Kreos puts another €50m to work

Venture debt provider Kreos Capital has continued the rapid deployment of its third fund by putting a further €50 million ($69 million) to work in the last two months.

Kreos, which only closed its third fund in April with €200 million of commitments, said in May that it had already invested up to half of this total since the start of the year. It has now made further commitments of €50 million in the subsequent two months, taking its total investment from the fund to €150 million.

The venture debt provider has now completed thirty deals from Fund III, with more in the pipeline. This has included ten deals in the last ten weeks, with recent investments including Apertio, a UK-based telecoms software business, UK online lingerie retailer Figleaves, medical technology company Deep Breeze and web security firm Finjan.

Its success in putting the fund to work demonstrates the increasing strength of venture capital appetite for debt in Europe and Israel, the firm’s two key target markets.

Kreos general partner Ross Ahlgren said his firm was benefiting from “a conscious flight to quality by the top-tier venture capital funds”. Its investment record over the past seven months was a “clear indication that Kreos Capital is the preferred partner,” he said.

Since Kreos receives money back from its investments via loan repayments, the €200 million fund can be recycled indefinitely, meaning it has no need to hit the fundraising trail just yet.