Graduate Ventures launches €125M fund for university startups
Big names from Snowflake, Picnic and ASML back a new €125 million fund helping university researchers turn ideas into companies.
Published on October 6, 2026
© Graduate Ventures
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Dutch venture capital firm Graduate Ventures has launched a second seed fund of €125 million to back young companies that grow out of Dutch universities. The firm announced on 6 October that €100 million has already been committed, raised in just ten months.
Graduate Ventures calls itself the largest nationwide university-affiliated venture fund in the Netherlands. It now works with eight universities and three university medical centres in Rotterdam, Delft, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Wageningen, Twente and Leiden.
Big names behind the fund
The new fund has attracted a long list of well-known entrepreneurs, including Frank Slootman (Snowflake), Michiel Muller (Picnic), Jonas Ruyter (DataSnipper) and former ASML chief executive Peter Wennink. Regional development agency Oost NL and national investment institution Invest-NL are also taking part, with Invest-NL putting in €10 million.
Alongside the firm's existing pre-seed fund, the new seed fund will invest in startups working on artificial intelligence, deep tech, healthcare and climate. Graduate Ventures sees these sectors as key to the future competitiveness and prosperity of the Netherlands.
“It is great to see such a large group of successful entrepreneurs and alumni in the Netherlands coming together through the Graduate Ventures platform to help the next generation of entrepreneurs with venture capital and hands-on support from their networks,” says Frans van Houten, co-founder and chairman of Graduate Ventures. “This fully aligns with Peter Wennink’s message, former CEO of ASML and author of the report The Road to Future Prosperity.”
Closing the gap between lab and market
Plenty of good ideas start in university labs, but turning research into a business is hard, and investors willing to step in at that early stage are scarce. According to Invest-NL, that is exactly the gap Graduate Ventures aims to fill.
Money is only part of the offer. Founders also get access to a network of more than 200 experienced entrepreneurs and alumni who share expertise, contacts and introductions to potential customers. Managing partner Auke van den Hout says capital on its own is not enough: founders also need people who have built companies themselves and can open doors for them.
From Delft seed to €152 million
Graduate Ventures was founded in 2021 by alumni of Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since then it has invested in more than 90 tech startups and expanded from the Rotterdam-Delft region to universities across the country.
The firm points to QuantWare as proof that its approach works. Graduate Ventures backed the Delft-based quantum computing company at the seed stage in 2021. Invest-NL followed in 2025 at a later growth stage, and earlier this year QuantWare raised €152 million in a Series B round.
Universities are on board too. "Through Graduate Ventures, our entrepreneurial students and researchers gain access to capital and a nationwide alumni network. At the same time, we give our alumni the opportunity to contribute to the next generation of entrepreneurs,” says Luc Sels, President of the Executive Board of Leiden University.
The fund is also getting noticed abroad. In 2025, Sifted named Graduate Ventures one of Europe's most active startup investors, and the Financial Times included it in its 2026 ranking of Europe's leading startup hubs.