Forward.one Research
Investment Thesis
FORWARD.one describes itself as "the performance-engineered VC" and positions itself as Europe's most commercially oriented industrial technology investor. Its core belief, stated directly on its site, is that "technology without commercialization is just expensive science." The firm's tagline, "We back the few who build for the many," and its stated philosophy, "We follow the performance, not the plan," reflect a results-first culture: FORWARD.one backs founders who are obsessed with commercial execution rather than pure technical novelty, and the firm says it provides "unfiltered feedback" and holds portfolio companies to "relentless standards" in pursuit of category leadership rather than comfortable growth.
Stage Focus
FORWARD.one invests from early stage through growth. Initial checks go into early-stage technology companies (roughly seed to Series A), with substantial reserves held back for follow-on investment into the firm's top performers as they scale toward Series B and beyond. The firm explicitly concentrates capital: 60% of follow-on capital is allocated to the companies driving 90% of portfolio value, a stated "winner focus" strategy.
Check Size
Initial tickets are €1M-€4M at early stage. Growth-stage follow-on investment can reach up to €30M for portfolio companies that have demonstrated commercialization proof. This ticket range is consistent across the firm's public site and its Fund III institutional materials, which describe €1-3M initial tickets with reserves for meaningful follow-on.
Lead Tendency
FORWARD.one leads rounds for companies it backs; its June 2026 investment in Innoseis Sensor Technologies was explicitly described as a round "led by FORWARD.one."
Recent Activity
FORWARD.one is actively deploying Fund III, a €200M vehicle (hard cap €250M) launched in September 2025 to back 25-30 early-stage industrial technology companies across the Benelux, DACH, Nordics, and other European hubs. In April 2026, ABN AMRO Corporate Investments and the European Investment Fund (EIF) announced new commitments into Fund III. In June 2026, the firm led a €6M seed round in Innoseis Sensor Technologies, a Nikhef spin-off building next-generation MEMS precision-sensing chips. Portfolio company QuantWare, a quantum processor maker, announced its VIO-40K architecture (targeting 10,000-qubit processors) in December 2025 and closed a $178M Series B in May 2026 to build out its KiloFab manufacturing capacity.
Portfolio Highlights
FORWARD.one has built a portfolio of roughly 60+ companies since its 2018 founding, concentrated in industrial technology, robotics, semiconductors, quantum computing, dual-use technology, and energy. Notable active portfolio companies include Quantware (quantum processors), Optics11 and Optics11 Life (photonic/optical sensing), ROCSYS (autonomous EV charging), ExRobotics (autonomous hazardous-area inspection robots), Fizyr (robotic vision), SenseGlove (haptic VR interfaces), QuiX Quantum (photonic quantum computing), and Innoseis (MEMS sensing). Notable exits include Sensorfact, an energy-monitoring company acquired by ABB (announced January 2025), and Mayht, a loudspeaker technology company acquired by Sonos (2022). According to the firm, Fund I (2018, €38M) delivered a 41% net IRR and a 2x DPI, placing it among the top 5% of European VC funds per PitchBook.
Team
FORWARD.one is led by a team of Managing Partners and General Partners including Riemer Smink and Paul Pruijmboom (Managing Partners) and Robin van Boxsel and Arjan Göbel (General Partners), supported by Partner Beau-Anne Chilla and an investment team of Investment Managers, an Associate, and Analysts. The firm also maintains a Venture Partner network (Tim Heijwegen, Coen Bos, Frederik Gerner, Bianca van Dulmen, Marc de Jong) that supports portfolio companies with domain expertise and commercialization support.
Decision Process
With multiple General Partners and Managing Partners actively involved across investment decisions, FORWARD.one operates as a partnership rather than a solo-GP structure.
Founder Preferences
FORWARD.one explicitly favors performance-driven, execution-obsessed founders building deep/industrial technology with a credible path to commercialization, rather than founders pursuing technology for its own sake. The firm's messaging repeatedly emphasizes results over storytelling and "relentless standards" as a filter.
Geographic Focus
FORWARD.one is headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, and invests across Europe, with fund-by-fund regional emphasis: Fund I focused on the Netherlands, Fund II expanded into the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), and Fund III broadens further into the Nordics alongside continued Benelux and DACH activity.