Key Takeaways
- • Herbert Ventures, a newly formed Zurich-based early-stage venture capital firm, has launched Herbert Ventures Fund I with €32.5 million (CHF 30 million) in committed capital focused on pre-Seed and Seed stage investments across Europe, with particular emphasis on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland).
- • The fund targets approximately 30 investments and has already completed its first close in Q1 2026, with inaugural investment made in Droidrun, a German pre-Seed company developing AI agent orchestration infrastructure (Model Context Protocol layer).
- • Founded by Ben Simon (Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, former COO of VAY) and Luis Huber (ex-Senior Partner at QBIT Capital with institutional venture experience), Herbert Ventures conducted over 80 structured interviews with founders and LPs to validate a strategy addressing gaps in early-stage fund speed, transparency, and post-investment support.
- • The fund employs a distinctive structural model with no reserved capital for follow-on investments, eliminating sunk-cost bias and ensuring post-investment focus remains purely on supporting companies to the next stage rather than fund reserve management.
- • Herbert's investment thesis is intentionally industry-agnostic, avoiding thematic investing and short-term hype cycles, with emphasis on founder quality and adaptability as the primary differentiator in uncertain market conditions.
Summary
Herbert Ventures, a Zurich-based early-stage venture capital firm co-founded by Ben Simon and Luis Huber, has publicly launched Herbert Ventures Fund I with €32.5 million in committed capital. The fund represents an institutional response to identified inefficiencies in the European early-stage funding ecosystem, built on substantive market validation work. Prior to launch, the founding partners conducted over 80 structured interviews with founders, exited entrepreneurs, limited partners, and angel investors across Europe, identifying consistent feedback that early-stage funds frequently fall short on execution speed, transparency, and meaningful operational support post-investment.
The fund's investment strategy targets approximately 30 investments at the pre-Seed and Seed stages, with geographic focus on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) while maintaining a broader European investment mandate. Industry agnosticism forms a core component of Herbert's investment approach, deliberately avoiding thematic or sector-specific concentration and insulating the fund from short-term market hype cycles. The fund has already completed its first close in Q1 2026 and announced its inaugural investment in Droidrun, a German pre-Seed company developing the Model Context Protocol orchestration layer for AI agent deployment across mobile applications—a foundational infrastructure play rather than an application-layer bet.
A defining structural characteristic differentiates Herbert from traditional venture models: the fund does not reserve capital for follow-on investments. This single-shot deployment approach eliminates the sunk-cost bias that typically distorts post-investment decision-making and ensures that all post-deployment resources focus exclusively on supporting portfolio companies to reach their subsequent funding stage. Ben Simon, founding partner, articulated the fund's founder-centric philosophy: "We don't know exactly what the next five years will look like, and neither does anyone else. That's precisely why we focus on people. Great founders adapt and find solutions, regardless of what the market does."
The founding team brings complementary operational and institutional experience to the mandate. Simon is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Technology (Europe), former co-founder and COO of VAY (an ETH spin-off subsequently acquired by BowFlex Inc.), and an active angel investor across 15+ startups. Huber previously served as Senior Partner at QBIT Capital, a Swiss venture fund focused on university spin-offs, and brings institutional venture experience across multiple European fund structures. Both founders are Zurich-based, with Huber maintaining a secondary base in Madrid.
Herbert Ventures Fund I represents a consolidation of institutional capital and operational expertise directed toward addressing structural gaps in European early-stage venture availability and the quality of founder support mechanisms.
The fund's investment strategy targets approximately 30 investments at the pre-Seed and Seed stages, with geographic focus on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) while maintaining a broader European investment mandate. Industry agnosticism forms a core component of Herbert's investment approach, deliberately avoiding thematic or sector-specific concentration and insulating the fund from short-term market hype cycles. The fund has already completed its first close in Q1 2026 and announced its inaugural investment in Droidrun, a German pre-Seed company developing the Model Context Protocol orchestration layer for AI agent deployment across mobile applications—a foundational infrastructure play rather than an application-layer bet.
A defining structural characteristic differentiates Herbert from traditional venture models: the fund does not reserve capital for follow-on investments. This single-shot deployment approach eliminates the sunk-cost bias that typically distorts post-investment decision-making and ensures that all post-deployment resources focus exclusively on supporting portfolio companies to reach their subsequent funding stage. Ben Simon, founding partner, articulated the fund's founder-centric philosophy: "We don't know exactly what the next five years will look like, and neither does anyone else. That's precisely why we focus on people. Great founders adapt and find solutions, regardless of what the market does."
The founding team brings complementary operational and institutional experience to the mandate. Simon is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Technology (Europe), former co-founder and COO of VAY (an ETH spin-off subsequently acquired by BowFlex Inc.), and an active angel investor across 15+ startups. Huber previously served as Senior Partner at QBIT Capital, a Swiss venture fund focused on university spin-offs, and brings institutional venture experience across multiple European fund structures. Both founders are Zurich-based, with Huber maintaining a secondary base in Madrid.
Herbert Ventures Fund I represents a consolidation of institutional capital and operational expertise directed toward addressing structural gaps in European early-stage venture availability and the quality of founder support mechanisms.
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