#Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt backs new European venture fund

Former Google boss Eric Schmidt has just plowed cash into a British-based venture capital fund.

The 65-year-old tech billionaire, who is finalizing a plan to become a citizen of the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus in order to obtain an EU passport, just invested an undisclosed sum in a $111 million fund from London-headquartered VC firm Firstminute Capital.

Schmidt is one of several tech executives backing Firstminute. Founded in 2017 by Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman and former Goldman Sachs analyst Spencer Crawley, Firstminute primarily invests in European companies in areas such as artificial intelligence, gaming, e-commerce and biotech.

Investors include RTI Capital Partners, Chinese tech giant Tencent, venture firm Atomico and private equity firm Vitruvian. The founders of big data firm Palantir, gaming firm Supercell and e-commerce platform Zalando have also backed Firstminute.

“European technology is reaching escape velocity, and it’s fantastic to enable so many global serial entrepreneurs to give their experience to the next generation,” Hoberman said in a statement Monday. “Seed venture investing is attracting ever higher quality backers which will help more founders succeed.”