About This Fund
Adams Street European Venture Fund 2023 is the debut dedicated European venture vehicle managed by Adams Street Partners, one of the world's preeminent private markets asset managers with over $62 billion in assets under management and more than 50 years of private markets experience. Launched with a 2023 vintage, the fund reached final close in May 2025, securing more than EUR 270 million in capital commitments from a broad institutional investor base — including public pension plans, corporate and Taft-Hartley plans, insurance companies, and endowments — significantly oversubscribing its original fundraising target. This is the firm's first commingled fund dedicated exclusively to European venture capital, built on a 25-year foundation of investing across the region through Adams Street's global fund programs.
The fund pursues a disciplined fund-of-funds strategy, allocating approximately 70% of committed capital to primary investments in a curated selection of 10 to 20 established and emerging European venture capital managers, with the remaining 30% reserved for secondary transactions and direct co-investments into venture-backed companies. This hybrid structure provides diversified exposure across the European startup ecosystem while preserving flexibility to concentrate capital behind high-conviction breakout opportunities at the company level. The fund is expected to build indirect exposure to approximately 400 early-stage companies over a two-to-three year deployment horizon, with concentrated sectoral emphasis on technology and healthcare innovation across the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
Adams Street Partners brings a deep and verified track record in European venture, having invested in more than 50 European VC funds and deployed nearly $2 billion in the region since 2000, backing managers including Index Ventures, Accel, Balderton Capital, and a range of spinout funds from top-tier firms. Partner Ross Morrison, who leads the European venture strategy, holds advisory board positions at Index Ventures, Highland Capital, Keensight, Livingbridge, and Vitruvian. The fund's institutional credibility was underscored by a commitment of up to EUR 60 million from British Business Investments, a subsidiary of the British Business Bank, made through its Managed Funds Programme.