Heartcore Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Heartcore Capital is a Copenhagen-founded European venture firm (founded 2007) that backs "European founders of genius and courage from inception." The firm says it prefers to be the first institutional money into a startup and that there is "no such thing as too early." It describes itself as values-driven: a steadfast, empathic and honest partner from initial idea to generational company. Its pitch to LPs is purposeful fund sizing and performance over scale, with a selective portfolio. Heartcore runs two strategies: Venture (inception to Series A) and Web3 (protocols from idea to liquid tokens, run through a separate Web3 Fund I and site at web3.heartcore.com).
Stage Focus
Pre-seed, seed and Series A, with a stated preference for being first in. The firm also follows on in its winners: Nous, first backed at seed alongside Mosaic Ventures, drew a $17M Series B led by Heartcore in October 2026.
Check Size
The firm does not publish check sizes. Third-party profiles give ranges from roughly 100K to 6M EUR, with one putting it at 300K to 6M EUR across pre-seed, seed and Series A. Treat these as low confidence. Fund V (EUR 170M, closed December 2024) targets 20 to 35 startups, which implies initial checks in the low single-digit millions with reserves for follow-ons.
Lead Tendency
Both. Heartcore co-led EGIDE's EUR 8M seed (March 2026) with Expeditions and Eurazeo, co-led Davis's EUR 4.6M pre-seed (May 2026) with Balderton Capital, and led the Nous Series B alongside Mosaic Ventures.
Recent Activity
- October 2026: Nous (UK, household AI agent) raised a $17M Series B led by Heartcore and Mosaic Ventures.
- May 2026: Davis (Paris, AI for architectural design and real estate) raised a EUR 4.6M pre-seed led by Heartcore and Balderton.
- March 2026: EGIDE (France, defence interceptors) raised a EUR 8M seed co-led by Expeditions, Eurazeo and Heartcore.
- December 2024: Fund V closed at EUR 170M (about $180M), the firm's largest. Fund IV and a Fund IV Alumni vehicle are also listed, plus Web3 Fund I.
The firm lists several unnamed 2025 and 2026 stealth investments in AI (Netherlands, UK, Germany, France) and travel (Spain). Fund status: actively deploying from Fund V.
Portfolio Highlights
The firm says it was first institutional investor in 100+ companies. Exits and marquee names: Tink (acquired by Visa), Neo4j, Peakon (acquired by Workday), GetYourGuide, Boozt (IPO), Reddit, Prezi, Podio, Issuu, GameAnalytics, Templafy, Natural Cycles, Sword Health, Podimo and Roadsurfer. Newer companies include FlexAI, Quesma, Qualia, Capalo AI, Spinnable, Isentroniq, Cula, Gourmey, Neoplants, Ionlace and Numi. The portfolio page shows four pages of companies across 23 categories, with a notable recent shift toward AI, defence, quantum, space and robotics.
Team
- Jimmy Fussing Nielsen: Partner & CEO (Copenhagen)
- Christian Lindegaard Jepsen: Partner (Copenhagen)
- Max Niederhofer: Partner (Austin and Berlin)
- Yacine Ghalim: Partner, Web3 (Paris)
- Naza Metghalchi: Partner (London)
- Investors: Lærke Rud Hansen (Copenhagen), Bérenger Teboul-Danguin (Paris), Tomáš Fanta (Prague, Web3), Michael Baczyk (Warsaw and Copenhagen), Jordan Melin (Stockholm and Copenhagen)
- Operations: Signe Marie Sveinbjørnsson (Partner & COO), Heidi Haurholm-Rasmussen (Partner and Head of Capital Formation), plus finance, compliance, legal and IR staff
The team is remote-first with partners in Copenhagen, London, Paris and the United States.
Decision Process
Partnership. Not published; the firm describes a collaborative partner model. No stated warm-intro requirement; the website lists [email protected].
Founder Preferences
European founders of genius and courage, backed from inception. Heartcore stays on boards through all financing rounds, per Neo4j CEO Emil Eifrem's quote.
Geographic Focus
Europe: Nordics, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic and more, with some companies that also have US presence. Fund V focus areas per the firm: productivity and AI, software infrastructure, travel, climate technology and synthetic biology. The 2025 and 2026 portfolio has added defence, quantum, space and robotics.
Gaps
No official check size, fund-level AUM in a primary source (a third-party page cites over EUR 700M under management), or ownership targets. Stage per company was not given, so no stageAtInvestment is recorded.