Atomico

Atomico is a European venture capital firm headquartered in London, with additional offices reported in Paris, Berlin and Stockholm (one source also lists Luxembourg). It was founded in 2006 by Niklas Zennström, a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Skype and Kazaa, and who serves as founder and CEO. The firm describes itself as founder-built and positions its platform as supporting technology companies from the early stage through to scale, starting in Europe.

The firm has invested in more than 155 companies across 15 European countries through a series of funds: Atomico Ventures I ($73 million), Atomico Ventures II ($165 million, 2010), Atomico III ($476.6 million, closed November 2013), Atomico IV ($765 million, 2017), Atomico V ($820 million, 2020), a $1.1 billion fund, and most recently $1.24 billion raised in September 2024 across two vehicles — Atomico Venture VI ($485 million, primarily Series A with some seed) and Atomico Growth VI ($754 million, Series B to pre-IPO). Initially focused on Series A investments, Atomico added growth-stage investing in 2011. Reported check sizes range from roughly $10 million to $50 million, and sector focus areas include AI, fintech, enterprise software, digital infrastructure, industrial automation, internet infrastructure and security, and future of food.

Atomico also publishes an annual State of European Tech report on the European technology ecosystem; its 2023 edition reported that venture funding for European tech startups nearly halved to $45 billion in 2023 from $82 billion in 2022, while the combined value of private and public European tech companies exceeded $3 trillion.

Founding story

Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype and Kazaa, launched Atomico in 2006 on the premise that entrepreneurs are the primary drivers of positive transformation across society and the economy. The firm began with a $73 million first fund and has since raised successively larger vehicles.

Business model

Atomico raises pooled venture and growth capital funds from limited partners and deploys it as equity investments in technology companies, seeking returns through exits such as trade sales and IPOs. Separate funds and teams cover early-stage (Series A, occasional seed) and growth-stage (Series B to pre-IPO) investing, a structure that allows more risk-averse LPs to allocate specifically to later-stage companies.

Fund-based venture capital economics, with returns generated on equity stakes realised through exits; the firm has reported 62 exits.

Traction

The 2024 funds had made 21 investments as of the September 2024 announcement, including DeepL, Pelago and Corti (Series B lead) from Atomico Growth VI and Neko Health, Ben, Dexory, Deeploi, Strise and Lakera from Atomico Venture VI. Historical exits and transactions include Supercell (majority stake sold to SoftBank at a $3 billion valuation in 2013), The Climate Corporation (acquired by Monsanto for $1.1 billion in 2013), Xobni (acquired by Yahoo! in 2013), PowerReviews (acquired by Bazaarvoice in 2012), Rovio's $1 billion IPO in September 2017 and LendInvest's London Stock Exchange listing in July 2021.

Latest developments

In September 2024 Atomico closed $1.24 billion across Atomico Venture VI ($485 million) and Atomico Growth VI ($754 million), its largest fundraise to date, though SEC filings had indicated targets of $600 million and $750 million respectively. In December 2025 the firm led a $20 million Series A in Ankar, a London-based AI patent platform, with partner Andreas Helbig commenting on the deal. A January 2026 Series B investment in Tem is also reported, and in August 2026 Atomico was reported as lead investor in a $100 million seed round for London AI inference-routing startup Callosum.