Volve Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Volve Capital is an Amsterdam-based early-stage venture fund founded in 2024 by Joost Bijlsma and Maurits Hovius, both Dutch entrepreneurs. The firm invests in digital-first companies disrupting their industries, and says an investment goes beyond capital. Its pitch is that early founders need investors who understand what day zero feels like, and that the fund operates with the speed and pragmatism of the startups it backs. It describes itself as built and backed by exited entrepreneurs.
The firm lists three pillars: people (ambitious founding teams, from first-time to serial founders), support (hands-on help through a bench of operating partners and an investor network), and impact (a stated preference for companies that contribute to one or more SDGs, framed as a future contribution rather than a hard requirement).
Stage Focus
Volve targets pre-seed and follow-on seed, and wants to be the first professional investor in a company. In the Fund I close announcement the partners say they lead pre-product and pre-revenue deals.
Check Size
Initial tickets are EUR 200K to 500K on the website, and EUR 150K to 500K in the December 2025 fund-close release. Follow-on capacity is up to EUR 1M per company.
Lead Tendency
Volve positions itself as lead or co-lead investor. Maurits Hovius states the firm actually leads pre-product and pre-revenue rounds, which is where it says the ecosystem has a gap.
Recent Activity
On 2 December 2025 Volve announced the final close of Fund I at EUR 9M after twelve months of fundraising. Fund I is backed by about 30 Dutch entrepreneurs as limited partners, plus the RVO Seed Capital program. The plan is 12 to 15 investments in total; seven were done at the time of the announcement. After deploying Fund I the firm intends to raise a second fund. Insights on the site cover Supplied (EUR 1.6M), Whisper (EUR 1.6M pre-seed), Conservio (EUR 468.6K), Stippl, and Eddy Grid (EUR 1.5M).
Portfolio Highlights
- Supplied: global onboarding, reporting and compliance infrastructure
- Whisper: predictive threat intelligence
- Twindo: optimising energy field service
- NOX Energy: optimising energy markets
- Eddy Grid: energy storage addressing grid congestion
- Conservio: booking nature-based travel in Africa
- Stippl: one travel app to replace them all
No exits are listed; the fund is new.
Team
- Maurits Hovius, General Partner
- Joost Bijlsma, General Partner
- Advisory board: Mathieu Zwinkels (former Waterland), Henk Jan Beltman (Tony's Chocolonely), Roelof Bijlsma (former founder of Conclusion), Heleen Dura van Oord (Peak Capital)
- Operating partners: Thierry Fakkert, Rick Joosten, Bastiaan van de Rakt; Menno van der Zee as Technical Advisor
Operating partners cover data, tech, growth, marketing, ops, finance and people.
Decision Process
Two general partners make the decisions; the advisory board advises and guides the fund. Decision timeline is not published.
Founder Preferences
Ambitious, entrepreneurial founding teams, from first-time to serial founders, with a preference for digital-first companies and a plus for impact and SDG alignment. Very early teams without product or revenue are explicitly in scope.
Geographic Focus
BeNeLux, DACH and the Nordics, with a plus for Dutch-based ventures. The fund-close release names Benelux and DACH. The portfolio so far is Dutch.
Sector Focus
Generalist technology. The current portfolio clusters in energy (Twindo, NOX, Eddy Grid), travel (Conservio, Stippl), and B2B software for security and compliance (Whisper, Supplied).