Herbert Ventures Launches €32.5M Fund For Early-Stage Startups Across Europe

The fund reached its first close in Q1 and has already made its first investment in DroidRun, a German pre-Seed startup building an MCP (Model Context Protocol) orchestration layer for AI agents in mobile applications.

Founded in 2026 by Simon and Luis Huber, Herbert Ventures is an early stage venture firm backing DeepTech founders and serial entrepreneurs across Europe at the pre-Seed and Seed stages often before broader market validation.

Simon, a founder-turned-investor and Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe (Technology) honoree, previously co-founded VAY and is an active angel investor. Luis Huber is an experienced early-stage investor who previously served as Senior Partner at QBIT Capital, focusing on university spin-offs.

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The firm emphasises execution over storytelling, making fast, decisive investments and working closely with founders from the earliest stages. Its strategy is industry-agnostic, avoiding hype-driven trends, and it aims to build a portfolio of around 30 companies, with a particular focus on the DACH region.

A key differentiator for Herbert Ventures is its decision not to reserve capital for follow-on investments. This single-shot approach is intended to remove sunk-cost bias ensuring the firm’s sole focus after investing is helping companies reach their next stage of growth.

The fund backs teams rather than solo founders and is structured to maximise alignment with investors, featuring a significant GP commitment, an 8% hurdle rate, and transparent, consistent reporting to LPs. It is managed by HS Capital AG in Zurich and structured as a Luxembourg SCSP.

“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,” said Ben Simon, founding partner, Herbert Ventures.