Amsterdam-based Dutch Founders Fund, announced on Thursday, that it has launched its new €62M pre-seed/seed fund. The early-stage venture capital fund invests in marketplaces and digital platforms across Europe.
This new fund comes in just 1.5 years after Dutch Founders announced its first fund. And the current fund is entirely backed by more than 100 well-known tech entrepreneurs from all across Europe.
The fund has already backed companies such as digital freight forwarder Shypple and employee benefit platform YourCampus.
What to expect from the new fund?
The Dutch Founders Fund noticed that many supply chains and B2B business operations remained offline. Especially in the B2B domain, many people still relied on legacy-like systems and analogue processes to manage their logistics or procurement.
Now, the VC firm has set out to back founders building marketplaces that disrupt these processes or companies that completely rethink supply chains. “Rerouting supply and demand while displacing the middleman, that’s what we are looking for,” says Laurens Groenendijk, founding partner at the fund.
Groenendijk adds, “Besides efficiency gains, a marketplace allows for a more equitable distribution of resources. Not so long ago, the rules were set by the dominant player. Now, people can track their orders, compare reviews, and bargain for a better price, which has created a level playing field for both supply and demand.”
The VC firm says it will invest over 70 per cent of the fund in European companies. It is on the lookout for marketplaces that facilitate and embed significant parts of the value chain, such as payments and logistics. That includes technologies that enable frictionless transactions, such as fintech solutions or web3 applications.
“For entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs”
Founded in 2018, the Dutch Founders Fund is an early-stage VC that primarily invests in marketplaces and digital platforms across Europe. The fund offers finance, PR, sustainability, HR, and product support, and aims to become the one-stop-shop for founders in the pre-Seed and Seed stage. The total fund has almost €100M assets under management.
The firm was founded by experienced entrepreneurs such as Laurens Groenendijk (Just Eat, Treatwell, Miinto, Hiber), Patrick Kerssemakers (fonQ), Bas Beerens (WeTransfer), Hidde Hoogcarspel (Spacebuzz), and Remco van Zanten (ex Booking, Zalando, BCG). Entrepreneurs such as the founders of Hubs and Swapfiets have also joined the new fund.
Groenendijk says, “We know from experience what it’s like to deal with many different stakeholders and overcome early-stage growth pains. Starting a company is easy; building a company is something else. We believe in intense mentoring, from ideation to your series A, that’s why we invest early on and go all-in. We might be unorthodox, but we truly understand the playing field.”
Since its launch in 2018, the fund has invested in 16 companies including YourCampus, Shypple, Vintage Cash Cow, Lumaly, Blanco, Nostics, Reveall, Veylinx, Wonderkind, Voicebooking, Fleks, Minimum, Caya, Winc Academy, Buildstream, and Tracedock (exited to CM.com).
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