In the exhilarating times of 2021, Heartcore Capital intended to concentrate on consumer tech using a $200 million fund. When fast-forwarded to 2024, its newest fund is set to “enhance the mixture” of that concept, with a novel $180 million (€170 million) to extend beyond and adopt a more expansive approach than the previous strategy.

With 17 years invested in the field, Heartcore’s Fund V remains an early-stage fund and now includes companies like Boozt, Neo4j, Peakon, Tink, GetYourGuide, TravelPerk, and Podimo within its lineup.

Aiming to be the initial institutional funding for startups, it holds the position as the 9th leading VC globally based on the HEC Paris-Dow Jones VC ranking.

In a conversation with TechCrunch, partner and co-founder Jimmy Nielsen declared: “Essentially, this fund is broader [than the prior one]. … Towards the end of fund three and beginning of fund four, we were heavily into consumer sectors. The pendulum moved to the query of ‘Where truly succeeds technology?’ Thus, this fund is more generalist in concentration, more concentrating on productivity, software, infrastructure.”

This encompasses an increased focus on the computing stack, synthetic biology, productivity/AI, software infrastructure, travel, and climate technology. With Fund V, they aim to execute 25 to 30 early-stage investments and have invested in LLM compute infrastructure, database software, software for carbon capturing, and consumer travel so far.

The fund’s LPs feature Industriens Pension as a recurring investor. It also includes a smaller, dedicated web3 fund.

“Little changes in our existing LPs,” expressed Nielsen. “The recent years have been immensely rewarding for us on the DPI front. Over the last eight years, annually, when drawing one euro, we’ve returned 1.6, and when accumulated, it elevates the overall fund return.”

He further anticipates that the EU market will “heat up” next year: “There’s visible movement with increased M&A activity, and the prospects for IPOs in the following year are promising. The pressing query is, what actions will we Europeans adopt regarding IPOs? Will our focus shift towards the U.S.?”

The firm has now gathered €800 million in total committed capital with bases in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, and Paris.

Neo4j’s CEO and co-founder, Emil Eifrem, mentioned in a statement: “Heartcore was the inaugural fund to place faith in us 15 years back and has stayed with us through every financing phase, leading up to becoming a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.”