6 Degrees Capital (6DC), an early-stage venture capital firm investing in outlier founders at Seed and Series A, announced the close of its third fund at €154 million.

Rooted in Europe with a global outlook, 6DC has partnered with more than 70 companies across its fund vintages, helping founders turn bold ambitions into lasting, category-defining companies.

With Fund III, 6DC will back exceptional and unconventional founding teams who are redefining what is possible across Enterprise Software, AI and FinTech.

“When we back founders, we go all in”, said Thibault D’hondt and Lucas Stoops, partners at 6DC. “We don’t follow the herd or wait for consensus. We build conviction from first principles and go the extra mile to truly understand each business. This enables us to back founders with genuine commitment, not just capital. To move fast, cut through the noise, and make every interaction count”.

Early Momentum

6DC III leads Seed and Series A rounds with initial cheques between €1m-€5m and follow-on capital up to €15m per company. The fund hit the ground running and already backed several exciting companies since its first close, including Conveo, FlatPeak, Spruce, Luca, and Artificial.

With AI reshaping entire industries, these companies have launched products, achieved product-market-fit, and scaled revenues at an unprecedented speed. Both the founders and 6DC share a deep conviction in the transformative potential of AI and are seizing the opportunity to redefine the verticals in which they operate.

“The 6DC team recognised our potential to disrupt the insurance industry through automation early on and has been by our side ever since, across Seed, Series A, and Series B” said David King, founder of Artificial. “Hands-on, always available, and truly committed, they have been a driving force behind our success”.

Investor Support

The new fund is backed by a diverse base of fund-of-funds, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, family offices, and high-net-worth-individuals across Europe.

“We’re incredibly thankful to our LPs, both returning and new, for their continued trust and commitment, allowing us to close the fund at the hard cap”, said Wouter Volckaert, Managing Partner of 6DC. “As with previous funds, our ambition is to deliver top-decile performance and invest in multiple fund returners per vintage”.

About 6 Degrees Capital

6DC is an early-stage venture capital firm with offices in London and Antwerp. Its eight-person investment team is composed entirely of senior investors (Partner and Principals). Combining experience with diverse backgrounds as founders, operators, and investors, enables the 6DC team to cut through the noise, move fast, and act as a hands-on sparring partner to ambitious founders.

Press contact: Wouter Volckaert at wouter.volckaert@6dc.vc
For more information, please visit: www.6dc.vc

Maxime brings a rare blend of financial expertise, operational know-how, and a deep passion for leveraging automation and technology - exactly the kind of perspective we value as we continue building scalable systems to support our founders.

He joins us after several years as an independent consultant in venture capital and private equity, where he set up and managed technology-driven finance and operational functions for multiple funds and a start-up across industries including biotech, medtech, and quantum. His work has spanned the full breadth of fund operations, giving him a holistic view of the industry.

Maxime began his career in 2013 through AXA’s international management traineeship before moving on to AXA Bank Belgium, where he worked closely with the CFO. In 2019, he launched his consulting career, supporting both funds and start-ups in building the operational and financial foundations they needed to scale.

He holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Ghent, an LL.M. from the University of Hamburg, and an MBA from INSEAD, in addition to being a Chartered Financial Analyst. Having worked across several countries, Maxime brings not only expertise, but also a truly international perspective to his role.

We couldn’t be more excited to have him on board. Welcome, Maxime!

How has the CFO role changed over the years?

The role of the CFO in VC is no longer what it once was. For decades, the job was defined by precision – accurately delivering numbers, closing the books, and crunching the data. Important work for sure, but mostly invisible. The CFO lived in the background.

Today, we see a very different picture. With markets shifting faster than ever, and portfolios spanning geographies and industries, the role of the CFO is being redefined. Firms need more than clean spreadsheets. They need judgement.

CFOs are stepping out of the back office and becoming strategic and financial partners for the firm. They’re not just record-keepers, but decision-makers that help to guide leadership. They help shape strategy, drive change, assess and manage risk, streamline processes, improve efficiencies, manage stakeholder communications, and uncover insights others might overlook. They are translators between data and narrative, between the balance sheet and the big picture. In many ways, they’ve become the firm’s financial partner - close enough to leadership to help steer, not just support.

The rise of AI and automation has accelerated this shift. Reconciliations, reporting, and compliance - once time-consuming and repetitive, are increasingly handled by automation software. AI has made it possible to strip away the noise, freeing up CFOs with the one thing they always lacked: time. Time to focus on higher-order strategic thinking; time to think.

The modern CFO is no longer simply a steward of numbers. They are becoming strategic co-pilot to the firm.

How do you use automation tools in your day-to-day role?

In the past, most of my workday would be consumed by repetitive and time-consuming tasks: reconciling spreadsheets, pulling together investor reports, and digging for portfolio data that never seemed to be where I needed it. Although necessary work, this left little room for strategic thinking.

Now, with the rise of no-code tools, my role has drastically changed. There’s a whole universe of automation platforms at our fingertips - Airtable, Power Automate, n8n, to name a few.

Airtable is one of my most used tools and I use it to automate investor reporting, portfolio monitoring, valuations, ESG and even risk management. I’ve also used it to build internal systems to manage our portfolio in ways that once would have required endless manual updates. I’ve also managed to leverage automation with integrated data systems to streamline a number of workflows.

The effect is considerable - saving valuable hours that previously would vanish into reporting tasks. The investment team also no longer spends their time hunting for information as they have it when they need it.

The real benefit, though, isn’t just efficiency. It’s clarity and scalability. With automation handling the noise, we’re able to see the portfolio more clearly, such as our positions, our exposure, and where our time and capital should really be spent. These automation tools don’t just save time, instead they enable us to make better decisions and to scale.

Where do you see an opportunity for more automation in the industry?

The rise of AI and automation is opening doors everywhere in our industry. At first, most people thought about efficiency gains in the back office - fund reporting, reconciliations, compliance. But the real shift is bigger than that.

It’s starting to change how investors themselves work. Sourcing, once driven by networks and intuition, is becoming increasingly data-driven with many tools from Harmonic to Specter. Outreach, that used to be done manually, is now powered by automated workflows. CRMs have grown ever more sophisticated.

And it’s not just the investors. Startups are adopting automation too - sales teams automating outreach, marketing teams streamlining campaigns, and even drafting documents is getting lighter. Product development is also rapidly evolving - founders can now build and launch MVPs in a fraction of the time it once took.

The pattern is clear: automation isn’t just about saving hours at the margins. It’s about reshaping how both VCs and founders spend their energy, moving the work away from repetitive tasks and towards better decision-making and scalability.

Christina joins us from Lakestar, where she spent the past two years investing in companies from Seed to Series B, with a focus on AI, vertical SaaS, and Deep Tech. She is well-connected across Europe’s AI and enterprise ecosystems - actively angel investing in early-stage startups such as Dot.txt and Haize Labs, and serving as an LP in some early-stage funds.

Prior to this, Christina co-founded CoMind, a Deep Tech startup building non-invasive brain-computer interfaces. She successfully set up and scaled the business from inception to over 30 employees and secured $15 million in funding from leading investors including LocalGlobe, Octopus, and Crane. This hands-on experience as a founder gives her a unique perspective, empathy, and operational insight in her work with startups.

Christina started her career in Finance and M&A roles within the corporate sector where she spent 5 years, before transitioning into the startup ecosystem where she gained early experiences at large European venture firms including Balderton and Northzone. She also holds an ACA, a Masters in Finance from the University of Cambridge, and an undergraduate degree from LSE.

We are very excited to welcome Christina to the 6 Degrees team!

How did you get into the VC industry?

I started out in Finance. Suits, slides, spreadsheets. It was structured, respectable - the kind of path that looked impressive on paper.

But after 5 years, I got restless. I wanted to be closer to the action - around people building new things, shaping the future, and actually having an impact. Startups felt alive - chaotic, creative, forward-looking, and much more aligned to my personal values. But the problem was I didn’t know a single person in the industry.

So I did what you do when you have no connections and a lot of curiosity: I sent cold outreaches to a bunch of people on LinkedIn. Most messages were ignored, but a few weren’t, and those responses changed everything for me. I was lucky to secure an internship at Northzone which was an entry point to the industry. That’s where I got my crash course in venture: how VCs think, what matters to founders, and what makes a company worth betting on. Through this experience, I began to really establish my VC network. So when it came to starting my own company, that investor network turned out to be really useful.

Funny how some cold emails can quietly reroute your entire career path.

What did you learn from being a co-founder?

Being a founder fundamentally changed how I think as an investor. I’d had some experience in VC before starting my own company, but coming back to the investor side after building something from scratch gave me a completely different lens.

Most importantly, it gave me real empathy for founders. Starting a company is brutal. You’re told no more than yes. You’re constantly fighting uphill, against all odds - yet you keep going because something deep inside you refuses to quit. That kind of relentlessness can’t be taught - and honestly, a lot of investors underestimate just how hard the journey really is. They don’t always see the sacrifices being made behind the scenes just to keep the lights on.

It also taught me what actually matters in assessing good companies. It’s easy to get distracted by early metrics or arbitrary milestones. But what really drives success - especially in the early days - is the founding team. Their hunger, relentlessness, and ability to execute. Their ability to not only attract, but retain great talent. Their capacity to solve problems that haven’t even shown up yet. That’s what really moves the needle.

It also completely changed how I think about the value an investor can bring. Founders are the experts - it’s their company, their vision, their baby - and they know best. The most helpful investors open up their networks to make meaningful introductions and serve as a trusted sounding board. But they’re also self-aware. They don’t overestimate how much they can move the needle. They know when to lean in, and just as importantly, when to leave the founders alone and let them get on with building.

Why did you join 6 Degrees Capital?

Having worked across a range of environments, I’ve come to realise that culture is everything - being part of a genuinely fantastic team where I can show up as myself, and one that founders genuinely want to partner with. The 6DC team is extremely collaborative, thoughtful - and it immediately felt like a place where I could bring the full breadth of my experience and shape my own path as an investor.

What I appreciate most about 6DC is their mindset: curious, open-minded, and supportive of independent, contrarian thinking. They focus on backing great businesses and exceptional founders - not chasing the hype. I also love that the fund invests heavily at the Seed stage, which is where my passion lies. It’s where there’s space to form conviction early and spot the real outliers.

The fund is also at a particularly exciting inflection point - nearing a €150M close, with fresh capital to deploy and a strong appetite to back the most ambitious founders.

6DC has given me the freedom to lean into my strengths, trust my instincts, and shape my own path as an investor. It’s a powerful platform with an impressive track record - and one I’m truly proud to be part of.

What do you look for in startups?

What excites me most is backing unique unconventional founders - the ones who see the world differently. They’re relentless. They’re hustlers. They’re not afraid to go against the grain. They’re bold. They’re driven by a deep sense of purpose - sometimes shaped by hardship, sometimes fuelled by something to prove. But always with the ambition to build generational companies that shape the future.

After spending the past few years deeply immersed in AI, I remain incredibly excited by what’s unfolding in the space - whether it’s applied AI reshaping specific industries, or deeper technical breakthroughs further down the stack. I think there’s a real opportunity in niche but large underserved markets, in service-heavy industries, where AI can automate processes and improve margins. While in the deeper layers of the stack, there are opportunities for new architectures and interfaces.

I’m especially drawn to investing at the seed stage, where conviction is raw, and the upside is limitless. I love being involved when the company is still figuring things out, when nothing is certain and everything is possible.

We’re thrilled to have Christina onboard and can’t wait for you - founders, LPs and co-investors - to meet her. You can reach her at Christina.Franz@6dc.vc.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of 6 Degrees Capital, an early-stage VC focused on Fintech & SaaS companies.

The team behind 6 Degrees Capital has been managing funds together for years. We are incredibly excited to build the next great European VC.

Who we are

We are a team of eight. The managing partners have over 20 years of investment experience. Five of us have managed VC funds together for many years at Force Over Mass Capital. And three more people have joined at the start of this new journey, from Antler, Plug and Play and Koyo, bringing a mix of investing and operator experience.

Learn more about the team here.

What companies do we invest in?

Our investment approach is a continuation of what we have been doing successfully throughout our careers:

• Initial checks in Seed and Series A, with follow-on investments in later rounds. We invest when it matters the most!

• Focus on Fintech and SaaS. We love building scalable software companies.

• Europe-first. With offices in London and Antwerp, we have extensive experience investing across the entire European continent. For those verticals we know best, we also love to expand our focus to emerging markets, where we have backed founders across Africa, Asia and LatAm.

What qualities do we look for?

Our ideal investment is easy to define, yet difficult to find. We believe in:

• Disruptive technologies that solve a genuine customer pain.

• Businesses with strong unit economics and the ability to scale.

• Extraordinary entrepreneurs leading the way.

How does our investment process work?

We are very thorough, but we move fast.

If you have a well-organised data room, we can write a term sheet in weeks. We are happy to lead or co-lead.

If we are not a match, we say no quickly and provide honest and direct feedback. If we are a match, we will back you all the way!

You can start your journey with us here.

Why the name 6 Degrees Capital?

You may be familiar with the concept of 6 degrees of separation. You are never more than 6 relationships away from any other human. So much of success in startups comes from meeting the right person: a cofounder, an investor, a customer. It helps to remember that they are never that far away.

Furthermore, the name signifies the importance of direction. At the start of a journey, changing your course by just 6 degrees is a small change, but as you progress, that small change can lead you to a wildly different place. 6 Degrees represents the significance of getting the important things right early on, so you end up where you need to be. The power of compounding.

We back companies at an early stage, leading or co-leading rounds, and we help get those critical initial decisions right. We provide capital and direction.

Follow our journey

We strongly believe in transparency and clear communication.

It is an essential part of how we do business. Therefore, we will be sharing our ideas and research on companies we have invested in, sectors we like and lessons we have learned along the way.

You’ll be able to find all this on our blog (website and Substack).

We hope you’ll follow our journey. If you’d like to be a part of it, please contact us here.