Today’s world is riven by cultural differences, political divisions, and geopolitical disputes – a challenging environment for any investor looking for startups that can grow enough to generate venture-scale returns.
Kompas VC, operating from offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin and Tel Aviv, has developed a regionally sensitive strategy to help you navigate and invest in this fragmented world. And it is bringing fresh capital to this focus with a new €160 million ($187.5 million) fund, the company told TechCrunch.
“We see the world really falling into three main spheres of economic and political activity: the United States, Europe and China,” said Sebastian Peck, partner at VC Compasshe told TechCrunch. “Certainly today we see these three domains following very, very different trajectories.”
Kompas has staked its reputation on backing startups that address fundamental industrial competitiveness challenges, from manufacturing and supply chains to critical infrastructure and sustainability. Those themes have not disappeared, but different regions emphasize them to different degrees.
“There was a lot of excitement around these topics in 2021,” Peck said of the year Kompas was founded. “In 2026, we find ourselves in a very, very different paradigm. It’s about AI, it’s about rapid growth, very explosive growth. There are a lot of important topics that we partially address but that are also not really part of what we stand for.”
“Our focus is on the physical world, everything related to the production of physical goods,” he added, saying that Kompas focuses on startups working on decarbonization, productivity and risk management. “We’ve found our niche.”
That niche turns out to be quite broad. Relocation is in vogue in almost all markets, and depending on the startup, those markets usually have more than enough scale for a company like Kompas.
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Although currently overshadowed by some venture funds, Kompas’ newly created second fund should give it ample opportunity to lead early-stage rounds with checks ranging between €3 million and €5 million.
As a European fund, Kompas has access to a variety of founders and startups in the region. But you must weigh how global fragmentation could limit the potential for some to generate risky returns. Peck cites prefabricated housing as an example. The approach is widely used in Scandinavian countries, but is not as common in Germany or the rest of Europe, let alone the United States.
“It seems like a very intuitive solution. It’s a product that is effectively an industrial product. It should be highly scalable,” he said. Ultimately, the reason it doesn’t resonate outside of Scandinavia has more to do with “cultural conditioning” than the technology itself, he said. “In that industry, if the United States is not the go-to market, you need to look very carefully at whether there is a big enough go-to market.”
Fragmentation extends beyond housing. For example, in Europe, sustainability remains generally attractive, unlike in the United States, where the topic does not have the prestige it had several years ago.
Still, a lot can change quickly, Peck acknowledges. “We’re investing on 10- or 15-year horizons. That’s a few legislative periods to get through, and sometimes things swing in unexpected directions.”
The changing landscape poses a challenge, but also an opportunity for a smaller investor like Kompas. “I think there’s a lot of room for smaller, highly specialized, highly focused funds, like ours, to be the first to sign on and address certain themes and certain founders,” Peck said.
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