Swedish buyout fund giant EQT is shaking up its venture arm as it prepares to increase its investments in American startups.
The $315 billion asset manager has promoted investor Carolina Brochado to head up venture and growth investments from a new outpost in New York. And it has announced the departure of four partners, among themEQT Ventures lead Lars Jornow.
In her new role, Brochado will oversee EQT’s early and late stage investments both, with a particular focus on on venture stage companies in the U.S.. “We want to have a larger presence in the world’s deepest technology market,” said Brochado.
The shakeup comes amid changes at its Nasdaq Stockholm-listed EQT. Bloomberg reported in February that company veteran and billionaire Per Franzen had become the Swedish fund’s new CEO. Since listing in 2019, the private equity investor, which was cofounded by Sweden’s wealthy Wallenberg family, has grown its assets to $315 billion from $44 billion more than tripling its share price.
EQT is best known as Europe’s largest buyout fund but it also has raised billions for its venture and startup growth funds. Launched in 2022, its $1.3 billion venture and $2.8 billion growth funds are among the largest-ever raised by a Europe-focused entity.
The departing Jarnow helped set up EQT’s venture arm around ten years ago and is best known for gaming investments like Small Giant Games, Reworks, and Popcore. Partners Ashley Lundström, Doreen Huber and Julien Hobeika are leaving the company as well.
Brochado started her career with investment bank Merrill Lynch and buyout fund Madison Dearborn. She also invested in startups with London-based fund Atomico and SoftBank’s Vision Fund. She joined EQT in 2020 to help lead its growth team.
Brochado has backed a string of future unicorns over the course of her career. The formerly London-based investor sits on the board of $5.8 billion clothing resale platform Vinted, banking software startup Mambu which last raised at a $6 billion valuation in 2021, and fitness class unicorn Wellhub (formerly Gympass). One of the companies she backed at SoftBank, physiotherapy startup Hinge went public on the New York Stock Exchange at a $2.6 billion valuation in May.
EQT Venture’s plan to establish a New York office (it already has an outpost in San Francisco) comes as major American investors have sought to win deals in Europe in recent years. Sequoia Capital, IVP and Lightspeed Venture Partners have all hired teams to grab a slice of a growing startup ecosystem in Europe.