The Nordic red-hot startup movement continues. On Tuesday, Neil Murray, founder and general partner at Copenhagen-based firm The Nordic Web Ventures, announced the close of a $6 million Fund III to continue investing in early-stage founders in the region.
The fund will focus on writing the first institutional checks to companies focused on robotics, AI-native companies, and deep tech founders.
Murray, a solo GP, told TechCrunch that his first two funds were “test vehicles” to prove his ability to spot and invest in top talent in the region. Now, seven years later, he has written the first check into more than 50 companies, with a portfolio including the unicorn Lovable and the remote worker insurance company SafetyWing, and exits like the UI design company Uizard.
As TechCrunch previously reported, the Nordic ecosystem (which includes Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) is now valued at more than half a trillion dollars and received more than $8 billion in venture funding in 2024, making the region one of the hottest emerging markets in Europe. Murray said Fund III had more than $20 million in investor interest, but he decided to cap it at $6 million because he cares “more about alignment than AUM.”
Staying small, he said, means he can better tie incentives to performance rather than management fees. He also said staying small, especially as a solo GP, gives him more flexibility while “everyone else is still debating.”
“Capping the fund wasn’t a constraint,” he said. “It was the strategy.”
The check sizes for the fund will be around $200,000, and he hopes to back between 30 and 35 companies. “I believe it is more important to be investing in Tier 1 founders than to back Tier 2 founders and over-optimizing for ownership,” he said.
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Murray’s limited partner base includes institutional backers such as Allocater One, founder Christoph Janz, and Pacenotes. Founders from Kahoot! And Pleo, in addition to operators from Meta and Google, is also LPs in Fund III.
“Many founders from my first two funds have invested in my new fund, which is also an incredibly important metric to me,” he said, adding that he’s already returned more than half the capital he raised across Fund I and Fund II.
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