Haakon Overli

Enter quantum

28th September 2021 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

Every once in a while, a convergence of knowledge, progress and will occurs, and changes the course of human history. I wholly believe we are on the cusp of this with quantum computing. Ironically not a leap, these moments are typically an accelerating continuum, where things seemingly disparate suddenly come together. People around the world …

Latest from Dawn
26-04-2021

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Our long-standing commitment to our founders: Introducing Dawn Opportunities II

22nd July 2021 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

Last year, software saved the world. We saw it happen in real-time as we worked, shopped, and socialised from home. Now, and for years to come, companies will be built that are larger, and more world-changing, than ever before — redefining everything we see around us for the better. Today is the age of private enterprise, and …

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26-04-2021

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The founder case for SPACs

7th May 2021 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

There are an unprecedented number of later stage funding opportunities out there — but with those come important decisions. Here, we’ll try to navigate those, sharing how we approach, and advise our founders to approach, this evolving market. In this first piece, the focus is on SPACs. While the market pauses for breath, we look …

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26-04-2021

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Introducing Dawn IV: $400m to build the future of European B2B software

9th September 2020 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

2020 will go down in history as the year software saved the world. As Covid-19 hit, we went remote — almost overnight. We’d been doing it all already — occasional days working from home, buying clothes, food and furniture online, chatting to colleagues on Zoom and family members on Skype. But in March it became …

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26-04-2021

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What I’ve learnt from Dawn founders about listening

17th June 2020 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

I remember being a founder in the trenches over 20 years ago. I co-founded Selftrade, a share-dealing platform, in 1997 and sold it in 2000. This is where I learnt about listening; listening to customers. We always built what they wanted — even if that meant redesigning entire processes from scratch. Our tagline was “We …

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26-04-2021

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Being an all-weather investor

24th April 2020 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

There is a lot of noise in the funding market today — from VCs saying they are open for business on the one hand, to startups seeing term sheets being pulled and punitive terms being offered on the other. Our view is very clear. Wonderful companies are being created all the time and it would …

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26-04-2021

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£1.25bn for VC-backed startups — Dawn’s response to the UK government’s coronavirus plan

20th April 2020 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

The UK government pledged this morning to invest £1.25bn in high-growth companies — a bailout for VC-backed businesses struggling to survive through the coronavirus lockdown. Here’s the FT’s coverage. The co-investment fund will see private sector money matched with state-backed loans that can convert into equity stakes. At Dawn, we welcome this support. We see this not …

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26-04-2021

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A lonely time

31st March 2020 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

It is strange what comes to the fore, now we all work at home. I have been forgetting to keep hydrated, while sticking to the thing I have found most valuable in this brave new world — meditating. But somewhere between those, I find myself thinking about founders. This is unsurprising; I work at a …

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26-04-2021

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Dawn doubling down on Europe’s best tech

21st June 2019 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

This week we announced the closing of Dawn Opportunities Fund. At $125M, it’s Europe’s largest B2B opportunities fund. We have already deployed a good portion of it in Collibra — the leading data governance and cataloguing company — alongside Alphabet’s CapitalG growth fund in the recent $100M round. We backed Collibra from the very beginning …

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26-04-2021

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Dawn III: Our new $235m fund

20th April 2018 • Latest from Dawn • By Haakon Overli

Dawn earlier this week announced the closing of Dawn III — at $235m (£165m), Dawn III is the single largest dedicated B2B venture fund in Europe. We are very pleased to about this outcome as it supports our long-standing thesis that Europe has a tremendous ability and even further potential to create global software leaders. …

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26-04-2021

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