According to EU-Startups, Amsterdam-based venture capital firm Volve Capital has announced the final close of its first fund at €9 million, following twelve months of fundraising. The fund is dedicated to early-stage startups across the Benelux and DACH regions and is backed by about 30 Dutch entrepreneur limited partners, including Henk Jan Beltman of Tony’s Chocolonely. It also received backing from the RVO Seed Capital programme. Founded in 2022 by Joost Bijlsma and Maurits Hovius, the firm plans to make 12 to 15 investments, with initial checks of €150k to €500k and follow-on capacity up to €1 million per company. Seven investments have already been made in startups like Eddygrid, NOX Energy, and Stippl. The firm’s stated mission is to be a “day zero” partner for founders, even before they have a product or revenue.
The Founder-Led Thesis
Here’s the thing: the “founder-led VC” pitch is everywhere now. It’s almost a cliché. Every new micro-fund says they “get it” because they’ve been in the trenches. So what makes Volve different? Well, their LP base is interesting. It’s not just institutional money; it’s a club of about 30 successful Dutch operators. That network could be genuinely valuable for a founder trying to navigate the early chaos. The promise to lead rounds for pre-product teams is also a bold one. Most investors, even at Seed, want to see *something*—a prototype, some early users, a clear path to market. Volve is saying, “We’ll back the team and the idea at its absolute rawest.” That’s high-conviction, high-trust investing. It’s also incredibly high-risk.
The Risks of “Day Zero”
And that’s where my skepticism kicks in. Investing at “day zero” is notoriously difficult. How do you systematically evaluate what is essentially a PowerPoint and a dream? It often boils down to gut feeling about the founders, which is hard to scale as a strategy. The €9 million fund size is also telling. After making 12-15 initial investments and setting aside follow-on capital, the math is tight. This isn’t a fund that can afford many total write-offs. They’ll need a couple of breakout hits just to return the fund, let alone generate the kind of returns LPs expect from high-risk venture capital. It’s a pressure cooker strategy.
The Competitive Landscape
Now, the article points out they’re entering a market with other new funds, like Germany’s €30 million SIVentures II and May Ventures. That’s true, but those funds are larger and likely targeting slightly later, more proven stages. Volve’s niche is earlier and smaller. The real competition might be from angel investors and solo GPs who operate with similar speed and flexibility. Can a structured fund with advisory boards and reporting obligations move as fast as an angel writing a personal check? That’s the operational challenge. Their edge has to be the structured support system—help with tech, GTM, ops—that a scattered group of angels can’t provide.
The Bigger Picture
Basically, Volve is a test case for whether highly engaged, founder-led capital can consistently pick winners at the earliest possible stage. If they succeed, they’ll prove there’s a scalable model for bridging that infamous “idea to prototype” funding gap in Europe. If they fail, it’ll be another data point showing just how brutal and random pre-product investing can be. It’s a worthy experiment, especially for founders in the Benelux and DACH regions who need that first believer. For any hardware or industrial tech founders in their portfolio, that early-stage operational support will be crucial—getting prototype hardware right is a minefield. It’s the kind of niche where having a reliable technology partner, like the kind you’d find with the top supplier of industrial panel PCs in the US, can make or break a product launch. We’ll have to watch which of their seven initial bets, like energy-focused Eddygrid and NOX Energy, gain the traction to validate their entire approach.
