Rockstart Research
Investment Thesis
Rockstart is a privately backed early-stage investor founded in Amsterdam in 2011 by Oscar Kneppers, Koen Wagemakers, Rune Theill and Don Ritzen, originally as one of Europe's first startup accelerators. Since 2019 the firm narrowed its model from a generalist accelerator into a domain-focused seed investor, running dedicated funds across three verticals: AgriFood, Energy, and Emerging Tech. The firm's mission is to empower purpose-driven founders to drive positive, regenerative change at scale, and its non-domain-specific criteria emphasize strong founding teams, genuine execution-level innovation, and startups already showing commercial traction (an MVP with pilots or paying customers) rather than idea-stage companies.
Sector Focus
AgriFood targets agritech and foodtech founders building regenerative and circular solutions: alternative packaging and proteins, bio-alternatives to chemicals and plastics, precision food production, novel farming, upcycled food products, supply-chain traceability, molecular farming/genomics, carbon sequestration and human nutrition tech.
Energy backs startups accelerating the energy transition: renewable generation, energy storage, smart grid and decentralized energy systems, energy efficiency, and smart/electrified mobility.
Emerging Tech is the broadest domain, spanning Industry 4.0 and analytics, smart cities, digital health, and data privacy/security, with portfolio verticals also covering ML/AI, computer vision, Web3/blockchain, biometrics, geospatial tech, IoT/edge computing, and additive manufacturing.
Stage Focus
Rockstart invests at Pre-Seed and Seed, then continues as a co-investor alongside a lead investor through Series A and up to Series B. The firm explicitly does not require a finished product to engage early — founders with strong traction but no MVP can still be tracked — but a running startup with at least pilot-level traction is the baseline bar for investment.
Check Size
Initial capital is structured as a SAFE/convertible note alongside a paid Startup Support Package (approximately €65K in value). Rockstart states it can deploy up to €2M total per company across follow-on rounds through Series B, co-investing up to 50% of the next round alongside a lead investor.
Lead Tendency
Rockstart typically follows rather than leads: it takes an initial early check and then co-invests with a lead investor in subsequent rounds, rather than leading Series A/B rounds itself.
Recent Activity
The firm is actively deploying across all three domain funds (AgriFood Fund II launched late 2023; Energy fund closed at €27M in 2021; Emerging Tech fund targeting €30M). Recent portfolio financings include Cordulus's €6.8M Series A (Dec 2025) for hyper-localized weather data, Tractor Junction's $22M Series A (Nov 2025) for India's rural auto-fintech platform, FloVision Solutions' $8.7M Series A (Jul 2025) for AI-driven food-production monitoring, and earlier Kavaken ($1.1M seed) and Prêts (€1M) rounds in mid-2024.
Portfolio Highlights
Since 2011 Rockstart has invested in more than 350 startups (368 per its live tracker), with over €1.7bn in alumni value and €506M raised by portfolio companies. Notable exits include Hubs (formerly 3D Hubs), acquired by Protolabs for $280M in January 2021; Dan.com, acquired by GoDaddy in 2022; Wercker, acquired by Oracle in 2017; and Organifarms, which shows as acquired on the current AgriFood portfolio listing. Active portfolio standouts include Sympower and Dexter Energy Services (both closed Series B/C rounds), Wonderflow (raised €16.5M growth funding), and OKTO Grid and Klimate (both at Series A).
Team
- Rune Theill — CEO & Co-founder
- Martin Dahl Carstensen — Finance Director
- Max ter Horst — Managing Partner, Energy
- Jakob Gaard — Director, Partnerships Nordics
- Josephine Dufour — Investment Associate
- Gem Kua — Investment Principal
- Natali Mutli — Analyst
- Raphael Sars — Investment Associate
- Felipe Santamaria — Managing Director, LATAM
- Roy de Weerd — Head of Platform
Decision Process
Rockstart operates as a partnership across a multi-person investment team (associates, principals, and managing partners per domain) rather than a solo-GP structure. The firm accepts applications year-round via an open Typeform application rather than requiring a warm introduction, though team dynamics and founder quality are central to its selection criteria.
Founder Preferences
Rockstart backs teams (not solo founders, though it will engage early with single founders building toward a team) with complementary skills, a track record of exceptional execution, and a clear mission tied to positive impact in their domain. It prioritizes technical/domain depth over polish and is comfortable backing pre-MVP founders with strong vision, provided there is a running startup with some traction.
Geographic Focus
Rockstart is based in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Bogotá, and invests across Europe and Latin America, with its LatAm office and dedicated LATAM program serving founders in Colombia and the wider region. Portfolio companies span the Netherlands, Denmark, the broader EU, the UK, the US, India, and Latin America.