European repeat founders are pulling in significantly more capital in a selective funding market.
This week, London-based investor Tapestry VC closed its third fund at $80 million, its largest vehicle to date, investing on the thesis that backing entrepreneurs with experience building businesses will generate strong returns
According to the firm, second and third-time founders are currently worth $2.2 trillion in combined enterprise value and are responsible for 60% of unicorns founded in Europe over the past eight years. Founders including Spotify’s Daniel Ek and GoCardless’s Tom Blomfield have gone on to launch several ventures such as Neko Health and Monzo. Tapestry’s bet on repeat founders is one shared by many of Europe’s VCs, which reward serial entrepreneurs with bigger ticket sizes and higher valuations than their first-time peers.
According to PitchBook data, the median deal size for an experienced founder with at least one previous company is €4.3 million (about $4.9 million) this year, 72% higher than for first-time founders, whose median deal size is €2.5 million. The gap is widest in venture growth and early-stage deals, where the median for repeat entrepreneurs is more than double that of new founders. The difference in deal sizes is even starker in AI, where experienced founders raise a median of 92% more than first-timers.