Targeting VCs raising their first to third fund, likely to form the next generation of top-tier funds, the chosen emerging managers were selected from over 500 applicants. Importantly, both the application and the course itself is entirely free to all, in an attempt to level the playing field for underrepresented managers and avoid selection bias.

The selection process occurred over the last month and involved a detailed review of all the applications received. 40 finalists were then selected to provide further documentation, references, and invited to an interview. Most importantly, the selection team reviewed the quality of the team, the track record, the fund’s differentiation and placed some reliance on the quality of the individual references.

The breakdown of overall applicants received showed:

• Fund size: 65% Fund I’s, 25% Fund II’s and 10% Fund III’s
• Specialism: 75% specialists (of which by Sector 35%, Technology 20%, Geography 10%, 12% diversity) and 25% generalists
• Background: 31% founders, 30% investment professionals, 22% operators and 17% other
• Size: 24% solo GPs, 40% 2-partners, 22% 3-partners and 14% 4-partners
• Most popular sectors: deeptech, B2B, healthtech, and fintech

Of the chosen funds, 40% of the selected GPs are female, whilst 70% of the cohort have offices in the UK & Western Europe, 20% in Northern Europe and the remaining 10% is split evenly between Eastern and Southern Europe.

These funds are:

• Andrena Ventures – backing the "Paypal Mafias" of tomorrow in Europe at pre-seed
• Backtrace VC – based in Munich, it invests in the fabric powering tomorrow’s technology infrastructure at pre-seed and seed
• Circle & Co – is a London-based pre-seed and seed fund investing in technology for consumer industries
• Common Magic – invests in products with community at their core in Europe and opportunistically in the US
• Course Corrected – an early-stage climate tech focused venture fund founded by three female GPs, based in Stockholm
• Defiant VC – a tech-enabled VC fund based in London and Lisbon, leveraging in-house built software alongside deep thematic research to invest in Seed/Series A stage B2B SaaS and Fintech companies across Europe and the US
• e2vc – it backs founders from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the earliest stages, and bridges them to Silicon Valley to tackle global challenges.
• Endurance Ventures – based in London, it invests in Pre-Seed / Seed Enterprise SaaS models in Europe, US, and Israel, with a specific focus on ex-unicorn spinout founders
• Intuition VC –  invests in consumer AI companies at pre-seed from Paris and NYC
• Momentum Partners – based in Bergen, Norway, it invests in ambitious climate tech companies at their seed stage
• Mudcake – a pre-seed impact fund run by ex-founders investing globally in tech startups reshaping the food system
• NP-Hard Ventures – based in Amsterdam, it is an operator led early stage VC fund investing in technical, product-obsessed founders, creating the building blocks of tomorrow
• Nucleus Capital – a sector-focused climate deeptech VC providing the first capital to pioneers turning bold science into real world solutions
• purple – hyper-localised in France, agnostic, and conviction-driven, it invests in contrarian pre-seed and competitive seed rounds
• Belief Capital – based in London, it invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies accelerating the transition into a future of abundance
• Terminus – based in Prague, it invests in seed-stage startups across Central & Eastern Europe - a fund engineered to capture the region's overlooked outliers
• The Nordic Web Ventures – based in Copenhagen, it is a Solo GP first-cheque fund focused on the Nordics.
• And three funds joining incognito, which will be announced once they launch

Jonathan Hollis, Managing Partner, Mountside Ventures, commented: “There's been a lot of anti-Europe rhetoric recently, much of it unwarranted. The sheer volume of applications we received for the programme, alongside the quality of the managers who applied for a spot makes us very excited about the future of European tech and suggests 2025 will be a record year for emerging managers launching their fund.

“What’s left is ensuring the LP appetite can match their ambitions, and we hope this programme and our fundraising resources – also be available to the applicants – will have a small role in shaping this success.”

Gregor von dem Knesebeck, Founding Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners, said: “The need for a GP accelerator programme in Europe has been strikingly demonstrated by the more than 500 applications received, a testament to the region’s appetite for growth and innovation. The diversity in sector focus, strategic approaches, and regional backgrounds among applicants underscores the richness of talent and ambition across the continent.”

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