Backed VC is a human-centric European seed-stage venture capital firm based in London, investing in brave founders building generation-defining frontier technology companies. Founded in 2016 by Andre de Haes and Alex Brunicki, the firm focuses on AI-native therapeutics, blockchain and banking infrastructure, and manufacturing automation.
Founded 2015
Type Venture capital 4 Backed 3 2025-11-13 2025-11-13 $100M Closed at cap; European founder seed strategy, not AUM.
Backed Core 2 2022-02-21 2022-02-21 €75M Core seed vehicle; separate from Encore1 EUR75M, combined EUR150M.
Backed Encore 1 2022-02-21 2022-02-21 €75M Follow-on vehicle; separate from Core2, not one EUR150M fund.
BACKED Fund I — — Official history currently contains conflicting €50M/2016 and €30M/2015 versions; distinguish possible initial and eventual size, but not resolved here [Official ethos, undated](https://www.backed.vc/ethos); [Forbes profile, 2019-02-11](https://www.forbes.com/profile/jenny-gyllander/) describes €50M seed fund
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$1M $575K – $3M London $1M $575K – $3M London $1M $575K – $3M London $1M $100K – $5M United Kingdom $50K $25K – $100K Amsterdam, Netherlands $50K $25K – $100K Dublin, Ireland $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K London $50K $25K – $100K Stockholm, Sweden · Sweden $50K $25K – $100K Sweden $50K $25K – $100K United Kingdom $50K $25K – $100K United Kingdom $50K $25K – $100K United Kingdom — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – —
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$— 2026 Ruka Hair BACKED VC $60M 2025-10-20 CoMind Plural , BACKED VC , Crane Venture Partners $21M 2025-10-01 AERSKA Speedinvest , BACKED VC $17M 2025-05-27 Infinity Constellation BACKED VC , Freestyle Capital $— 2023-08-22 Borderless AI BACKED VC $— 2023 Lopay BACKED VC $— 2022-12-06 Flow Engineering BACKED VC $22M 2022-10-21 Hoxton Farms Founders Fund , Collaborative Fund , CPT Capital , Sustainable Food Ventures , SYSTEMIQ Capital , AgFunder , BACKED VC $30M 2022-10-19 Ochre Bio Khosla Ventures , BACKED VC , Y Combinator , Lifeforce Capital $18M 2022-05-17 Legl BACKED VC , First Round $— 2022-04-05 Amenitiz BACKED VC $— 2022-04-01 Pollen BACKED VC , Frontline Ventures , Kindred Ventures , Northzone $— 2022-03-31 Footium BACKED VC $— 2022-01-26 Onramper BACKED VC $— 2022-01-24 BCB Group BACKED VC $5M 2021-12-16 Phytoform ENIAC Ventures , BACKED VC $200M 2021-11-29 Thought Machine BACKED VC , IQ Capital $— 2021-10-06 THIS IS CALA, INC. BACKED VC $4M 2021-08-26 Playbook Founders Fund , Abstract Ventures , BACKED VC , Inovia Capital , WS Investment Company , Maple VC , Basis Set Ventures $12M 2021-07-06 FabricNano Atomico , BACKED VC $7M 2021-03-11 Legl BACKED VC , First Round $3M 2021-02-09 Hoxton Farms Founders Fund , BACKED VC , CPT Capital , Sustainable Food Ventures , Presight Capital $38M 2020-11-16 Harbr BACKED VC , boldstart ventures , Crane Venture Partners $60M 2020-10-01 Pollen BACKED VC , Kindred Ventures , Northzone $2M 2020-05-06 Banked Force Over Mass Capital , BACKED VC $— 2020-01-17 Dataseat BACKED VC $77M 2019-10-24 Pollen Northzone , BACKED VC , Kindred Ventures $— 2019-01-21 Flexciton BACKED VC $— 2018-10-17 garten BACKED VC $— 2018-10-03 Meatable BACKED VC $— 2017 Hutch Games BACKED VC $— 2016-04-20 Armada Interactive BACKED VC $— Unknown date Zaptic BACKED VC $— Unknown date Zaptic BACKED VC $— Unknown date Vuelo BACKED VC $— Unknown date Travizory BACKED VC $— Unknown date Cloud Capital BACKED VC $— Unknown date Cloud Capital BACKED VC $30M Unknown date Ochre Bio Khosla Ventures , BACKED VC , Lifeforce Capital $100M 2025-09-16 Invisible Technologies, Inc. BACKED VC , HOF Capital $— 2025-02-11 Affinity Africa BACKED VC $— 2020 unrd BACKED VC $— 2019 Foundries.io BACKED VC $— 2015 Jukedeck BACKED VC $— 2014 Jukedeck BACKED VC $— Unknown date Keith BACKED VC
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team@apexlogos.ai · 12 hours ago
Investment-fund research reviewed 2026-10-06. Publicly identified funds, dates, amounts and fundraising status are below. Undisclosed commitments remain unknown; this is not a complete register of private SPVs or parallel entities.
Fund sizes and investment stages
| Vehicle | Amount and status | Date / evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Backed 3 / third fund | **US$100M, closed at cap**, not a target or AUM figure; latest-known fund found in searches for 2025–2026/newer funds | [Official announcement, 2025-11-13](https://www.backed.vc/insights/backed-vc-closes-100m-seed-fund-to-invest-in-europes-generational-founders-with-global-ambitions ) |
| Backed Core 2 and Backed Encore 1 | €75M each; two vehicles totalling €150M | [TechCrunch, 2022-02-21](https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/21/early-stage-euro-vc-backed-brings-in-another-e150m-and-puts-a-heavy-focus-on-founder-events/ ) |
| Fund I | Official history currently contains conflicting €50M/2016 and €30M/2015 versions; distinguish possible initial and eventual size, but not resolved here | [Official ethos, undated](https://www.backed.vc/ethos ); [Forbes profile, 2019-02-11](https://www.forbes.com/profile/jenny-gyllander/ ) describes €50M seed fund |
The official [ethos page](https://www.backed.vc/ethos ) supports a current **seed leadership mandate and $500K–$5M first checks**, with healthcare, finance and manufacturing themes. Its old duplicated story instead uses €500K–€2.5M. Official portfolio entries support pre-seed as well as seed; later rounds below are historical follow-ons, not evidence of a broad late-stage initial-investment mandate. Encore is a separate follow-on vehicle. No independently verified total AUM or deployable remaining capital was found; do not sum historic funds into current AUM. Founding year also remains 2015/2016 conflicted within the official page itself. The firm primarily frames its mandate around European founders, including founders building businesses in the US, rather than a strict Europe-only company-location rule. [Official Backed 3 announcement, 2025-11-13](https://www.backed.vc/insights/backed-vc-closes-100m-seed-fund-to-invest-in-europes-generational-founders-with-global-ambitions ).
Funds recorded in Adex after this review:
| Fund | Disclosed amount | Announcement / filing date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BACKED Fund I | Undisclosed / unverified | Unknown |
| Backed Core 2 | EUR 75000000 | 2022-02-21 |
| Backed Encore 1 | EUR 75000000 | 2022-02-21 |
| Backed 3 | USD 100000000 | 2025-11-13 | SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 13 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / BACKEDVC / sha256:1cdacbbabbd183f17f9f09d6ff12b39aba75312f7a1afe51b21f43d00e90b571 / part 2 of 2
Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats.
## Neurotechnology and adjacent neuroscience
**CoMind is a verified direct neurotechnology investment.** Its optical neuromonitoring addresses physiological brain measurements rather than a generic mental-health app. Its 2025 company announcement names BACKED explicitly and describes CoMind One's intended bedside monitoring. This does not establish FDA approval, a commercial launch, or a brain-computer communication interface; those claims require separate evidence. [CoMind, 2025-10-20](https://www.comind.io/news/comind-announces-102-5m-funding-to-redefine-clinical-monitoring-of-the-brain ).
**Aerska is verified adjacent neuroscience/CNS biotech.** Its official **2025-10-01** release names BACKED as co-leader, with Age1 and Speedinvest, of **$21M seed**. It develops RNAi medicines with antibody-oligo conjugates/brain delivery aimed at neurological disease. This is drug delivery/therapeutics, not neural recording or stimulation. [Aerska-issued release](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/10/01/3159351/0/en/Aerska-Launches-with-21-Million-in-Financing-to-Develop-RNAi-Medicines-for-Diseases-of-the-Brain.html ). Aerska announced a **$39M Series A on 2026-02-09**; this newer financing is verified, but BACKED participation in it was not established from the accessible release. Do not infer participation from its earlier backing. [Series A release](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/09/3234456/0/en/Aerska-Raises-39M-Series-A-Financing-led-by-EQT-Dementia-Fund-and-age1-to-Systemically-Deliver-RNA-Medicines-to-the-Brain.html ).
Signal's Alex profile mentions a CoSyne Therapeutics board role. Treat this as a **lead only**: board service does not itself prove a BACKED investment or direct neurotechnology. No additional direct neurodevice investment was verified in the checked sources; this is not an assertion that none exists.
## Conflicts, missing information and later Adex review
1. Retain exact ID `BACKEDVC`. Resolve founding year and Fund I initial/final size through dated firm announcements or legal records: official duplicate history conflicts internally.
2. Add Backed 3 $100M closed, 2025-11-13; keep the 2022 €150M as two distinct vehicles. The NFX €150M field is not the newest fund; Andre's $2.2B field belongs to an inconsistent affiliation and must be excluded.
3. Add verified CoMind neurotech classification and Aerska adjacent CNS biotech evidence. Keep their round totals separate from BACKED checks. CoMind $102.5M is cumulative, while reporting identifies $60M new funding; one secondary source incorrectly presents roughly $100M as the round.
4. Replace Ochre Bio's indirect aggregator evidence with official portfolio attribution; research its dated initial transaction before altering the snapshot's duplicate/round fields.
5. Snapshot “THIS IS CALA, INC.” is potentially conflated with the robotic kitchen company CALA; firm portfolio describes robotic kitchens, whereas the exact snapshot company identity requires review. Broad AI/SaaS positions such as Legl, Amenitiz and cloud-spend tools were not relabelled deep tech here.
6. Snapshot Jukedeck investment dates 2014/2015 predate the official 2016 launch account. Determine personal, pre-fund or firm attribution before treating those as fund transactions. Partner board/angel investments are not automatically firm investments.
7. Coverage is focused evidence for fund mandate and named deep/neurotechnology precedents, not an audit of every snapshot participation. Undated official portfolio listings do not identify fund vehicle, legal ownership, check size or initial investment date. Dynamic website retrieval sometimes exposed only article headers; the CoMind full article was also available in search-index text. Publication dates were taken from article text where available; undated sources were accessed 2026-10-06. SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 13 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / BACKEDVC / sha256:1cdacbbabbd183f17f9f09d6ff12b39aba75312f7a1afe51b21f43d00e90b571 / part 1 of 2
Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats.
# BACKED VC
- Exact Adex ID: `BACKEDVC`
- Canonical Adex URL: https://adex.page/firms/BACKEDVC
- Official website: https://www.backed.vc/
- Research date / all web sources accessed: **2026-10-06**
- Status: complete research for later review; no Adex/database changes made.
BACKED is a London venture firm backing European founders at seed, with a substantial science and engineering portfolio and a directly verified neurotechnology investment in **CoMind**. The latest-known disclosed fund is **Backed 3, closed at US$100 million on 2025-11-13**. Its portfolio also includes **Aerska**, a neuroscience therapeutics company that should be separated from neural devices and interfaces. [Official fund announcement, 2025-11-13](https://www.backed.vc/insights/backed-vc-closes-100m-seed-fund-to-invest-in-europes-generational-founders-with-global-ambitions ); [official portfolio, undated](https://www.backed.vc/portfolio ).
## Starting evidence: Adex and NFX Signal
The saved exact-ID MCP snapshot, `data/research/_sources/BACKEDVC.adex.json`, retrieved 2026-10-06, was read before external verification. It describes a human-centric European seed firm in London, founded by Andre de Haes and Alex Brunicki, with AI therapeutics, banking/blockchain infrastructure and manufacturing automation interests. Its structured founding year is **2015**, whereas its description says **2016**. Investor check fields are null. It contains 45 participation records, including CoMind, FabricNano, Hoxton Farms, Phytoform, Flexciton, Meatable and duplicate Ochre Bio leads. Ochre Bio records cite a Khosla Ventures aggregator page, unsuitable as sole proof of BACKED participation. Participation `amount` values commonly appear to represent total rounds rather than BACKED's contribution; this research does not interpret them as firm checks.
[NFX firm profile](https://signal.nfx.com/firms/backed-vc ) was directly read; it shows founding year 2015 and a noisy list of locations including United States and London. The initially returned version was fuller, but subsequent reads exposed only a short firm shell; no dependable current fund data was available there. These geography fields should not override the firm's own account.
[NFX Alex Brunicki profile](https://signal.nfx.com/investors/alex-brunicki ), directly read, identifies a BACKED cofounder/partner and lists a $575K–$3M range, $1.5M sweet spot and €150M “current” fund. It lists seed and Series A DeepTech rankings and Aerska/Flexciton leads. These are profile claims, not independent verification; €150M appears to reflect the 2022 combined vehicles and is stale against Backed 3. Signal lists Flexciton Series A in January 2021, whereas contemporary reporting dates the financing October 2021.
[NFX Andre de Haes profile](https://signal.nfx.com/investors/andre-de-haes ), directly/search-index read, associates him with Andreessen Horowitz despite also showing BACKED founder experience and a BACKED URL. **Do not assign its $2.2B fund field to BACKED.** Intro paths and portions of investment data require login; partner profiles do not establish firm attribution without a firm/investee source. All Signal sources are undated, accessed on the research date.
## Fund sizes and investment stages
| Vehicle | Amount and status | Date / evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Backed 3 / third fund | **US$100M, closed at cap**, not a target or AUM figure; latest-known fund found in searches for 2025–2026/newer funds | [Official announcement, 2025-11-13](https://www.backed.vc/insights/backed-vc-closes-100m-seed-fund-to-invest-in-europes-generational-founders-with-global-ambitions ) |
| Backed Core 2 and Backed Encore 1 | €75M each; two vehicles totalling €150M | [TechCrunch, 2022-02-21](https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/21/early-stage-euro-vc-backed-brings-in-another-e150m-and-puts-a-heavy-focus-on-founder-events/ ) |
| Fund I | Official history currently contains conflicting €50M/2016 and €30M/2015 versions; distinguish possible initial and eventual size, but not resolved here | [Official ethos, undated](https://www.backed.vc/ethos ); [Forbes profile, 2019-02-11](https://www.forbes.com/profile/jenny-gyllander/ ) describes €50M seed fund |
The official [ethos page](https://www.backed.vc/ethos ) supports a current **seed leadership mandate and $500K–$5M first checks**, with healthcare, finance and manufacturing themes. Its old duplicated story instead uses €500K–€2.5M. Official portfolio entries support pre-seed as well as seed; later rounds below are historical follow-ons, not evidence of a broad late-stage initial-investment mandate. Encore is a separate follow-on vehicle. No independently verified total AUM or deployable remaining capital was found; do not sum historic funds into current AUM. Founding year also remains 2015/2016 conflicted within the official page itself. The firm primarily frames its mandate around European founders, including founders building businesses in the US, rather than a strict Europe-only company-location rule. [Official Backed 3 announcement, 2025-11-13](https://www.backed.vc/insights/backed-vc-closes-100m-seed-fund-to-invest-in-europes-generational-founders-with-global-ambitions ).
## Previous deep-tech investments
Amounts below are **company financing totals**, not BACKED check amounts. “Deep tech” is a research classification based on the described underlying technology.
| Company | Technology and firm attribution | Transaction evidence and limits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **CoMind** | Non-invasive optical measurement of cerebral blood flow, autoregulation and intracranial pressure. Company directly names BACKED among returning investors. Direct neurotechnology; also deep tech. | Latest round led by Plural announced **2025-10-20**. Company headline says $102.5M funding; contemporary reporting distinguishes **$60M new round** from $102.5M total funding. [CoMind announcement](https://www.comind.io/news/comind-announces-102-5m-funding-to-redefine-clinical-monitoring-of-the-brain ); [Dealroom news, 2025-10-20](https://dealroom.co/news/122763-comind-raises-60-million-to-advance-non-invasive-brain-monitoring/ ). |
| **FabricNano** | Cell-free biomanufacturing and engineered enzyme/DNA-based reactors for chemical production; BACKED named participant, also on official firm portfolio. | **$12.5M financing**, Atomico-led, reported **2021-06-28**. [Nordic9](https://nordic9.com/news/fabricnano-in-a-125-million-funding-round-backed-by-atomico/ ). Snapshot links July 6 coverage; June 28 is reporting date, not proven legal closing date. [Official portfolio](https://www.backed.vc/portfolio ). |
| **Hoxton Farms** | Stem-cell cultivated animal fat using computational biology and bioprocess engineering. Company counsel names BACKED among previous investors participating. | **$22M Series A**, led by Collaborative Fund/Fine Structure Ventures. [Goodwin, 2022-10-24](https://www.goodwinlaw.com/en/news-and-events/news/2022/10/10_24-hoxton-farms-completes-22-million ); [company-distributed release, 2022-10-20](https://www.proteinreport.org/newswire/hoxton-farms-raises-22m-series-solve-big-fat-problem-meat-alternatives ). |
| **Phytoform Labs** | Machine learning applied to crop genomes and gene editing; biological engineering, not generic agricultural software. BACKED named returning investor. | **$5.7M seed**, led by Eniac, announced **2021-12-16**. [AgFunderNews, 2021-12-16](https://agfundernews.com/phytoform-bags-5-7m-to-boost-crop-resilience-through-genome-edits ). |
| **Flexciton** | Advanced optimization for semiconductor-fab scheduling; industrial mathematical technology rather than ordinary workflow SaaS. Firm investment corroborated by reporting and financial database. | BACKED participation, **2021-10-21 Series A**, about $20.68M per [CB Insights, undated](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/flexciton/financials ). Contemporary confirmation: [Fortune, 2021-10-21](https://fortune.com/2021/10/21/this-startup-could-help-ease-the-semiconductor-shortage/ ). Exact firm contribution undisclosed. |
| **Ochre Bio** | RNA therapeutics and liver biology; company named on BACKED's own portfolio. | [Official portfolio, undated](https://www.backed.vc/portfolio ) establishes firm-level attribution and liver focus. Exact initial round/date not resolved; snapshot's 2022-10-19 entry and duplicate must be verified separately. Not a neurotech investment. |
| **Meatable; OLIX; CALA** | Additional official portfolio precedents: cultivated meat, photonic AI compute and robotic kitchens respectively. | [Official portfolio, undated](https://www.backed.vc/portfolio ) supports firm attribution/technology. Specific entry dates, round sizes and lead roles not independently established here; retain as portfolio-level evidence, not verified transaction records. | SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 23 days ago
MATCH 
Founders Fund
Hoxton Farms$22M · 2022-10-21
Playbook$4M · 2021-08-26
Atomico
FabricNano$12M · 2021-07-06
Basis Set Ventures
boldstart ventures
Harbr$38M · 2020-11-16
ENIAC Ventures
Phytoform$5M · 2021-12-16
Force Over Mass Capital
Banked$2M · 2020-05-06
Infinity Constellation$17M · 2025-05-27
Frontline Ventures
Pollen$— · 2022-04-01
HOF Capital
Inovia Capital
IQ Capital
Thought Machine$200M · 2021-11-29
Speedinvest
AERSKA$21M · 2025-10-01
SYSTEMIQ Capital
Y Combinator
Ochre Bio$30M · 2022-10-19
