Nauta Lands €60 Million First Close for Its Sixth Fund

Nauta has secured a €60 million first close for its sixth fund, money it will deploy into European software and DeepTech startups, EU-Startups reports. It's the firm's first new vehicle since its fifth fund, and the number tells you where European specialist VC still finds conviction: applied software and hard-tech.

For practitioners, a first close matters more than most headline figures. It's the moment a fund can legally start investing — the firm has hard commitments in hand, even if the total target is larger. LPs who sign at first close take the earliest risk and, in many structures, get the best terms. Everything after that is top-up.

What does this change for European founders?

In practical terms, it puts a proven, thesis-driven buyer back in the market with fresh powder. €60 million is a first close, not necessarily the ceiling — but even taken at face value, it's enough for a seed-and-Series-A software firm to lead or co-lead dozens of rounds over a typical fund cycle. Spread across a standard investing period, that's a steady pipeline of cheques for teams building in Nauta's stated focus areas: software and DeepTech.

DeepTech is the word doing the heavy lifting here. Software deals can move fast; DeepTech — the hardware-adjacent, research-heavy end of the market — takes longer and burns more capital before revenue. A firm that deliberately pairs the two is signalling it wants the cash-flow profile of software to balance the patience that DeepTech demands. Founders in the second category should read this as one more specialist gate open to them.

Why a sixth fund carries weight

Fund number six is a quiet credential. Firms don't raise successive vehicles unless earlier ones returned capital to LPs — institutional investors simply don't re-up into a story that hasn't paid out. Nauta reaching a sixth fund means it has cleared that bar at least five times before, through multiple market cycles including the post-2021 reset.

For founders, that track record translates into something tangible: partners who've seen downturns, exits that actually happened, and a network built over more than two decades of European venture. For co-investors, it means a counterparty with an institutional LP base rather than a one-fund experiment.

The context

The close lands in a European venture market where LPs have grown pickier. Software remains the workhorse category for returns, while DeepTech has moved from niche to strategic priority as Europe pushes for technological sovereignty in areas like AI infrastructure, semiconductors and advanced computing. A fund explicitly bridging both sits squarely in that current.

More money for these segments also means more competition for the best teams — which, if you're raising in either category, isn't a bad problem to have.

What to watch next

The number to watch is the final close. First closes set the floor; final closes set the strategy. If Nauta pushes well past €60 million, expect larger cheque sizes and possibly later-stage involvement. If it stays near this figure, the firm is doubling down on its bread-and-butter early-stage positioning. Either way, European software and DeepTech founders just gained a funded, focused buyer at the table.

By Nathan Brooks