Amsterdam-based VC firm DFF Ventures (formerly Dutch Founders Fund) announces its third fund, DFF Ventures III, with €50 million out of the €60 million already committed – expanding beyond just Europe to back founders in Vertical AI, recommerce platforms, and marketplaces.
“pre-Seed investing has changed a lot in just a few years,” said Laurens Groenendijk, founding partner. “Where you once needed capital to get a working prototype out, today anyone can spin up a no-code MVP overnight. The real test is: can you reach customers, build a team, and scale distribution? That’s where the bar has gone up.”
DFF Ventures is a pre-Seed VC firm (€100 million AuM) founded by entrepreneurs behind companies such as WeTransfer, fonQ, Just Eat and Treatwell. With ticket sizes ranging from €250k to €2.5 million, DFF invests from the ideation stage onwards in startups building digital solutions for underdigitised industries. The fund focuses on Vertical AI, recommerce platforms and marketplaces, and invests globally while keeping Europe as its foundation.
The launch of DFF Ventures III fits neatly into a pattern of early-stage, DeepTech and B2B-oriented funds emerging in Europe in 2025. Funds such as Lunar Ventures’ €50 million Fund II and Smart Infrastructure Ventures’ €30 million vehicle are similarly targeting pre-Seed or Seed deals, often in AI, industry infrastructure, or enterprise software. The Movens Capital €60 million fund for CEE also signals that even outside Western hubs, investors are committing capital to early-stage growth.
In that respect, DFF’s raise is both timely and competitive: by combining a lean structure (focused tickets of €250k to €2.5m) and thematic clarity (vertical AI, recommerce, marketplaces), it positions itself among a growing cohort of funds that believe differentiation now comes as much from domain focus and operational support as from capital alone.
A few months ago, the firm also changed its name from Dutch Founders Fund to DFF Ventures. “People were calling us DFF anyway,” said Groenendijk. “The update reflects our international focus and clears up some confusion, since we don’t just invest in Dutch Founders and we’re not tied to the Dutch government.”
While their earlier funds focused mainly on marketplaces, Fund III broadens the scope to include Vertical AI and recommerce platforms. For the team, Vertical AI is a particularly promising model.
Maarten Engelen, Partner, explained: “You go very deep into one industry. It starts with a workflow tool, an ‘operating system’ for that sector, and then you gradually expand, adding financing, logistics, and eventually transactional layers, such as a marketplace, on top. You’re trading market size for market share, but in doing so you can become indispensable. The beauty is that you start as a tool, but you end up as the backbone of an entire industry.”
DFF Ventures has already built a portfolio of 40 startups across 14 countries. Some are still early stage, while others are becoming more mature, facing new challenges as they grow.
Dutch audiences may be familiar with Shypple, Nostics, and Alleo (formerly YourCampus), but the portfolio stretches beyond. Companies like Metycle, a tech-enabled broker for scrap metal, Cofrai, which applies Vertical AI to fire protection maintenance, Getmobil and Northladder, which provide infrastructure for the trade-in of second-hand devices, and Fleequid, a B2B marketplace for used buses, highlight the fund’s focus.
“These are exactly the kinds of companies that prove our thesis,” added Founding Partner Patrick Kerssemakers. “They digitise the physical backbone of the economy – from logistics to recycling – and show that even in an AI-driven world, value can come from transforming the industries that keep everything moving.”
Just like with its previous funds, DFF deliberately chose not to work with institutional capital. Instead, it is backed exclusively by entrepreneurs and family offices. “We want an active LP base that we can engage with, not institutions that might slow us down,” added Kerssemakers.
Another deliberate choice was to keep DFF Ventures III small, just as with the earlier funds. “I honestly don’t know how €500 million funds plan to return capital to their LPs,” said Groenendijk. “For simplicity, imagine you still own 10% at exit: you’d need a €5 billion outcome just to return the fund once. VC is a game of outliers, and while such outcomes are possible, they are the exception, not the rule. By keeping our fund lean, the model works better for our LPs, our founders, and for us.”
The first close was reached in a relatively short time, allowing the fund to open at €50 million. From there, DFF is working towards a hard close in Q1 next year. “A pace we are proud of, especially in today’s venture – and even PE – markets, where liquidity is clearly under pressure,” said Kerssemakers.
Looking forward, the team emphasises that AI has lowered the barriers to starting a company but made it harder to stand out. “A few years ago, funding from a VC like us would often go toward building an MVP and validating assumptions. Now, you can spin up a prototype without writing a line of code,” said Groenendijk. “But while products are easier to build, reaching customers is harder than ever. Speed is the game. We like to back founders with a clear distribution wedge, where our investment is used to build out a team, but above all to tap into pools of knowledge or customer access that others don’t have.”
“Building something in 2 days using Lovable is one thing,” added Engelen. “But getting it into the hands of people at scale is what separates the winners from the rest. That’s where we want to help Founders move fast.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/09/dutch-dff-ventures-updates-name-and-opens-e50-million-fund-to-back-vertical-ai-recommerce-and-marketplaces/
