Brexit Pushes VC to Look Outside U.K. for New Tech Investments

Brexit Pushes VC to Look Outside U.K. for New Tech Investments
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83North, a venture capital firm with offices in London and Tel Aviv, has closed a new $250 million fund that will target early stage technology companies in Europe and Israel, according to Bloomberg.

While 83North has long had a strong focus on British technology startups, Laurel Bowden, a partner at the firm, said because of the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, the new fund would probably emphasize investments in European tech hubs outside the U.K. The fund, 83North’s fourth and largest so far, brings the firm’s total assets under management to $800 million, the company said in a statement.

In the past 83North’s portfolio has included food delivery company Just Eat, wireless communications provider Telit, both of which are now public companies, mobile games company SocialPoint, which was sold to Take-Two Interactive, and ScaleIO, which was acquired by EMC, among others. It also has a strong footprint in financial technology startups, including Swedish payments firm iZettle and Israel-founded Payoneer, which is now based in New York.

The U.K. continues to draw in more investment than its neighbors. Venture-capital firms plowed 6.8 billion pounds into Britain last year, according to an annual study from Tech City UK, a London-based organization that promotes the country’s digital economy. That’s about two and a half times more than invested in France, and almost five times more than in Germany.