Spain's Seaya raises €600M for its first growth fund and opens in London, as EU money targets Europe's scale-up gap

What's the deal? Madrid's Seaya has raised €600 million at first close for Seaya Nova, its first growth fund, in six months, the firm said. Cinco Días calls it the first megafund in the firm's 13-year history. It roughly doubles Seaya's assets under management to €1.2 billion. Nova will lead or co-lead Series B to D rounds in European tech companies, writing cheques of €20 million to €50 million.

Who's in? The anchor is the European Investment Fund, through the EIB Group's European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), alongside institutions, corporates and family offices. Bloomberg reported that Banco Santander backs the firm. Impact Loop, citing Bloomberg, says ETCI provided about half of the capital.

London move: Founder Beatriz González will run Nova with Vinoth Jayakumar, a former Molten Ventures partner who has backed Revolut, Wise, Thought Machine and ICEYE. Jayakumar joins as managing partner and will lead a new London office, next to the Madrid headquarters. "The question is no longer whether we can build them here, but whether we can scale them from here," Jayakumar said. Seaya is best known as an early backer of Cabify, Glovo and Wallbox.

The bigger picture: Europe's long-running problem has been growth capital. Startups raise seed and Series A at home, then turn to US funds for the big rounds. ETCI was set up to fix this by backing large European growth funds. Seaya Nova shows how that public money is now flowing to regional managers who move up the stages and open a base in London. The money is still concentrating, though: a few well-backed platforms raise large funds while many smaller managers struggle.

Sources: Seaya via Tech.eu · Cinco Días · Impact Loop · El Español

Image: Vinoth Jayakumar and Beatriz González. Credit: Seaya