Its technology is able to make 3D models of proteins, and use these to figure out how best to bind small molecules to their targets.
PowerUs
- Sector: Future of work
- Founded: 2019
- HQ: Berlin
- Last raise: $10m Series A (May)
- Investors: The Series A was led by General Catalyst, with HV Capital and Y Combinator also getting involved.
Part of a growing cohort of startups helping non-office workers find jobs, PowerUs is a career platform matching tradespeople and technical professionals (like electricians and mechanics) with employers looking for talent like them.
Packfleet
- Sector: Logistics
- Founded: 2020
- HQ: London
- Last raise: £8m seed (April)
- Investors: Creandum led the round. Entrée Capital and General Catalyst (both existing investors) also invested.
Founded by a group of Monzo alumni during the pandemic, logistics startup Packfleet first raised from General Catalyst in a pre-seed round of £1m in 2021. It says its technology helps customer easily track and reschedule their deliveries — and helps businesses deliver a nicer customer experience.
SonarSource
- Sector: SaaS
- Founded: 2008
- HQ: Geneva
- Last raise: $412m (April)
- Investors: General Catalyst and Advent International co-led the most recent round. Insight Partners and Permira were also in the round
Hitting a juicy $4.7bn valuation at its last raise, SonarSource helps developers keep code clean and secure, while sticking to industry best practice when writing it in the first place. It says it’s used by over 300k organisations and 5m developers around the world.
ChannelEngine
- Sector: Ecommerce
- Founded: 2015
- HQ: Leiden
- Last raise: $50m Series B (March)
- Investors: The Series B was led by Atomico, with General Catalyst investing for the first time too. Existing backers Inkef and Airbridge Equity Partners also got involved.
Retailers don’t only sell through their own physical or online stores anymore; plenty are also making their products available via third-party marketplaces, like Amazon and Zalando, too. ChannelEngine is a platform which helps them manage those sales — keeping track of things like stock and prices.
Blidz
- Sector: Ecommerce
- Founded: 2017
- HQ: Helsinki
- Last raise: €6m seed (March)
- Investors: General Catalyst and Peak, an Amsterdam-based fund, led the seed round. D4 Ventures, Illusian Capital, Fabric Ventures, IPR VC and FJ Labs also piled in
Finnish startup Blidz is on a mission to bring social group buying — a huge phenomenon in China — to Europe. The idea is that consumers can get big discounts on its app by sharing the items they want to buy on social media, or with their pals. When Sifted spoke to CEO Lasse Diercks in March, he said there were around 2m items to buy on the Blidz app — and discounts could reach 95%.
TravelPerk
- Sector: Travel
- Founded: 2015
- HQ: Barcelona
- Last raise: $115m extension to its $160m Series D (January)
- Investors: The Series D extension was led by General Catalyst (a new investor) and existing backer Kinnevik
One of Spain’s rare unicorns, business travel platform TravelPerk weathered the Covid storm and grew its client base 80% during the worst ever year for business travel. It’s now made several acquisitions, and recently boosted its senior leadership team — announcing a new CFO, Roy Hefer, and chief people officer, Sally Sourbron.
Sovryn
- Sector: Crypto
- Founded: 2020
- HQ: London
Sovryn is a crypto platform that helps people buy, sell and swap bitcoin. It also enables them to lend their crypto assets — and borrow against them. Its community voted to accept General Catalyst's investment in May.
Bird Buddy
- Sector: Consumer
- Founded: 2020
- HQ: Slovenia
- Last raise: $8.5m seed round (December 2021)
- Investors: Backed VC and General Catalyst led the round
The company behind "the world's first smart bird feeder", Bird Buddy, raised its seed from US-based General Catalyst partner Niko Bonatsos at the end of last year. Birdwatching took off massively during the pandemic, with sales of bird feeders in the US soaring.
Rossum
- Sector: SaaS
- Founded: 2016
- HQ: Prague and London
- Last raise: $100m Series A (October 2021)
- Investors: General Catalyst led the Series A (at the time, eastern Europe's biggest ever), with other VC firms LocalGlobe and Seedcamp piling in
Rossum, a robotic process automation startup, helps corporates complete transactions more quickly by making the process of sharing documents speedier, digital and less bureaucratic. It's used by big businesses like Bosch, Siemens, EY and Adyen to exchange and process things like invoices, financial statements and customs declarations.
