Nico Rosberg closes $100m fund as he thanks F1 lessons for incredible VC performance

Nico Rosberg's venture capital firm, Rosberg Ventures, has now shot beyond $200million in assets under management after it closed a $100million deal for its third fund.

On the announcement of the fund's close, the German-born racer posted the following on LinkedIn. 

"We’ve just closed our $100m Fund III at Rosberg Ventures, oversubscribed with unprecedented demand, and capped allocations for optimised performance," he wrote. 

"I’m super humbled by the support we’ve received once again. A heartfelt thank you especially to all our long term partners for the trust."

The former Lewis Hamilton team-mate started the firm after his championship win in 2016. While it originally invested in other venture capital funds to diversify its portfolio, it has since been investing directly in companies such as ClickHouse, a digital analytics company. It has shown a strong interest in AI-based organisations, as well as software startups.

In a post that reflected on his hard work since starting the company, Rosberg discussed the lessons he learnt from racing in F1 that helped to mitigate risks. 

"Take your chances. Sometimes that means even taking those very low odds, 10% chances, but where the upside is enormous," he posted, adding: "You might be wondering how we can be brave and fully commit when failure is so highly likely?

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes F1 W07

Photo by: Rainer Schlegelmilch / Getty Images

"Well, everything comes down to preparation. It’s essential to go through all the failure scenarios. Then explore how to make the best of those negative outcomes, or develop a plan to mitigate their negative impact (so that they don’t actually look bad at all). This will give you the confidence to go all in on your opportunity.

"In sport, you must often go on the attack and take these risks wholeheartedly.

"Intuitively deciding on which chances to take, and then sometimes succeeding, will compound very powerfully."

Alongside this work, the former racing driver still moonlights as a pundit for broadcast companies such as Sky Sports F1, and manages his own YouTube channel as well. While he publishes videos sporadically, he's been able to amass almost 1.5 million subscribers, with a video of his first drive of the AMG-ONE being watched over 2.3 million times. 

"Venture is a long journey," he continued. "It will never feel as clear as crossing a finish line in racing. But moments like this, getting well past $200M in AUM, are great milestones giving us the firepower now to keep racing forward."