Seaya closes €600m growth fund, opens London office to chase Europe's scaleups
Madrid-based investor Seaya has raised €600 million for a new growth fund backed by the European Investment Fund, and is opening a London office as part of the push.
Spanish investment firm Seaya has raised €600 million at first close for a new growth fund, Seaya Nova, just six months after setting out to raise it. The fund is backed by the European Investment Fund under the European Tech Champions Initiative, an EIB Group programme designed to close the funding gap facing Europe’s growth-stage technology companies, alongside other institutional investors, corporates and family offices.
London office opens alongside new fund
The launch comes with a UK dimension. Seaya is opening a new office in London to sit alongside its Madrid headquarters, a move the firm says will strengthen its presence across European technology markets. The office opening coincides with the appointment of Vinoth Jayakumar as Managing Partner of Seaya Nova, who joins after more than a decade of European growth investing. His past backing includes Revolut and Wise, two of the UK’s best-known fintech scaleups, as well as Thought Machine and ICEYE.
Seaya Nova will write cheques of between €20 million and €50 million per company, leading or co-leading Series B to D rounds in European technology companies that the firm says have proven models, durable economics and global ambition. The fund is led jointly by Jayakumar and Beatriz González, Seaya’s founder and managing partner.
What it means for the company and UK founders
For Seaya, Nova marks a formal expansion beyond early-stage investing. The firm now operates three strategies: Seaya Ventures at early stage, Seaya Andromeda for impact investing, and Seaya Nova for growth. González described the new fund as “the natural evolution of what we have built over thirteen years”, saying Seaya can now support companies “all the way to global leadership”.
For UK founders and growth-stage companies, the arrival of a well-capitalised European growth investor with a dedicated London presence adds another potential source of Series B to D funding at a time when the European Investment Fund has been pushing to address a persistent gap in growth-stage capital on the continent. Jayakumar’s experience backing UK fintech names such as Revolut and Wise suggests UK companies with global ambitions are likely to be squarely in Seaya Nova’s sights.
Jayakumar said Europe “now produces companies capable of leading their categories globally”, adding that the question facing the ecosystem “is no longer whether we can build them here, but whether we can scale them from here”. He pointed to AI as a factor compressing the time between product-market fit and category leadership, meaning winning companies “need capital earlier and in larger amounts”.
What to watch next
The key signals to watch will be Seaya Nova’s first investments out of the fund, particularly whether any UK companies feature among its initial Series B to D deals given the new London office and Jayakumar’s track record with British fintechs. It will also be worth tracking whether the €600 million first close grows further, and how the fund’s backing from the European Investment Fund’s Tech Champions Initiative shapes its investment pace across European growth-stage technology companies more broadly.