Freshmen Fund

Co-founders Hendrik Winkelmans and Steven Spittaels make all investment decisions. Winkelmans contributes operational expertise from founding and exiting a 200-employee bike-retail chain, while Spittaels brings consumer-tech pattern recognition from his tenure as a McKinsey senior partner advising Google, eBay, and Tencent. Investment associate Martina Iannuzzi supports deal evaluation and portfolio management. The firm does not maintain an external investment committee.

Freshmen relies on its founders' cumulative professional networks and its advisory bench of sixteen named operators — including former Google executive Henrique De Castro and ex-Amazon analytics leader Matt Ariker — to surface consumer-product founders. The firm's website frames its pipeline as relationship-driven, targeting entrepreneurs who value operating counsel alongside capital, rather than cold-inbound or intermediary-led sourcing.

Freshmen operates closer to a concentrated angel syndicate than an institutional venture capital fund. The firm is built around two co-founders deploying personal capital and operator expertise, augmented by a curated advisor network that provides portfolio-company support. Freshmen does not publicly disclose a fund structure, LP base, or regulatory status, which distinguishes it from most European venture capital managers.

The firm's website signals a hands-on, partnership-oriented posture, and founder testimonials reference ongoing supply-chain, distribution, and sales support, suggesting Freshmen stays engaged beyond the initial check. The firm does not explicitly state its follow-on policy. Inquiries about pro-rata participation or reserve allocation should be directed to the co-founders during diligence.

Freshmen focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage European consumer companies. The firm does not publish a standard check-size range, but the portfolio composition — consisting of early-stage product businesses across apparel, food, mobility, and software — indicates initial commitments sized for companies with minimal institutional capital history. Specific terms are discussed bilaterally with founders.

Freshmen's website and portfolio concentrate entirely on B2C products and services, with no listed enterprise software, deep tech, life sciences, or infrastructure positions. The firm's thematic framing around urban mobility, consumer AI, and niche brands indicates a deliberate avoidance of enterprise-focused, hardware-intensive, and capital-heavy business models that fall outside its founders' operating expertise.

The firm discloses sixteen advisors spanning consumer tech, retail, digital marketing, and cycling-industry verticals. Notable names include Ann Chapelle, former CFO of Urban Outfitters and Under Armour; Pascal Grieder, former CEO of Salt Mobile; and Jean-Bernard Moens, a European consumer-private-equity operator. These advisors are not formal operating partners but engage directly with portfolio founders according to the firm's website.