Claret Capital Partners exceeds target with €575M growth debt fund for European innovators
Tech.eu Tamara Djurickovic ● Covered by 2 sources
Claret Capital Partners closed a €575M growth debt fund, above target. It’s backing European startups with less dilution just as equity stays picky.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Tamara Djurickovic — read the original for the full story.
Summary, retelling and take written by AI under human oversight; images are AI-generated illustrations. How we work · Report an error
Claret Capital Partners has wrapped up its fourth European Growth Capital Fund at €575 million, beating the €500 million goal it set for the raise. The money will be used for growth debt across technology, life sciences and impact-focused companies in Europe, and the firm says the fund is already 32 per cent deployed.
That early spend has gone into more than 27 companies, including Billie, Cinclus Pharma, PRODA, Inventiva and Surfe. The pitch is simple: flexible capital that lets companies expand abroad, buy other businesses and keep building products without handing over as much ownership as they might in a pure equity round.
The final close pulled in institutional backers such as pension funds, insurers, family offices and public institutions, plus private wealth investors using an ELTIF structure. Claret also plans to lean on discretionary co-investment partnerships for larger deals, which gives it more room when a transaction needs extra size.
This is not a first outing for the firm. Its previous fund closed at €297 million in 2022, and the portfolio since then has produced exits including Cytora, Endomag, Logpoint, Lyst and Tiqets, along with Abivax’s Nasdaq IPO. Claret says it has now deployed more than €1.5 billion across over 210 companies through successive fund vintages, including recycled capital, and it is planning to expand its pan-European footprint with people already in Paris and a planned presence in Berlin.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Growth debt keeps looking smarter when equity gets stingy and founders still want to move. Claret’s raise says a lot less about fashion than about a basic market truth: dilution is expensive, and investors are happy to fund that complaint. The real surprise is how long it took for this to feel obvious.
Read more about this at: Tech.eu