Transition Ventures, the London-based early-stage firm led by Unity co-founder David Helgason, has closed a $150m second fund, bringing the platform’s assets under management to over $300m.
Fund II will continue Transition’s thesis that the most consequential companies of the coming decade will sit at the intersection of AI and the physical world: power, robotics, materials, refining, and the hardware-software boundary in general.
Helgason’s pitch, which he has been refining since launching Transition in 2021 after stepping back as Unity’s chief executive in 2014, is that the classic venture playbook of backing software-only incremental improvements has reached the end of its commercial road.
The new wave of generational technology companies, on his framing, will combine deep-tech hardware with AI software in ways that require investors who can credibly evaluate both halves.
Transition’s small team is built around that thesis: alongside Helgason are his brother Ari (formerly of Index Ventures), Kristian Branaes (ex-Atomico), Clara Ricard (ex-Balderton) and David Pacák (ex-Earlybird and Picus Capital).
