Episode 12 - Fundraising Founder: Julia Minici – Afterwind

In this episode of AtVenture DealFlow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Julia Minici, co-founder and CEO of Afterwind.

Afterwind is a Swedish deep tech company focused on true recycling of wind turbine blades and other hard-to-recycle glass fibre composite materials.

As wind energy scales across Europe, a massive waste problem is emerging. Wind turbine blades have a lifespan of 15–20 years, after which most end up in landfill or incineration, destroying valuable material and creating long-term environmental harm.

Afterwind addresses this challenge by transforming end-of-life composite materials into high-quality raw materials that can be reused in industrial value chains. Using a combination of mechanical and chemical recycling, the company aims to recover over 95% of material value while avoiding downcycling.

In this episode, Julia shares how her transition from a senior career at JP Morgan to deep tech entrepreneurship led her to build capital-intensive climate infrastructure, why composite waste is one of the biggest blind spots of the energy transition, and what it takes to scale circular materials across borders.

Key Metrics: Afterwind

1. Sector: Deep Tech / Circular Materials / Climate Infrastructure
2. Business Model: B2B wholesale recycling (input fees + off-taker sales)
3. Founded: 2023 (Sweden-based, European focus)
4. Team: Four co-founders with 40+ years of combined recycling and industrial experience
5. Traction: Active pilots with large industrial and energy players; strong market pull driven by EU landfill bans
6. Round: Seed
7. Use of funds: CAPEX for end-to-end recycling lines, capacity build-out and continued R&D
8. Market: ~45 million tons of composite waste expected by 2050, with limited scalable recycling capacity today
9. Impact: Recovering material value, reducing landfill and incineration, and cutting composite material emissions by up to 40%

🎧 Listen to the full episode of AtVenture DealFlow to learn why composite waste is becoming a critical climate issue, how Afterwind is building scalable recycling infrastructure, and what investors should understand about capital-intensive deep tech in Europe.

More: www.atventureplatform.com

See you at the next great deal.

In this episode of AtVenture Dealflow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Nina van Schaick - co-Founder and COO of Peripear

PeriPear is a femtech medtech startup focused on preventing perineal trauma during vaginal birth.

Despite strong clinical evidence showing that birth injuries can be reduced by up to 50%, prevention has failed to scale in daily clinical practice.

PeriPear addresses this gap with a non-invasive medical device designed to fit existing clinical workflows, without requiring behaviour change from women or clinicians.

In this episode, Nina shares how her background as a midwife led her to build a scalable, evidence-based solution for one of the most under-addressed issues in women’s health, and what it takes to build a capital-efficient femtech company in a regulated healthcare market.

Key Metrics: PeriPear

1. Sector: FemTech / MedTech / Women’s Health
2. Business Model: B2B medical device (hospitals & birth centres)
3. Founded: 2020 (UK-based, global focus)
4. Team: Clinically led founding team with deep midwifery and healthcare expertise
5. Traction: Strong clinical validation; growing adoption in birth care settings
6. Round: Pre-seed
7. Use of funds: Clinical validation, manufacturing, regulatory progress and market entry
8. Market: ~90% of vaginal births involve perineal trauma, yet prevention remains inconsistent
9. Impact: Reducing birth injuries, long-term pelvic floor damage and associated healthcare and workforce costs

🎧 Listen to the full episode of AtVenture DealFlow to learn why prevention in birth care has lagged behind for decades, how PeriPear is building real clinical traction across continents, and what investors should understand about femtech and regulated health innovation.

More: www.atventureplatform.com

See you at the next great deal.

In this episode of AtVenture Dealflow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Caroline Lakshmanan - co-Founder and CEO of Cloud Closet

Cloud Closet is a fashion tech startup building a dedicated social platform for getting dressed.

Instead of search or purchase history, Cloud Closet starts from outfit history and real community input to help people discover, plan and shop fashion in a more human and sustainable way.

In this episode, Caroline explains why fashion is one of the biggest conversation topics on social media, yet still lacks a platform designed specifically for the act of getting dressed.

Key Metrics: Cloud Closet

1. Sector: Fashion Tech / Consumer Tech / Social Commerce
2. Business Model: B2C platform with affiliate commerce, resale and rental integrations
3. Founded: 2023 (HQ US, Global company)
4. Team: Founder-led team with background in fashion, tech and community building
5. Traction: 5,000+ outfit uploads within months of MVP launch, strong daily power users, high qualitative community engagement
6. Round: Raising $700k pre-seed
7. Use of funds: Product development, hiring a CTO, scaling community growth and go-to-market
8. Market: Fashion is the second most talked-about topic on social media globally, yet lacks a dedicated platform for getting dressed
9. Impact: Enabling more conscious fashion consumption by starting from outfit reuse, community insight and human taste over algorithms

🎧 Listen to the full episode of AtVenture DealFlow to learn how Cloud Closet is building the social platform fashion has been missing and why community-driven consumer platforms still represent a major opportunity.

More: www.atventureplatform.com

See you at the next great deal.

In this episode of AtVenture Dealflow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Anke Kuik, co-founder & CEO of FLTRD.

FLTRD is a consumer health app that helps people make healthier food choices by instantly showing how ultra-processed supermarket products really are, and suggesting better alternatives.

With ultra-processed food increasingly linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health issues, FLTRD brings clarity where traditional labels fall short. Their independent PureScore focuses on food processing, not marketing claims.

🔹 Key Metrics - FLTRD

• Sector: Consumer Health / Preventive HealthTech
• Business Model: B2C freemium → premium subscription
• Founded: 2023 (HQ NL, scope NL & EU)
• Team: Founding team led by serial entrepreneur Anke Kuik
• Traction: 85% active user retention, 10% conversion to premium, Users scan products 3x more often after Lancet UPF publications
• Round: Raising €250k
• Use of funds: Android launch, full NL & BE supermarket coverage, scaling to 100,000 users in NL
• Market: Ultra-processed food dominates >70% of supermarket products globally
• Impact: Empowering consumers to prevent lifestyle-related diseases through food transparency

👉 Listen to the full episode of AtVenture Dealflow and see if this could be your next great deal.

🔗 More: www.atventureplatform.com

See you at the next great deal!

Episode 8 - Investor spotlight: Maud Vermeulen (Golden Egg Check & AtVenture Platform)

In this episode of AtVenture Dealflow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Maud Vermeulen, investor at Golden Egg Check, board member at Women in VC NL, and part of the AtVenture Platform Investment Committee.

Maud is deeply involved in connecting founders and investors across Europe. She believes that trust, transparency, and team complementarity are the real foundation for any great deal.

🎯 Why Listen

• How Golden Egg Check invests at pre-seed & seed stage
• Maud’s 3 top tips for fundraising founders
• Why “trust” and “team” outweigh everything else in early-stage investing

💡 Key Metrics – Golden Egg Check

• Focus: B2B Software
• Sector: Agnostic
• Stage: Pre-seed & Seed
• Geography: NL, Benelux, UK, Nordics, Germany
• Ticket size: €50K–250K
• Added value: access to capital, founder network, access to growth
• Fund I: €5M, 35 portfolio companies
• Fund II (2026): €15M target, 40–45 new investments
• Portfolio exits: 2
• Diversity Impact: 14 of 35 portfolio companies (40%) have diverse founding teams (women or non-western background)

👉 Listen now on Spotify or YouTube and see you at the next great deal.

🔗 More: www.atventureplatform.com

Episode 7 - Fundraising Founder: Marianne de Feijter, Awesome Compliance Tech.

In this episode of AtVenture Dealflow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Marianne de Feijter, co-founder & CEO of Awesome Compliance Tech (ACT).

ACT is a legal & compliance platform that helps companies of any size manage their legal and compliance needs 10× faster and at 20% of the cost of traditional lawyers.

🔹 Key Metrics - Awesome Compliance Tech (ACT):

• Sector: LegalTech / Compliance SaaS
• Business Model: B2B SaaS + subscription & one-off B2C
• Founded: 2022 (HQ NL, scope EU/global)
• Team: 3 founders + early hires
• Traction: €10k MRR, 12 customers (incl. enterprise client), 90% retention
• Round: Raising €1M (already overbooked, but room for fast movers)
• Revenue ambition: €800k ARR end of 2026 (50 clients)
• Market Size: $45B+ legal tech market in 2030
• Impact: Making compliance affordable, scalable & inclusive

👉 Listen to the full episode on AtVenture Dealflow and see if this could be your next great deal!

🔗 More: www.atventureplatform.com

See you at the next great deal!

🎙️ AtVenture Dealflow- Episode 6: Angel Investor Spotlight with Danielle Beijerbergen van Henegouwen

In this episode, Laurie Lancee speaks with Danielle Beijerbergen, angel investor at AtVenture Platform and experienced commercial leader in B2B startups & scaleups.

Danielle shares her journey into angel investing: from thinking it was “only for the rich” to building a portfolio of 6 startups. Her focus: B2B, strong teams, and early traction.

🔑 Key Insights

• Founders: Keep your pitch clear, show traction, and communicate consistently.
• Angels: Start small, invest in what you understand, and have fun by investing together.
• Danielle’s added value: commercial strategy & sales growth playbooks.

💡 Danielle’s Investment Focus

• Geography: Netherlands
• Sectors: Impact-driven startups
• Business model: B2B SaaS & scalable ventures
• Portfolio: 6+ early-stage startups
• Added value: Sales & GTM expertise

📢 Full episode available on Spotify & YouTube.

👉 Want to start angel investing? Join our Angel Accelerator: https://www.atventureplatform.com/angel-accelerator

#angelinvesting #fundraising #dealflow #venturecapital #diversefounders #atventureplatform

Episode 5 – Fundraising Founders: Margot & Martien, Bundle.It

Bundle.It is a mindful tech app helping people reclaim their time by auto-organizing saved content into distraction-free bundles.

From hotels to schools, teams are already piloting the app. The goal? Less screen, more life.

Bundle.It is now raising €450k SAFE to accelerate user growth.

With the global productivity & mindful tech market projected to reach $10B+ by 2030, Bundle.It is tapping into one of the biggest challenges of our time: the attention economy.

🔹 Key Metrics

• Sector: Mindful Tech / SaaS/AI
• Business Model: Freemium B2C + B2B subscriptions (B2B2C)
• Founded: 2023
• Location: HQ = Netherlands, Scope = Global
• Founders: Margot van der Riet & Martien van Loo
• Team size: 4
• Round: €450k SAFE
• Traction: Users in 50 countries, 3 pilots (hospitality & education), 2% conversion → paid
• Market Size: $10B+ mindful tech market
• Revenue Projection: €2.3M annual revenue by 2026

👉 Listen to the full episode on AtVenture Dealflow and see if this could be your next great deal!

🔗 More: www.atventureplatform.com

See you at the next great deal!

In Episode 4 of AtVenture Dealflow, host Laurie Lancee speaks with Sacha Martina; serial entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and active angel investor at AtVenture Platform.

Sacha proves that you don’t need millions or multiple exits to start angel investing. With six deals already made, she shares how she chooses founders, what angels really look for, and why diversity in the ecosystem matters.

✨ Key Insights from Sacha Martina:

• Portfolio: 6 angel investments (goal = 10 before reflecting)
• Focus: founders with delusional obsession and clarity of vision
• Background: HR, team building, diversity & inclusion
• Lessons: “Angels bring more than money: they bring networks & expertise”

🎯 For founders: how to prepare for tough investor questions, what angels expect, and why honesty matters.

💡 For aspiring angels: how to start small, avoid common mistakes, and build your first portfolio.

👉 Join the movement: https://www.atventureplatform.com

Episode with Aga Kopytko – Co-founder & CTO of Smabbler

In this episode of AtVenture Dealflow, we speak with Aga Kopytko, co-founder and CTO of Smabbler, an early-stage AI company based in Poland with global ambitions.

Smabbler is developing AI-powered natural language processing tools that help machines understand human context, not just words. Their flagship platform, Galaxia, transforms structured and unstructured data into explainable, connected knowledge; tackling two of the biggest challenges in AI today:

❌ Hallucinations caused by lack of structure

⚡ Lack of explainable, transparent context

With a team of 10 spanning Europe, Smabbler has already achieved impressive milestones:

• Won the Deep Tech Momentum Award by Techstars
• Selected for the prestigious Endless Frontier Labs Accelerator (NYU)
• Secured over €1M in funding, including angel backing and EU innovation grants
• Validated its technology with $1M in commercial contracts

Smabbler is now raising €600k in a convertible round (over 50% already committed) to accelerate go-to-market and expand the team.

With the explainable AI market projected to reach $20–25B by 2040, Smabbler is building the foundation for a new AI creator economy.

• Sector: AI / Deep Tech
• Business Model: SaaS + marketplace
• Founded: 2020
• Location: HQ= Poland & Scope= Global
• Founders: Aga Kopytko, Luke Pytel, Przemek Bierut
• Team size: 10
• Round: Pre-seed convertible (€600k, >50% committed)
• Traction: $1M commercial contracts validated, users doubling MoM
• Market Size: $20–25B Explainable AI (by 2030)
• Revenue projection: €150M+ annual revenue within 5 years

See you at the next great deal!