Carlyle Targets ‘Pockets of Life’ in $3B EU Tech Fund

Carlyle Group has reportedly raised $3.1 billion for a European tech fund that is targeting “pockets of life” in an economy hit by a pandemic, inflation and the war in Ukraine.

The fund’s principals — Michael Wand and Vladimir Lasocki — told Reuters Monday (Nov. 28) that the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners fund V (or CETP V) will focus on lower mid-market and growth technology firms across Europe, in areas that include cybersecurity, digital transformation, and cleantech.

The report says the fund has surpassed its $2.59 billion target in less than a year of fundraising, more than twice the size of the group’s previous fund, CETP IV.

Reuters said the fund already has two investments — Euro Techno Com Group (ETC) a value-added distributor of telecom equipment, which it sold to Cinven in June, and digital marketing firm Incubeta, which it purchased earlier this month.

As PYMNTS noted recently, 2022 seems to have been a good year so far for climate tech funding, the type CETP is targeting. A recent report by PwC, found climate tech investment in the 12 months to the third quarter of this year represented more than a quarter of all venture capital (VC) invested globally.

And despite a general slowdown in VC investment in the second half of the year, climate tech has stayed resilient and dominated the funding landscape, as five of the 10 biggest VC deals in the most recent quarter went to startups in the space.

Topping the list is Swedish battery maker Northvolt, which raised $1.1 billion in convertible notes in July to finance the expansion of its European factories.

With contracts worth more than $55 billion to customers that include BMW, Scania, Volkswagen and Volvo, the company is the first European commercial battery maker to supply the automotive industry, a sign of the end to EU carmakers’ long reliance on Chinese energy cells.

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