Atomico is one of the largest VC firms in Europe, and recently closed a $765 million fund.
It was founded by Niklas Zennstrom, who co-founded Skype, which was eventually purchased by Microsoft. Atomico has a large number of investments in Europe including companies such as Swedish payments firm Klarna, but also puts money into start-ups across the world. Zenstrom echoed Khaliq`s comments in an interview with CNBC in November. "We`re confident in the next 10 years or so we will see companies from Europe that are on the scale of a Google or a Facebook," Zenstromm said. Khaliq is also an entrepreneur and founded a company called The Climate Corporation, which used a branch of AI called machine learning to help farmers improve their crop yield. This was acquired by U. seed giant Monsanto in 2013 for around $1 billion, according to numerous media reports at the time. He admitted that the U. has had a headstart in terms of venture capital firms funding companies, but that Europe is catching up. "I think we are a little late to the party here but we are catching up rapidly and some of the companies that are coming out of Europe now, they are innovators … they are not copying anything that is happening elsewhere," Khaliq told CNBC. "It is really starting here. So you multiply that out and you think about the patient capital that is willing to help them get to the big outcomes, it`s just really a matter of time now.
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