Amsterdam-based VC firm Curiosity has closed the first €17 million tranche of its second fund, Curiosity Fund II, which will invest in early-stage AI startups across Europe, with a focus on pre-seed and seed-stage vertical AI companies.
- Founded in 2021 by Herman Kienhuis and Maurice Beckand Verwée, Curiosity is a venture capital firm focused on backing AI-native software companies at the earliest stages. The firm manages approximately €50 million in assets under management.
- Fund II targets startups building AI-driven solutions for specific industries, including finance, legal, real estate, energy, manufacturing and cybersecurity, as agentic and applied AI move from pilots into production use cases.
- The new fund builds on Curiosity’s first vehicle, which backed 23 early-stage AI startups across the Benelux, Nordics and Baltics. Those companies have collectively raised more than €84 million in follow-on funding, including Strise, Orq.ai, Dreamdata and Altura.
"Fund II doubles down on what worked in Fund I: being one of the first checks for founders who understand those industries deeply and offering a platform for growth through our AI founder community and broader network," explains Herman Kienhuis, co-founder and managing partner of Curiosity.
- The firm will continue to focus primarily on the Benelux, Nordics and Baltics, while selectively co-investing with partners in other European AI hubs such as London, Berlin and Paris.
- Curiosity maintains a community-driven investment model that connects founders, operators and advisors, and allocates 10% of carried interest to its Curiosity Foundation, which supports underrepresented entrepreneurs.
- The first close was backed by 44 private investors, many of them entrepreneurs, alongside matching capital from the Dutch government through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) Seed Capital scheme. The fund is targeting a final close of €30–40 million later this year.
