Seaya reaches €600M first close for Nova; Factorial deal structure detailed

The story so far, in brief; the legwork, and the full article, stay with the original outlet.

Seaya has secured the first €600M of Nova, its large fund for late-stage start-ups, with Beatriz González as managing partner. Half comes from the European Investment Bank, which is public money, and Santander, which owns 25% of the firm, backs the private €300M and sits among the investors. Seaya has also hired a British partner who previously worked at Molten Ventures.

Other managers are refilling too. Masia has closed its first fund at €18M, backed by more than 70 partners and invested in 46 Barcelona-linked companies, and is preparing a second of €20M. Big Sur Ventures is launching its fourth vehicle, €100M for deeptech, with €40M of public money committed by SETT. Enzo Ventures is starting a €20M fund for very early rounds, with initial tickets of 100k to 800k, against roughly €30M in its prospectus, and Bregal Milestone III has drawn €40M from Cofides. Public money remains a busy limited partner.

Factorial's $150M Series D is partly something other than shares: General Catalyst came in through a $95M participating loan with a preferred dividend, convertible at a valuation cap of $5bn. It sits within a $540M agreement to fund customer acquisition.