Dawn Capital’s latest partner, Shamillah Bankiya, stopped by Equity this week to talk about the European landscape and the biggest misconceptions Americans have about the European startup world.
Dawn Capital is a marquee firm in the U.K. with more than $2 billion in AUM, 34 exits, and 11 unicorns. Names in the portfolio include AI companies Collibra and Dataiku. It focuses on early-stage companies, backing them from seed to Series C. It’s currently investing from its $620 million Fund V.
Bankiya, meanwhile, is one of the few Black women venture partners in Europe. Her investments at the firm include AI company Qogita and the marketplace Fonoa.
She spoke to us about growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and with a desire to learn new things.
“Venture lends itself to that extremely well,” she said. “So in some ways, yes, like for the last 20 years, I wanted to be an investor of some sort.”
