Allard Luchsinger

🚀 Rubio Impact Ventures just bagged €70m for its next big impact fund – and expects to blow past its overall target by final close, Impact Loop has learned. We also uncover which kinds of startups Rubio's founders Willemijn Verloop and Machtelt Groothuis are looking to invest in going forward. Get the full lowdown 👉 https://lnkd.in/dqyKC2W6

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Cloudberry VC's, René Kromhof explains how their specialised semiconductor fund is acting as a flywheel for domain investment. "This whole industry is very big but it's a country club, we can talk about it in terms of everybody knows everybody so we get a lot of referred deal flow." "Other investors see a semiconductor deal, they don't know exactly what to do with it so they ask us whether we can have a look at it." "If we can help other funds and grow funds to understand the domain and de-risk it for them by our know-how, then a lot more capital could flow into this space." VENTURES is made possible by Nusmark & PLUGGED

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Amsterdam-based NP-Hard Ventures, a founder-led early-stage VC, has launched Fund II, a €25M fund aimed at backing European founders developing core technology infrastructure. Founded in 2021, NP-Hard Ventures backs product-driven early-stage European founders building the technologies of tomorrow. Anke Huiskes | 🔗 Read full article link in comment #NPHardVentures #VentureCapital #FundII #EuropeanStartups #DeepTech #Robotics #AI #ComputationalInfrastructure #EarlyStageInvesting #TechInnovation #FoundationalTech #StartupFunding

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Big South African Fundraising News! 📣 🇿🇦 Nile.ag has raised ~$11m, led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, with co-investment from FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank and existing investor Platform Investment Partners. The raise will accelerate growth of Nile's agri-inputs marketplace and enable the launch of innovative financing products across Southern Africa. Congratulations Louis de Kock, Eugene Roodt and Rick Kleinhans. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dfDbeQKs 🇿🇦 MyNextCar.io has raised $10m from Emso Asset Management, with co-investment from Bolt and E Squared Investments . The raise will accelerate MNC's operational scale, facilitate fleet expansion and enhance driver supply across South Africa. Congrats Pyi M. Gladwyn Leeuw. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dugttgE2 From South Africa to the world 🚀 Startup Club ZA

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Every founder we invest in signs an Impact Pact. Written into our investment documents. Legally binding. Not as marketing. As requirement. Most impact funds talk about doing good. We structure it into every deal. The concept is simple: paying it forward. We share access to capital with founders the traditional VC ecosystem overlooks. In return, we expect our founders to pay it forward in three areas: Wealth sharing: How are you distributing ownership beyond the executive team? In 2024, our portfolio generated over $400 million in wealth creation—$342 million for BIPOC and women founders, plus $65 million in employee equity. Supplier diversity: How much spending goes to companies founded by people of color or women? Our portfolio directed $9 million to diverse suppliers last year—30% BIPOC-owned, 35% women-owned. Diversity goals: Not quotas. Intentionality. 92% of our founders are BIPOC. 81% of their employees are BIPOC. 77% of the $39.7 million in compensation went to BIPOC team members. Here's what makes this different: It's legally binding. Not in a deck. In the documents we both sign. It's specific. No vague language. Measurable commitments. It compounds. Year over year, these numbers grow because the structure demands it. The question I always get: "Does this work? Or is it virtue signaling?" Fair question. Here's the data: Our portfolio created 436 jobs in 2024 — a 48% compound annual growth rate since 2021. These aren't just any jobs. They're pathways to wealth in communities excluded from venture-backed opportunity. The paying-it-forward model creates a multiplier effect. When our founders prioritize diverse suppliers, those suppliers gain revenue and credibility that help them win more business. When our founders build inclusive teams, they tap talent pools competitors ignore. When our founders share equity broadly, retention improves and alignment deepens. Each company becomes a node in a network of shared access—not just a single investment, but a catalyst for ecosystem-wide change. Why structure impact this way? Because impact that isn't measured doesn't compound. When you invest in a founder, you're not just buying equity in one company. You're investing in their commitment to pay it forward — through the vendors they choose, the teams they build, the wealth they share. The Impact Pact ensures impact is intentional, measurable, and compounding. Returns are not concessionary. Our current Fund I: 34.8% gross IRR. 1.75x return multiple. More than two times above the median for comparable VC funds. The Impact Pact isn't altruism. It's a structured method for paying forward the access we provide and capturing the returns that come when overlooked founders get their shot. Fund II is open with the Impact Pact built into every deal. Same structure. Same accountability. Same thesis: that paying it forward isn't charity. It's alpha. If you're an LP who believes in compounding returns and compounding impact, let's talk.

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𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩: 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? When talking to VCs, they will often say that founders' talents trumps the technology prowess. And when discussing with PE funds, enhancing the management bench is very much core to their playbook.   Of course, one of scaleups’ key challenges is attracting talent: 👉 Good people have options, so working at risk for not so much money may not be top of the list. So, founders must make an extra effort to identify relevant executives (conferences, LinkedIn etc) and be persuasive.  👉 Stock options are the proverbial way to bridge comp expectations but in Europe we have the double whammy that founders (and even more VCs) tend to be stingy with stock AND staff don’t really value options (putting it down to zero too willy nilly).   One of the ways to break the spell is to use part-time execs. This is becoming more common as experienced people are now available to plug management gaps.   For instance, not many startups have the need for a full-time CFO. It is however an expensive skill that they do need when dealing with fund-raising issues, their lifeblood. In addition, the CFO is generally not part of the Founders and therefore a part-time solution may be a way to "try before you buy" (on both sides).   It is also increasingly used to raise the company’s profile among analysts, journalist and investors. Companies often struggle to explain simply and consistently what they do, how they compare and why their approach matter. In addition, founders don’t always have or spend the time telling their story to the world, so a dedicated resource may help.   In short, don’t knock the value of bringing experienced executives part-time. This is often a way to bridge the gap until you can afford or succeed in bringing the right full-time team member. 📎 Source: https://lnkd.in/epAN55i7 #StartupLeadership #ScaleupStrategy #FractionalExecutives #VentureCapital #HiringInnovation

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🌾Scaling Climate-Smart Rice: Rize Secures Financing from Rabo Foundation Excited and proud to share this latest development by our portco Rize—they've secured a IDR 10 billion (~USD 650K) loan facility from Rabo Foundation, the impact arm of one of the world’s top agri-banks! The financing will support thousands of smallholder farmers in West and Central Java as they transition from traditional flooding methods to Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), a climate-smart technique that reduces methane emissions by up to 50% while maintaining yields. 🌱 With this facility, farmers will gain access to high-quality seeds, crop protection, fertilisers, mechanisation services, and expert agronomy support. 💡 “We’re strengthening Rize’s approach that combines technology, agronomy, and financing to unlock lasting change at scale—building a greener rice sector while supporting rural livelihoods,” says #Rize CEO Dhruv Sawhney. Rize currently operates in Indonesia and Vietnam, with a goal of reaching 100,000 rice farmers by 2028 and enabling access to carbon markets and green financing along the way. 🌏💚 #RaboFoundation ’s support is a strong endorsement of Rize’s model to scale climate-smart rice farming across Southeast Asia, and demonstrates what’s possible when capital meets climate ambition. 📢 We’re keen to partner with more institutions who share this vision! 🎉 Congratulations to Dhruv and the Rize team. We’re excited for what’s ahead! Read more 🔗: https://lnkd.in/gkqKxCNS #ClimateTech #AgriTech #ClimateFinance #SustainableFarming #Decarbonisation #WavemakerImpact #100x100 Siem D. Schreurs | Stefanie Koh

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How to turn Europe's "savers" into "investors?" At ING's Private Markets Day in Amsterdam, ING's Global Head of Private Banking, Wealth Management & Investments Anneka Treon unpacked a topic that is on the minds of many in Europe. Anneka pointed out that “while over half of US household assets are invested in capital markets, less than one-fifth are [invested] in Europe. Much of Europe’s wealth still sits in low-yield bank deposits.”   European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde echoed a similar sentiment in her speech at the 34th European Banking Congress, saying that Europe would “not succeed without mobilizing private capital much more effectively.” Lagarde noted that Europeans save a high percentage of their income, amounting to 13% in 2023 compared with 8% in the US. Europeans favor low-risk, liquid savings products. That means €11.5 trillion is held in cash and deposits in Europe, representing 1/3 of households’ financial assets. That compares to 1/10th of household financial assets in the US. As a result, Lagarde posited, European households are less wealthy than they could be. She observed that US household wealth has grown by around three times more than that of EU households since 2009. Getting people invested could be a boon for the region’s investment activities. But there’s some nuance to it. While innovations in wealth management technology have given rise to brokerage apps that provide access to investing, they've also ushered in the ability for people to try to make "fast money." "Slow money," both wealth management's approach to wealth building and private markets investing, could deserve a place in investors' portfolios. As ING's Private Markets Day this past week illustrated, the work that the ING Private Markets business, Johan Kloeze RBA, Michiel Elshof, Guido van Lunteren and team, are doing could be a piece to the puzzle of helping to transform Europe's savers into investors and unlock access to private markets for UHNW & HNW communities. Read on for more about "fast money" and "slow money"👇 This week's Alt Goes Mainstream's AGM Alts Weekly, brought to you by Juniper Square, covers: 🗂️ AGM Index, an index that tracks the leading publicly traded alternative asset managers. 📊 Chart of the Week presented by MSCI Private Assets: do loan valuations signal distress? 🗞️ AGM News of the Week, this week covering: 📌 The Wall Street Journal's Isaac T. on the rise of private credit secondaries, with quotes from Coller Capital, Pantheon, and Campbell Lutyens. 💻 Who is hiring: Senior-level positions from companies Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, Inc., Blue Owl Capital, Franklin Templeton, iCapital, Goldman Sachs, Partners Group, Ultimus Fund Solutions, Cerity Partners, Allocate, SageSpring Wealth Partners, MSCI Inc. Subscribe👇 to see the latest trends & navigate this rapidly changing landscape as alts go mainstream. https://lnkd.in/eV8AeEg3

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1 in 9 Dutch climate tech startups that raise a Seed ever makes it to Series B.* Most Dutch funds are too small to lead a growth round. So you end up building an international syndicate, which means finding a lead investor willing to anchor it. That list is short, and they're looking at deals across all of Europe. What most founders don't realise until they're in it: raising from international investors is a different game. Your story, your materials, your data room, your financial model, your financials, your cap table. It all needs to be airtight before you go to market. You need a support team who've done this before. And you need to run a process that keeps you in control of the timeline, not the other way around. Greyt supports deep and climate tech scaleups get that house in order as interim CFO or purely on the fundraising track. Learn more about our experience and hands-on approach? Drop me a message. [*] Series B Funding Gap in European Climate Tech Report, World Fund, 2026, link in comments

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Q3 funding results are in! Management summary: it has not been a great quarter. Together with our data and ecosystem partners we keep track of the venture capital investments in Dutch startups and scale-ups. The key insights are: 📉 Number of deals (79) at lowest level in five years 💰 Including our guesstimates, we estimate that €484M was invested, a 35% decrease compared to Q2 💸 Pre-seed deals (in this analysis: rounds < €1M) have almost halved compared to Q2 (12 vs. 20) 🦄 But.. Framer became a new unicorn, raising $100M Series D Since the peaks of 2021 and 2022, the Dutch venture capital market has been in a state of status quo for a number of years. Approximately €500 million is invested each quarter, and the number of deals is gradually declining. Underlying this, it is interesting to see what is changing, such as a decrease in rounds to €1 million. For a summer quarter, it was not a bad quarter by any means, but it is far from a silver lining at the end of the tunnel. So far in 2025, Dutch startups and scale-ups raised €1.7 billion. Last year up to and including Q3 that was €2 billion, so we're lagging behind a bit. What are your expectations of Q4? Lucien Burm Friso Schmid Johan Schaap Dutch Startup Association Felix Zwart Nederlandse Vereniging van Participatiemaatschappijen (NVP) Orla Browne Nina Chaloum Dealroom.co Mustafa Torun Rinke Zonneveld Invest-NL Freek Welling Oost NL Dr. Job Andreoli Myrthe Hooijman Techleap Izzy Sayers KPMG Emerging Giants (NL)

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The session ‘Data as a strategic asset’ by Insurtech Amsterdam at Verbond van Verzekeraars offered excellent insights into the state of data and AI in the insurance and insurtech sectors. A warm thank you to Harold Mahadew, who once again proved to be an extraordinary insurtech connector and host and a huge thanks to Venesha Brooks for the impeccable organisation; events only look effortless when someone has already done the hard work behind the scenes. Across the presentations and the panel, several themes stood out clearly. 1. Everyone is doing AI. Very few are scaling it. IG&H’s Casper van Hilten sector-wide assessment shows that while nearly the entire market is experimenting, only a small group qualifies as true “AI transformers” delivering value at scale. Most remain stuck in pilots, limited by organisational adoption, data quality, and the difficulty of bridging AI teams and business leadership. 2. Data strategy is becoming a competitive differentiator, not a compliance chore. The NN Group story illustrated this point vividly: long-term investment in data foundations enabled the deployment of projects and partnerships. Without that early architectural discipline, none of the current acceleration would be possible. 3. Claims automation and document processing remain low-hanging fruit—yet deceptively complex. Whether it’s fragmented customer input, overly optimistic expectations of IoT, or underestimating the importance of domain-specific data labelling, speakers from Send AI and Onics underscored how “simple” automation fails without balanced data, smart workflows, and realistic adoption plans. 4. The shift toward portfolio-driven, AI-assisted underwriting is accelerating. Thijs de Boer’s analysis of the London market made this vivid: autonomous and semi-autonomous underwriting models (the Waymo analogy) are no longer experimental—they are already writing meaningful premium and performing competitively. A signature quote from Thijs captured it well: “The real shift is from risk transfer to risk intelligence — and portfolios will be the engine that makes that possible.” This transition is moving faster than many in the continental market realise. 5. The next 18 months will be about exposure management, regulation, and the “AI bubble” question. Boards are beginning to ask whether AI valuations are inflated—and what that means for insurance portfolios, cyber exposures, and operational risk. Regulation (especially the AI Act) is tightening, yet implementation varies widely between markets, creating a two-speed reality. ⸻ A final observation: Across all sessions, one message kept returning: technology is no longer the bottleneck. Culture, data readiness, and cross-functional execution are. Events like these move the conversation from slogans to substance — exactly where it needs to be. Michael Zuur Laurens de Nooyer Thom Trentelman Harry van der Zwan

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💡 Convertible Loan Agreements (CLAs) in Europe: What Founders Should Know In the Dutch & EU startup ecosystem, CLAs are one of the most common tools to bridge to a larger funding round. They’re flexible—but the details matter Here’s what typically goes into a CLA (and what it means for you): 🔑 Key Terms (what we see in NL/EU deals): Maturity: 18–36 months (standard = 24 months) Interest: 4–8% simple per year Discount: 10–25% on next round price (20% most common) Valuation Cap: optional, but usually 1.5–2.5x today’s implied valuation Conversion Trigger: new round (e.g. €500k+) or maturity date Other clauses: reporting obligations + subordination (important if banks/crowdfunding are also in) 📊 Example €250k CLA at 5% interest, 20% discount, €7M cap After 1 year → claim = €262.5k If next round at €10M: Cap applies → €7M pre-money → investor gets ~3.6% No cap → converts at €10M → investor gets ~2.6% 👉 A 1% difference today can mean millions down the line. ⚖️ When to use CLA vs Equity? CLA makes sense when: ✅ You want speed (avoid long negotiations) ✅ You expect a larger priced round soon ✅ You want to delay valuation discussions Equity makes sense when: ✅ You can agree on a fair valuation today ✅ You want to avoid repayment risk & interest ✅ You need long-term alignment immediately 🚀 Takeaway: CLAs are not “free money.” They’re debt with real repayment obligations and future dilution impact Always model different scenarios (discount + cap + interest) before you sign At Brisq, we help founders structure CLAs that keep flexibility for growth—without surprises later Follow Karan Bagai, CFA, MBA for more #BrisQBusiness #CLA #Fundrasing #CFOServices

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Notion Capital portfolio company LEGALFLY is growing v fast even by AI software standards. The team are deeply focused on the product & making in-house legal teams more productive & less reliant on their law firms. Congratulations to Ruben Miessen & the entire team on their fantastic growth story that is only just getting started 🔥🔥🔥

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| How to nail storytelling? People often ask us; what is it that you guys do? Sure, I can explain it in one sentence but I could also take you for a drink and keep you there all day, sharing the stories of our founders and their daily drive to do things differently. Eurof Uppington from Amfora reminded me of that again. The passion and dedication he and his team bring to change the food system, is exactly what gets us out of bed in the morning. His regeneratively farmed olive oil doesn’t just change how you experience the product, it shifts your entire perspective on the world around olive oil. The farmers. The processed production. The unnecessary middlemen. Think about it. The video below captures exactly the story and emotion of what we do in just 2 minutes, tastefully curated by the talented Christoph Bouman, featuring my friend and Michelin-starred chef Dani Hoefnagels, who approved every single drop of oil. We’re proud to share that we’ve taken our second step into the DACH region, now crossing the Schweiz. 🇨🇭 Next up: getting investors on board, and bringing olive oil back the way nature intented. 🥦🫒

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