Notion – Investing in European, Enterprise Technology and B2B SaaS Companies at Series A Stage
“We do serious work…but don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
That’s the motto of Notion, a venture firm that invests in the next generation of enterprise tech category leaders.
Founded in 2009, Notion has realised more than 60 investments in European B2B SaaS companies, totalling $500 million in Assets Under Management (AUM). The entire team is committed to supporting its founders every step of the way on their extraordinary journeys.
Investment Sectors
Notion was built by B2B SaaS entrepreneurs and operators that turned investors. “We are investing in what we know and love: general Software as a Service (SaaS), industry disruptors, and frontier tech,” proudly shares Susie Meier, Investor at Notion Capital.
In the last 10 years, they have supported over 60 founders that have an elusive combination of qualities that enable them to potentially build large, category-leading companies.
Notion traces its roots back to SaaS, and believes that there’s never been a better time to invest in this sector given the abundance of processes and workflows still run manually or by outdated on-premise software.
“SaaS has essentially become the primary area of growth in enterprise tech, and Notion is uniquely placed to shape the future success of its companies,” says Ms. Meier.
“Our vision is to be the VC we never had, creating the conditions for extraordinary success for our portfolio and the wider ecosystem.”
Personal Background and Leadership
Susie Meier is an investor at Notion. She came to London in 2014 to pursue an MSc in Finance and Private Equity, and she never left.
Susie spent three years in the EMEA M&A’s team at UBS. After that, she gradually started moving towards early-stage tech investing before ultimately joining Notion’s fantastic team.
“To me, investing is more art than science – and at the very core, it’s about the product. Listening to a founder describing his own software can be a very special moment — and the best founder calls are the ones where you immediately fall in love with the product,” shares Ms. Meier.
Biggest Achievements
Among more than the 60 investments in various tech and SaaS companies, Susie Meier’s favourite achievement to date is the investment in Acin. There, Notion led a $12 million Series A investment in mid-2020.
Acin is a data platform for operational risk, primarily for large financial institutions. It enables them to access standardised controls data seamlessly and allows agile data-driven risk management and decision making.
“As VCs, we are always looking for the elusive alchemy of factors that come together to create a great and enduring business; one capable of genuine category-leadership. Acin ticked all the boxes for me,” says Susie Meier.
From the very first call with the founder and CEO, Paul Ford, until the final closing, Ms. Meier constantly had the indescribable feeling that Acin had the potential to be a true industry disruptor and was creating a whole new product category.
Connection with InvestHorizon
“In my eyes, InvestHorizon is one of the best accelerator programmes for helping early-stage companies reach new horizons faster than ever,” explains Susie Meier.
As most early-stage VCs, Notion constantly tracks the ideas and products that are coming out of accelerators across the world.
“InvestHorizon has done a phenomenal job at focusing on deep-tech companies, while maintaining a very open mind to all other parameters, including geographies, (sub-)sectors, founder backgrounds, and product visions.
The programme supports companies through a variety of value-added ways – from promoting collaboration within the founders, to maintaining a strong network of investors and business experts, to helping them find product-market fit (PMF) and become visible to the broader ecosystem, to ultimately boosting their investment readiness,” concludes Ms. Susie Meier.