Pretiosum Ventures hits first close on its second fund to back infrastructure startups

London-based Pretiosum Ventures has reached the first close of what TechCrunch understands could eventually be a $20 million second fund.

Founded in London in 2019 by Yana Abramova, the solo GP fund invests in “infrastructure” startups (enterprise SaaS, fintech, and web3). Pretiosum (a witty inflexion of the Latin word pretiōsus meaning “precious”) typically writes checks in the $250,000 to $500,000 range in a “follow-on” manner.

Abramova sits on Cambridge University’s Judge Business School alumni board and was previously an ambassador at Tech Nation (recently acquired by Founders Forum).

As one of Europe’s very few female GPs, Abramova backs startups at the pre-seed, seed, and occasionally at the Series A stage.

To date, Pretiosum has co-invested in startups alongside Cherry Ventures, Greycroft, Seedcamp, IQ Capital and Y Combinator.

I’ve noted before that there’s a new wave of solo GP VCs coming to Europe, even if we think it might be tough out there, especially in the U.S.

The trend has only just begun in Europe, and I very much doubt it will stop just because we are in a new, bearish cycle.

As I wrote in June, this model of VC has arrived late enough in Europe for it to become a more viable way forward for many European startups.

We have already seen the launch of Underline Ventures, started last year by Bogdan Iordache in Romania, as well as the launch of Hypernova, a $25 million fund of funds that plans to invest not only in other funds but also directly into startups.