Amsterdam-based VC agency DFF Ventures (previously Dutch Founders Fund) broadcasts its third fund, DFF Ventures III, with €50 million out of the €60 million already dedicated – increasing past simply Europe to again founders in Vertical AI, recommerce platforms, and marketplaces.

“pre-Seed investing has modified lots in just some years,” stated Laurens Groenendijk, founding associate. “The place you as soon as wanted capital to get a working prototype out, immediately anybody can spin up a no-code MVP in a single day. The true take a look at is: are you able to attain prospects, construct a group, and scale distribution? That’s the place the bar has gone up.”​

DFF Ventures is a pre-Seed VC agency (€100 million AuM) based by entrepreneurs behind corporations comparable to WeTransfer, fonQ, Simply Eat and Treatwell. With ticket sizes starting from €250k to €2.5 million, DFF invests from the ideation stage onwards in startups constructing digital options for underdigitised industries. The fund focuses on Vertical AI, recommerce platforms and marketplaces, and invests globally whereas retaining Europe as its basis.

The launch of DFF Ventures III matches neatly right into a sample of early-stage, DeepTech and B2B-oriented funds rising in Europe in 2025. Funds comparable to Lunar Ventures’ €50 million Fund II and Sensible Infrastructure Ventures’ €30 million car are equally focusing on pre-Seed or Seed offers, typically in AI, trade infrastructure, or enterprise software program. The Movens Capital €60 million fund for CEE additionally indicators that even outdoors Western hubs, buyers are committing capital to early-stage progress.

In that respect, DFF’s increase is each well timed and aggressive: by combining a lean construction (centered tickets of €250k to €2.5m) and thematic readability (vertical AI, recommerce, marketplaces), it positions itself amongst a rising cohort of funds that consider differentiation now comes as a lot from area focus and operational assist as from capital alone.

Just a few months in the past, the agency additionally modified its title from Dutch Founders Fund to DFF Ventures. “Folks have been calling us DFF anyway,” stated Groenendijk. “The replace displays our worldwide focus and clears up some confusion, since we don’t simply spend money on Dutch Founders and we’re not tied to the Dutch authorities.”

Whereas their earlier funds centered primarily on marketplaces, Fund III broadens the scope to incorporate Vertical AI and recommerce platforms. For the group, Vertical AI is a very promising mannequin.

Maarten Engelen, Accomplice, defined: “You go very deep into one trade. It begins with a workflow device, an ‘working system’ for that sector, and then you definately regularly increase, including financing, logistics, and ultimately transactional layers, comparable to a market, on prime. You’re buying and selling market measurement for market share, however in doing so you may develop into indispensable. The sweetness is that you simply begin as a device, however you find yourself because the spine of a whole trade.”

DFF Ventures has already constructed a portfolio of 40 startups throughout 14 nations. Some are nonetheless early stage, whereas others have gotten extra mature, going through new challenges as they develop.

Dutch audiences could also be conversant in Shypple, Nostics, and Alleo (previously YourCampus), however the portfolio stretches past. Corporations like Metycle, a tech-enabled dealer for scrap steel, Cofrai, which applies Vertical AI to fireside safety upkeep, Getmobil and Northladder, which give infrastructure for the trade-in of second-hand gadgets, and Fleequid, a B2B market for used buses, spotlight the fund’s focus.

“These are precisely the sorts of corporations that show our thesis,” added Founding Accomplice Patrick Kerssemakers. “They digitise the bodily spine of the financial system – from logistics to recycling – and present that even in an AI-driven world, worth can come from remodeling the industries that preserve every little thing transferring.”

Identical to with its earlier funds, DFF intentionally selected to not work with institutional capital. As an alternative, it’s backed solely by entrepreneurs and household workplaces. “We would like an lively LP base that we are able to interact with, not establishments that may gradual us down,” added Kerssemakers.

One other deliberate alternative was to maintain DFF Ventures III small, simply as with the sooner funds. “I actually don’t know the way €500 million funds plan to return capital to their LPs,” stated Groenendijk. “For simplicity, think about you continue to personal 10% at exit: you’d want a €5 billion final result simply to return the fund as soon as. VC is a sport of outliers, and whereas such outcomes are doable, they’re the exception, not the rule. By retaining our fund lean, the mannequin works higher for our LPs, our founders, and for us.”

The primary shut was reached in a comparatively brief time, permitting the fund to open at €50 million. From there, DFF is working in direction of a tough shut in Q1 subsequent 12 months. “A tempo we’re happy with, particularly in immediately’s enterprise – and even PE – markets, the place liquidity is clearly underneath strain,” stated Kerssemakers.

Wanting ahead, the group emphasises that AI has lowered the limitations to beginning an organization however made it tougher to face out. “Just a few years in the past, funding from a VC like us would typically go towards constructing an MVP and validating assumptions. Now, you may spin up a prototype with out writing a line of code,” stated Groenendijk. “However whereas merchandise are simpler to construct, reaching prospects is tougher than ever. Velocity is the sport. We wish to again founders with a transparent distribution wedge, the place our funding is used to construct out a group, however above all to faucet into swimming pools of information or buyer entry that others don’t have.”​

“Constructing one thing in 2 days utilizing Lovable is one factor,” added Engelen. “However getting it into the fingers of individuals at scale is what separates the winners from the remainder. That’s the place we need to assist Founders transfer quick.”