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Lumen Partners:
Europe’s innovation ecosystem has catapulted in the past two years.
Promising heavyweights such as Mistral, Lovable, and ElevenLabs have made a name for themselves transatlantically. Now, Lumen Partners wants to strengthen a pipeline for more cross-border capital to cultivate the continent’s next tech darlings.
Launched in 2025, Lumen Partners is a female founded fund of funds that seeks to make European tech and talent more visible on the map.
“We don’t really focus on track record,” Ning Kong, founder at Lumen Partners, told European Women in VC in an interview. “Track records aren’t black and white,” she added.
Investment thesis
The firm is looking to back funds in tech and life sciences, with a focus on the pre-seed to Series A stage. In the life sciences sector, however, it’s willing to back up to Series B.
“Our ticket sizes range from one to three million, and we’re looking to invest in up to 25 fund managers,” Kong said.
Europe has a world-class foundation in life sciences research. Four of the world’s ten biggest pharma giants, Roche, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Sanofi - are headquartered in the continent. It creates a potent pipeline for innovation and talent.
Ning pointed to Europe’s leading universities as another optimistic factor. “We see a lot of founders come out of these universities, who then go to the US,” she noted.
With the growth of the tech ecosystem, there’s been a significant flywheel effect on the continent over the past few years. The likes of Klarna, Revolut, Spotify, and Deliveroo, among others, have become fertile grounds for nourishing the next generation of European entrepreneurs and it’s making the ecosystem even more attractive to investors, Ning added.
Lumen Partners looks for this enterprising spirit in its fund managers when assessing whether to invest in a fund.
“We examine how well managers can run the fund like a company. For us, the fund is like a company, so there are multiple elements. When we are carrying out our DD, we are assessing four elements: the manager, the team, the operational platform and exist strategy. For us, deal-sourcing is much more important than the track record,” she said. “On the operational side, how they run the fund is also important, and how they operate. What is their strategy for exits?”
Having a background as an operator is a boon, Ning said, as it highlights whether a manager is able to have a clear vision to execute their exit strategy.
“Show your LPs who you really are, what makes you different, and how your unique background, past experiences and network give you an edge in attracting and sourcing great startups,” she added.
Bridging the continents
Backing promising managers is merely one step in Lumen’s larger ambition of refining Europe’s venture ecosystem, so it can catch up to its counterparts.
“The European VC market is very attractive, and it is quite different from the US market. In the US, it is relatively easy to find information on fund managers’ past performance, and there are many large, established fund managers,” Ning said. “However, this is not necessarily the case in Europe. There are many relatively small European fund managers with extremely strong performance, but people outside Europe may never have heard of them.”
Still, this doesn’t hamper “demand for investment in European VC” -especially from “family offices looking to diversify and balance their portfolios.”
Historically, the European market has been more opaque compared to the US. But the continent’s venture players tout much potential, Ning highlighted. “For example, players like Seedcamp have performed very well.”
“That’s why we set up our fund of funds. We see ourselves as this bridge, and a partner -a beacon of light to help our investor to navigate the European VC market - which is why we chose the name Lumen.”
While Ning emphasised the importance of fund managers in the continent’s success, she also notes: “the fund managers really need to remember that startups can survive without funds, but not vice versa.”
Ning Kong is a founding partner at Lumen Partners. She previously spent a decade at the European Investment Fund, European Investment Bank and EY.
Lumen Partners is a fund of funds that aims to back emerging fund managers in Europe’s tech and life sciences ecosystem.