Anthemis targets $200 million for new fund after layoffs and canceled SPAC

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Anthemis Group is trying to raise $200 million for a third fund, according to a filing with the SECas first reported Axios. It has been on the market since last year and has so far secured commitments of just $36.4 million. The separate firm had scrap plans to raise a SPAC at the end of last month.

Founded in 2010, based in London Anthemis focuses on financial technology (better known as fintech), a sector that has been hit hard by the economic downturn and slowdown in venture capital. the signature at the end of 2021 he announced that he had raised $700 million in new funding In what a spokesperson described as “a collection of capital” it closed “through strategies” from its venture study to its venture growth fund. That collection of capital was called the Anthemis Venture Fund II.

The firm previously raised $106 million in its first venture fund in March 2018; Anthemis had said it has $1.5 billion in assets under management in total.

TechCrunch reached out to Anthemis about its attempts to raise capital for its third fund and its dissolved SPAC, but had yet to hear back as of this writing.

New fundraising presentation comes just months after Anthemis laid off 16 people, or 28% of its staff, TechCrunch reported in April. At that time, A spokesperson for London-based Anthemis told TechCrunch the move was an effort “to better reflect current market conditions and shape the business for future growth” against its “strategic priorities.”

While we have seen some great funds raised in recent months, the market has tightened dramatically for other companies. Either way, Anthemis isn’t the only team that had to back out of the SPAC plans. Many others, including acornsFor example, it opted to raise capital in 2022. For a time during the bull run, SPACs, also known as special purpose acquisition vehicles, were seen as a good way for traders, as well as certain equity firms, to risk, stretch out the amount of capital they could put to work. But its popularity has plummeted since 2022, after the SEC introduced Proposed Guidelines for SPACsspecifically around disclosures, marketing practices, and monitoring of third parties.

As TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos has previously said reported, Senator Elizabeth Warren announced last year that she was planning a bill targeting the SPAC industry. She called the “SPAC Accountability Act of 2022”, the bill would expand the legal liability of parties involved in SPAC transactions, close loopholes that SPACs have “long exploited to make exaggerated projections” and would further insure investors who sponsor a deal.

So far this year, Anthemis has publicly announced a few new investments. including: fly by, Raise (main investor), green spark and Agreena. He also announced a follow-on investment in Herd. The firm has also seen a couple of departures, including Force being acquired by Marqeta and goji be picked up by Euroclear. Other companies in its portfolio include social investment app eToroinvestment and savings application Betterment and insurtech Vouch.

Like a growing number of companies, Anthemis has also seen a couple of portfolio companies stumble over the last year. In November, the controversy surrounding the sudden resignation of three of Pipe’s co-founders, including its CEO, arched eyebrows. And more recently, LGBTQ+ focused digital bank Daylight was hit with a lawsuit by three former employees “alleging age and salary discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and fraud.”