Northzone: The Transatlantic VC That Was Global Before It Was Fashionable

Northzone has been in the venture business since 1996 — long enough to have lived through multiple technology cycles. The firm describes itself as a global fund built on that experience, and its own line sums up the ambition: it was global before it was fashionable. With more than ten funds raised and a most recent fundraise in excess of €1 billion, Northzone invests across seed to growth stages as a full-stack investor.

The thesis is deliberately global from the first sketch. Northzone underwrites companies with capital in one geography, customers in another and talent everywhere. Its hubs span London, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and Oslo, giving founders a transatlantic operating model that suits founders who think in global systems rather than regional markets.

The track record includes some of Europe's most category-defining businesses. The firm backed a Swedish music company that changed how the world listens (Spotify), a Nordic payments company that changed how people pay (Klarna), and an American mental-health company that changed how people find care (Spring Health). Today it says it is backing the labs where human and machine intelligence meet — the materials, software and financial rails of the next thirty years.

• Spotify — an early bet on the Swedish streaming pioneer
• Klarna — the Nordic buy-now-pay-later leader
• Trustpilot — the reviews platform Northzone backed in 2012
• Personio — European HR software champion
• iZettle — payments company acquired by PayPal
• Kahoot! — the learning platform's breakout
• TrueLayer — open-banking infrastructure
• Spring Health — mental-health care, backed in the US
• Avito, Zopa, Tier, Flink — further growth-stage winners

The partnership runs a dedicated Growth Fund — led by London-based partner Sanjot Malhi — to carry its best later-stage opportunities, alongside its early-stage programme. That structure gives founders a single partner from seed through scale, rather than a handoff between disconnected funds.