Talis Capital Announces First Closing of $175 Million Fund

Talis Capital has announced the first closing of its $175 million fund.

With this fund, which is its third fund and its largest to date, the venture capital (VC) firm will continue to lead seed and Series A rounds in tech infrastructure, climate and consumer internet companies across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, Talis Capital said in a Tuesday (May 30) press release.

“Talis’ latest fund — plus our absolute dedication to building deep relationships with those we invest in from the earliest stages — marks an important moment in finding the next generation of companies who’ll be category-definers of the future,” Talis Managing Partner Matus Maar said in the release.

The new funds have already allowed Talis Capital to invest in London-based credit security platform Bondaval and San Francisco-based carbon-negative textile company Rubi Laboratories, according to the press release.

Talis partners with a handful of founders each year and commits substantial time to supporting them in building their business, the release said.

“We know progress is cumulative in science and engineering but cyclical in finance and this time is no different — there is no such thing as a good time or a bad time to start a company, there are trade-offs,” Talis General Partner Thomas Williams said in the release. “We are extremely excited to announce our new fund as we continue to partner with founders at the earliest stages of company building.”

The first closing of this fund comes a week after FinTech-focused VC firm QED Investors closed an early stage fund worth $650 million and an early growth stage fund worth $275 million.

There’s a real opportunity in finding and backing the pragmatic disruptors of finance — the ones focused on profits and customers and finding defensible niche markets alongside the pursuit of growth, QED Partner Amias Gerety told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted Tuesday.

“There’s all this talk about ‘is this the end of FinTechs?’ But we think we’re still at the beginning … and counseling these firms to be pragmatic and not to be dogmatic,” Gerety said.

Talis Capital’s announcement also comes about two weeks after London-based seed-stage VC fund Seedcamp launched a $180 million fund to back European entrepreneurs.