How one venture firm is investing in an increasingly fragmented world - BERITAJA

The world coming is riven by taste differences, governmental divisions, and geopolitical disputes — a challenging situation for immoderate investor hunting for startups that could turn ample capable to present venture-scale returns.

Kompas VC has developed a regionally delicate strategy to thief it navigate, and put in, this fragmented world. And it’s putting caller superior towards this attack pinch a caller €160 cardinal money ($187.5 million), the patient told TechCrunch.

“We spot the world really falling into 3 main spheres of economical activity, of governmental activity — the U.S., Europe, and China,” Sebastian Peck, partner astatine Kompas VC, told TechCrunch. “We surely spot coming that these 3 domains travel very, very different trajectories.”

Kompas has staked its estimation connected backing startups that tackle halfway business competitiveness challenges, from manufacturing and proviso chains to captious infrastructure and sustainability. Those themes haven’t disappeared, but different regions stress them to varying degrees.

“There was a batch of enthusiasm about these themes backmost successful 2021,” Peck said. “In 2026, we’re successful a very, very different paradigm. It’s each about AI, it’s each about accelerated growth, very explosive growth. A batch of large topics that we partially play to but besides are not really portion of what we guidelines for.”

“Our attraction is successful the beingness world, thing about producing beingness goods,” he added, saying that Kompas focuses connected startups moving connected decarbonization, productivity, and consequence management. “We’ve recovered our niche.”

Kompas VC partners, from left: Talia Rafaeli, Andreas Winter-Extra, and Sebastian PeckImage Credits:Kompas VC /

That niche turns retired to beryllium beautiful broad. Reshoring is en vogue successful about each market, and depending connected the startup, those markets typically person much than capable standard for a patient for illustration Kompas.

Though dwarfed by immoderate task costs these days, Kompas’s recently raised 2nd money should springiness it ample opportunity to lead early shape rounds pinch checks ranging from €3 cardinal to €5 million. 

As a European fund, Kompas has entree to a scope of founders and startups successful the region. But it must measurement really world fragmentation mightiness limit the imaginable for immoderate to present task returns. Peck cites prefab lodging arsenic an example. The attack is wide utilized successful Scandinavian countries, but it isn’t arsenic communal successful Germany aliases the remainder of Europe, fto unsocial the United States.

“It feels for illustration specified an intuitive solution. It’s a merchandise that is efficaciously an business product. It should beryllium highly scalable,” he said. Ultimately, the logic it doesn’t resonate extracurricular Scandinavia has much to do pinch “cultural conditioning” than the exertion itself, he said. “In that industry, if the U.S. isn’t the marketplace you could spell to, you request to look very, very cautiously astatine whether there’s a ample capable addressable market.”

The fragmentation extends beyond housing. For example, successful Europe, sustainability is still broadly attractive, successful opposition to the U.S., wherever the taxable doesn’t person the cachet it did respective years ago. 

Still, a batch could alteration quickly, Peck acknowledges. “We are investing complete 10-, 15-year horizons. That’s a fewer legislative periods to bridge, and sometimes things plaything successful unexpected directions.”

The shifting scenery poses a challenge, but besides an opportunity for a smaller investor for illustration Kompas. “I deliberation there’s a awesome abstraction for highly focused, highly specialized, smaller costs for illustration ours to beryllium the first check-in and bring expanse up definite themes and definite founders,” Peck said.