One of Europe’s top venture capital firms is actively searching for what it calls “misfit” founders—entrepreneurs who don’t fit the traditional mould but could build the next wave of high-growth companies.
According to the Financial Times, Hummingbird Ventures is nearing an $800 million fundraise as it doubles down on backing unconventional founders across sectors like crypto, AI, gaming, and semiconductors.
“The kind of founders we look into are truly misfits,” Hummingbird founder Barend Van den Brande told the Financial Times in an interview. “They are anomalies… we look for signs that they almost built their own theory of the world. If anything, to a certain degree, we want them to be unreasonable.”
That framing reflects a broader shift in how venture capital is starting to define talent—not by credentials or traditional career paths, but by how founders think and what they see that others don’t.
Hummingbird’s managing partner, Firat Ileri, reinforced that view, telling the Financial Times the firm looks for people who are “almost unemployable” and “might not last long” in conventional companies. “There are our type of founders all across the world,” he said.
The firm’s strategy has delivered outsized returns. It made early bets on companies like crypto exchange Kraken and AI startup Lovable, with its earlier funds returning more than 10 times invested capital, according to the Financial Times—well above the typical venture capital benchmark.
Those results have come from consistently backing founders and markets that others initially overlooked. “We’re not going to settle for some space that’s overinvested, overheated. We need to be on the lookout for what hasn’t been properly understood yet,” Van den Brande told the Financial Times.
That approach extends beyond markets to the people building in them. Increasingly, the firm is looking for individuals who operate outside conventional systems but are able to create entirely new ones.
The new fund, which includes both early-stage and growth capital, will allow Hummingbird to back companies for longer as they scale. It also reflects a broader gap in Europe, where many startups still turn to U.S. investors at later stages.
Hummingbird’s unconventional approach has also been recognised by the founders it has backed. “They are unconventional and have been terrific,” said Will Shu, speaking to the Financial Times. “The questions were really different than everyone else.”
For founders, especially those outside traditional tech pipelines, the signal is clear. Investors are increasingly willing to back individuals who don’t fit established patterns, as long as they show original thinking and the ability to build something new.
“You will find founders that are moving so fast now that maybe half of their revenue… will come from products that don’t exist yet,” Van den Brande told the Financial Times. “We want to be one of the first in the world to see these as a 10 times opportunity.”
David Adubiina
