New European + LatAm VC fund Boost Capital Partners takes aim at startups with games-level UX

Boost Capital Partners is the name of a new European + LatAm VC fund that aims to focus on user-experience startups.

The London-based VC has hit its first close of $35 million, with a target of $40 million. It’s been founded by Alvaro Alvarez del Rio, who has backed around 100 companies at or before seed stage, including Deliveroo, Supercell, Zencargo, Hutch Games and Tenor. Alvarez del Rio says he plans to look for companies that can bring a “gaming experience to products” and create that virtuous circle of engagement that these kinds of companies can prong to products. It’s worthy to note that he was formerly a partner at Swordfish Investments and at Initial Capital, which backed games giant Supercell.

Speaking to TechCrunch over an email exchange, Alvarez del Rio said: “I decided to raise a fund to help founders that are digitising real-economy industries create gaming-level user experiences (acquiring, engaging, retaining and monetising user bases) to improve lives and achieve better outcomes.”

Ignacio Monereo and Pablo Morenés are the other partners and have backgrounds in companies, including Google, Meta and Blackstone.

Boost plans to invest in pre-seed and seed companies with initial ticket sizes of up to $750,000 and also participate in follow-on rounds. Its main sectors will include health, wellness, education, sustainability, entertainment and finance, and it has so far backed Howbout, Volta, Krew, Together, Cosmic Lounge, Pulppo and Stitch.

Prior to the Boost Capital, Morenés was a portfolio analyst at Algebris Investments, a Blackstone M&A associate and an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse. Monereo has previously held roles at Google and Meta.