Venture capital firm Talis has raised a US$175mn early-stage fund, which will be used, in part, to invest in up-and-coming technology infrastructure and climate tech. London-based Talis already invests in residential investment company Immo; operational risk management network Acin; and Aventus, a customer engagement platform for the insurance industry. The funds will be aimed at Seed- and Series A-stage companies located in the US, UK and Europe.

The company was founded in 2009 with the intention of building “disruptive, category-defining and enduring” businesses. It is led jointly by equal partner Matus Maar, Thomas Williams and Kirill Tashilov – an operating model that it says it’s extremely proud of.

Talis Capital are ‘more like biologists than physicists’

Speaking about the closing of the latest fund, Maar says: “The tech industry is undergoing a moment of transformation, yet history’s proven well supported visionaries and entrepreneurs flourish in such disruptive times as discontinuity drives opportunity. Talis’ latest fund – plus our absolute dedication to building deep relationships with those we invest in from the earliest stages – marks an important moment in finding the next generation of companies who’ll be category-definers of the future.”

Kirill Tashilov, General Partner at Talis, says: “At Talis, we invest when we see the outlines of sustainable competitive advantage and potential for path dependence. As a result, we think more like biologists than physicists – we think of economic webs and complex adaptive systems more than we do of simple value chains. It enables us to identify the potential dominant teams and companies early in their journeys and help them build enduring businesses.”

Thomas Williams adds: “At Talis, we take a different approach to the fiscal recklessness and linear thinking that’s caused many in the last decade to ignore the core principles of company building and value creation. We know progress is cumulative in science and engineering but cyclical in finance and this time is no different – there is no such thing as good time or bad time to start a company, there are trade-offs. We are extremely excited to announce our new fund as we continue to partner with founders at the earliest stages of company building.”