Balderton backs Europe's most ambitious founders building category-defining technology companies, investing from Seed to IPO across an equal partnership. In their own words, "At Balderton, we believe the best way to change the world is to build a business – and that many of these world-changing businesses will be built in Europe." They underwrite to outcomes that can become billion-dollar revenue opportunities, evaluating market, founders and traction above all, and aim to be "the partner of choice to the founders starting and growing those European technology companies."
A real, often non-obvious problem with severe stakes that the founders deeply understand; Balderton's strongest 'why we invested' posts open with a vivid articulation of the problem's reality and scale.
“I had no idea what GitGuardian did until I walked into that room and I remember my skin pricking as they detailed the reality and scale of the problem they were tackling.” — DevSecOps and Secrets Management – why we invested in GitGuardian
“If a bad actor gets access to your secrets, they don't just access your company and your data, they access your customers' data.” — Suranga Chandratillake
“Every day, thousands of developers upload code into public GitHub repositories that happen to contain private credentials.” — Suranga Chandratillake
“Org charts have traditionally been a closely guarded secret and, worse, are rarely up to date even inside companies.” — Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen
A solution rooted in genuine technical or domain insight that is hard to replicate; in AI specifically, value comes from solving the user's problem in UX rather than from the model itself.
“value accrues in helping users extract from models rather than the actual models themselves” — AI in 2023: When six months feels like six years…
“The answer to that, it turns out, is that secrets are actually super hard to model and spot. Solving that problem took the team years of effort and innovation.” — Suranga Chandratillake
“There are a wide range of AI-native apps building on APIs and solving problems in UX rather than ML, creating a huge amount of value” — Sivesh Sukumar
“The Peakon team had realised that businesses needed a better way of understanding what really mattered to their employees” — Bernard Liautaud
A market that can plausibly create a billion-dollar revenue opportunity, presented bottom-up: total market, addressable portion, realistic capture given that few monopolies exist, and the competitive landscape.
“Good VCs are looking for markets that will create a billion-dollar revenue opportunity in the long run” — What a VC is looking for at Seed and Series A
“Venture is a hits business. Firms make a large number of investments knowing that many of them will fail” — Suranga Chandratillake
“How big is the overall market area you're addressing? What portion of that could be relevant to your specific product?” — Suranga Chandratillake
“Given that very few true monopolies exist, how much of that market can you realistically get?” — Suranga Chandratillake
Evidence the market resonates and the team executes rather than merely plans — momentum, fast growth, a credible early customer list, and high customer satisfaction. Traction is the hardest signal to fake.
“Great preparation and presentation can get you through much of convincing an investor of your Market and just how great a Founder you are. Traction is harder to manufacture.” — What a VC is looking for at Seed and Series A
“They were a small team, but had great momentum and were growing fast” — Bernard Liautaud
“they had already amassed an impressive client list, with companies like Delivery Hero, BMW, and Capgemini adopting the platform early on. Importantly, customer satisfaction was also really high.” — Bernard Liautaud
“Light, the AI-native finance platform that processes 280 million records in under a second, announced $30 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital” — Light raises $30M Series A to replace legacy finance systems with AI-native platform
Complete founding teams with complementary skills, prior track records (ideally together), depth beyond the CEO, and obsession with the problem; the team must be trusted to navigate constant change and continue raising capital.
“your job is to present why you are a team that can be trusted to take this very broad market/product opportunity and, in the legendary words of Tim Gunn, make it work!” — What a VC is looking for at Seed and Series A
“They all had complementary skill sets so the senior team already felt quite complete” — Bernard Liautaud
“This shows depth of and confidence in your team which is a powerful indicator of success.” — Suranga Chandratillake
“A key thing they look for is how well they think the team can continue to raise money.” — Suranga Chandratillake
A combination of product and business model that lets a company defend its market position, with a repeatable model as a key milestone in a venture's journey.
“convince them that you have a combination of product and business model that will let you defend your position” — What a VC is looking for at Seed and Series A
“Designing a repeatable business model is a key step in a growing venture's journey.” — Nicholas Andreou & Magda Lukaszewicz
A clear-eyed read of who is already in or adjacent to the market, whether well-resourced incumbents could move in, and why the startup can defend its position. In AI, Balderton tracks how fast incumbents move.
“What other companies are already in or adjacent to this market — will they want to get into it and do they have the resource and vision to do so?” — What a VC is looking for at Seed and Series A
“Incumbents are moving much quicker into the space than expected” — Sivesh Sukumar
A structural shift — in technology, behaviour, complexity or trust — that makes the company necessary now and old approaches untenable. Balderton frames 'why now' around compounding technology and changing expectations.
“As businesses become more dynamic and complex in structure and people move roles more frequently, real-time org data is becoming increasingly indispensable across many functions and all industries.” — Improving transparency – Why we invested in The Org
“In an age where secretive practices at larger tech firms have damaged consumer trust, we believe this transparency is something all businesses should be working towards.” — Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen
“we're really witnessing the power of compounded exponential technology development” — Sivesh Sukumar
“The barrier to entry for NLP tasks has significantly lowered” — Sivesh Sukumar
A pitch run as a serious, well-rehearsed team effort where the CEO is consistently present, multiple founders own parts of the story, and the round is framed around being able to keep raising and execute the plan.
“A key thing they look for is how well they think the team can continue to raise money.” — Pitching Investors is a Team Sport
“Have more than one person in meetings if you possibly can. It helps to have someone reading the room while the other is talking.” — Suranga Chandratillake
“Make sure everyone you take owns a substantial piece of the presentation.” — Suranga Chandratillake
“Good VCs are looking for markets that will create a billion-dollar revenue opportunity in the long run”
“At Balderton, we believe the best way to change the world is to build a business – and that many of these world-changing businesses will be built in Europe.”
“value accrues in helping users extract from models rather than the actual models themselves”
“As businesses become more dynamic and complex in structure and people move roles more frequently, real-time org data is becoming increasingly indispensable across many functions and all industries.”