Playfair collects $70m for third tech pre-seed fund

• This fund brings Playfair’s total amount raised to $140m 
• The average check size of Playfair’s investments is £750,000
• Playfair’s investments include Thought Machine, Andela and Mapillary

Playfair Capital, a pre-seed investor focused on the UK and Europe, has raised $70 million for its third tech-focused pre-seed fund, growing its overall fundraising total to $140 million.

“Playfair is the pre-seed fund that goes against convention and delivers results — we make a select few investments every year and focus our time on helping founders to turn their early-stage ideas into global companies,” managing partner Chris Smith said in a statement.

The London-based firm did not disclose the names of investors.

The average check size of Playfair’s investments is £750,000. It makes six to eight investments a year. Among its investments are Thought Machine, Andela, Mapillary and Omnipresent.

For this fund, Playfair is investing outside of dominant tech hubs.

In addition to the new fund, Playfair announced that Henrik Wetter-Sanchez, who has been with the firm since 2019, has been promoted to partner, while Jeevan Sunner was recently promoted to principal and Andrew Sheffield promoted to associate.