In recent years, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of “operator VCs”—former founders transitioning into venture capitalists—in Europe. This trend is already familiar in the United States, where the majority of venture capitalists are former founders. Conversely, in Europe, many come from banking or finance backgrounds. Some recent examples of operator VCs in Europe include Taavet Hinrikus, founder of Wise; Oscar Pierre, founder of Glovo (Yellow Fund); and Christian Reber, founder of Pitch.
Following the acquisition of MuleSoft by Salesforce in 2018 for $6.5 billion, Ross Mason established DIG Ventures initially as a family office, which later evolved into a venture capital firm. He co-founded this venture with general partner Melissa Klinger, who previously served as the U.K. sales lead at MuleSoft. DIG Ventures has now introduced its second fund, marking its first institutional endeavor, with a close of $100 million. This capital will be directed towards investments in B2B SaaS, AI, and cloud infrastructure startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, primarily targeting European firms, with additional consideration for startups based in Israel and the United States.
The new fund is supported by limited partners (LPs) such as The Hillman Company, Granite Capital, Sofina, and Grove Street. Additionally, notable participants in the funding round include Olivier Pomel, founder of Datadog, as well as several executives from MuleSoft.
DIG Ventures positions itself as a hands-on, operator-led fund, emphasizing its capability in areas such as go-to-market strategy and execution. Alongside Mason and Klinger, the team includes Rytis Vitkauskas, founder of YPlan (a company acquired by Time Out), and former partner at Lightspeed, and Scott Grimes, co-founder of Stackin’ and Uproxx (acquired by Warner Music).
The firm’s portfolio encompasses companies like People.ai, Karat, Bubble, ComplyAdvantage, PlanetScale, Rasa, Taktile, Rossum, Flock, and Prophecy. The second fund has already begun deploying capital, investing in firms such as the observability platform Dash0, AI orchestration platform Nexos.ai, and enterprise middleware provider PolyAPI.
Mason expressed to TechCrunch his perspective on the fund, noting a significant opportunity to return to Europe and establish an operator-led venture capital firm. He remarked, “We have developed a strategy that enables us to connect with founders more rapidly and earlier than most other funds.”
Klinger added that their approach involves engaging with founders on a conversational level, leveraging their experience from MuleSoft. She highlighted their expertise in marketing highly technical products, stating that understanding the “go-to-market” process is a distinguishing strength for DIG Ventures.
Mason envisions the next major shift as enterprises begin building their own AI systems, particularly with the burgeoning development of large language models (LLMs) within companies. This represents a new competitive landscape, where enterprises are keen to maintain control over their data, often opting for Open Source packages over cloud-based LLMs.
Klinger sees potential strength in Europe’s AI capabilities, noting the region’s talent pool available at competitive costs compared to the U.S., and citing significant research emerging from European universities. However, she acknowledges that financing remains a challenge for some AI-driven initiatives needing substantial investment.
In the U.S., figures like Peter Thiel, Paul Graham, and Marc Andreessen have significantly influenced the venture capital scene as former founders/operators. The geopolitical and economic dynamics combined with Europe’s burgeoning early-stage momentum could signal a shift toward a more operator-centric VC market in Europe.
