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Bold bets on science.

About


Positron Ventures helps and funds Europe-based scientist-entrepreneurs who are pursuing moonshots for (planetary) health.


We invest in scientist-entrepreneurs working on a breakthrough in their field, across the natural sciences. We back teams from day one in their pursuit of solving a major global challenge. We do this with pre-seed investments and, wherever needed, support across all aspects of building a company.

If you are looking for funding, check out our investment criteria and shopping list, and our view on when to engage. If you think there might be a match, contact us at startups@positron.vc.

Scientists who have not yet spun out a company but are interested in doing so, please check our scientist resources.

Team

  • Bram de Zwart

    Venture Partner

    As an aspiring car designer Bram studied industrial design, offering him the opportunity to play with the initial wave of 3D printers. This newfound interest led him to co-found a pioneering 3D printing and CNC machining platform, where he was the CEO until the industry-record acquisition by Protolabs. Currently, alongside his studies in quantum mechanics, Bram utilizes his experience in scaling a startup from 1 to 200 people to support portfolio companies within Positron.

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  • Anna-Lena Schindl

    Principal

    While studying Physics, Anna-Lena started working at a startup and hasn’t left the world of entrepreneurship since. Her passion for building new things and a deep scientific curiosity kept her oscillating between the world of research organizations and getting her hands dirty by setting up companies from scratch. In her spare time she tries to discover a new peak or trail hiking or biking in the mountains south of Munich every week.

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  • Ulla Nyyssölä

    Ulla Nyyssölä

    Operations Support Manager

    Finnish-born Ulla masters the art of nudging people in the right direction, which is an essential skill in Positron’s lightly organised office environment. Outside Positron, her organisational skills come in handy for managing her all-boys household. Ulla holds a MA in Educational Leadership and is a strong believer in lifelong learning. In her spare time, she enjoys (trail)running, yoga and creepy Nordic noir series.

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  • Joseph Peeraer

    Founding Partner

    Joseph (Sjef for Dutchies) launched several ventures unsuccessfully before his energy & telecom retailer Budget took off (partial exit to Waterland). He is passionate about tech and holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from TU Delft. In his spare time Joseph is on the board of two journalism-related NGOs, likes to sail on his Laser Pico and struggles to stay ahead in fierce discussions with his woke teenage daughters.

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  • Gijs van der Hulst

    Founding Partner

    Gijs’ first job was at a surf company based at the Atlantic coast in France, mainly as an excuse to go surfing multiple times a day. He later joined Google, where he closed a wide variety of technology deals. From 2019, Gijs managed the fundraising process for several well-known Dutch science start-ups, raising close to $ 100m in total. Gijs is part of the team of Qubit Engineering Inc. in an advisory role.

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  • Julia Wagner

    Associate

    Born and raised in Vienna, Julia early on discovered her passion for mathematics and contemporary dance, twirling her way through a PhD at ETH Zurich. Finding the ride of entrepreneurship as unpredictable and exhilarating as a Viennese waltz she started an EdTech business and co-founded student-led VC S2S Ventures. When Julia is not searching for the latest science startups, you can find her in the newest art exhibition or climbing up a mountain.

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Portfolio

  • Senara

    The dairy industry emits 4% of all greenhouse gasses, requires enormous land and water resources and often produces at the expense of animal welfare.

    Senara is fixing this by creating cell-based milk. The scientists behind Senara aims to take real cow cells, multiply them, and produce real milk from it - enough milk to nourish the world.

  • Ore Energy

    To deploy solar and wind more efficiently we need low cost long duration energy storage. Ore Energy makes batteries from just iron, water and air, based on a breakthrough in battery chemistry. Their batteries provide the missing piece for a low cost renewable energy future.

    We have been working with the team since before incorporation and led the first capital raise.

  • Stellerator

    Renaissance Fusion

    Renaissance Fusion is building a super-star on earth: a stellarator.

    The team of scientists-entrepreneurs has an extensive research background in fusion, and based on breakthroughs in HTS magnets and liquid metal shielding, now devised a credible path to cost-effective energy generation with their stellarator nuclear fusion reactor design.

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    CimCure

    CimCure has developed an out-of-the-box way to attack tumours. Its vaccine induces an immune response directed at the tumour vasculature. Eradication of tumour blood vessels and inhibition of their growth will lead to inhibition of tumour growth. Early results were recently published in Nature Communications.

    Positron Ventures led the first capital raise, a € 5m investment round in June 2022.

  • Thorizon

    Thorizon has conceived a truly novel topology for a thorium molten salt reactor. The design allows for using long lived nuclear waste as fuel in an inherently safe, modular and cost-effective design.

    We have worked with Thorizon since long before investment and led a pre-seed investment in 2021 and were co-lead in a 2022 seed round.

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    PASQAL

    PASQAL is a quantum computer pioneer which adheres the neutral atom architecture. Its quantum processing units are made out of hundreds of atomic qubits in 2D and 3D arrays. Pasqal is a spin-off from the French Institut d’Optique.

    Our position in Pasqal is the result of a merger between our first portfolio company Qu&Co and PASQAL in January 2022.

  • Undisclosed

    We can’t talk about them yet. Only that we invested in what we berieve is really unique science, tackling an important problem for both planet & health.

  • Qu&Co

    Qu&Co is a leading European quantum computational software developer, founded in 2017. The company has several blue-chip R&D customers and partnerships with most of the leading US and European quantum hardware players.

    Positron Ventures invested both in its pre-seed and seed round. In January 2022 Qu&Co merged with PASQAL.