Borski Fund
ActiveVenture Capital
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Leadership Team
Key people at Borski Fund.
Key people at Borski Fund.
Key people at Borski Fund.
# Borski Fund: Bridging the Gender Gap in European Venture Capital
Borski Fund is a venture capital firm headquartered in Amsterdam that operates with a distinctive mission: to address the investment diversity gap by channeling capital toward companies with gender-diverse teams, with particular emphasis on supporting female entrepreneurs[1][2]. The fund targets seed and early-stage investments across Europe, focusing on sectors including fintech, software, artificial intelligence, and digital health[1]. With a target fund size of $50 million, Borski combines financial investment with strategic mentorship, leveraging its partners' extensive networks and operational expertise to accelerate portfolio company growth[5].
What sets Borski apart from traditional venture capital is its conviction that the gender funding disparity—where over 90% of VC money flows to all-male management teams despite evidence that female entrepreneurs often deliver superior returns—represents both a market inefficiency and a social imperative[2]. The fund's investment philosophy transcends pure financial returns; it explicitly aims to improve access to financing for female entrepreneurs contributing to a better world while simultaneously capturing the alpha that comes from backing underestimated talent.
Borski Fund was founded by Simone Brummelhuis, a seasoned operator with deep roots in both entrepreneurship and venture capital[5]. Brummelhuis brings credibility forged through multiple exits and board positions: she co-founded IENS, which was acquired by Tripadvisor (a US-listed company), and has served on supervisory boards at prominent organizations including TMG, Schiphol, and Xs4all[2]. Her co-partner, Laura Rooseboom, brings over 20 years of venture capital experience with a track record in sustainability, food, energy, and clean-tech sectors, having previously managed funds at DOEN Participations and currently co-founding One Planet Crowd and StartGreen Capital[5].
The fund's namesake, Johanna Borski, provides historical inspiration and legitimacy to the mission. Johanna was a pioneering female investor in 19th-century Netherlands who accumulated wealth by acquiring nearly half the shares of De Nederlandsche Bank in 1814, then deployed those profits to rescue the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij from bankruptcy in 1840[2]. By naming the fund after her, the founders explicitly connect contemporary efforts to close the funding gap with a historical precedent of female capital deployment for systemic good—a powerful narrative that grounds the fund's work in proven success rather than idealism alone.
Unlike generalist venture funds that may claim diversity as a secondary consideration, Borski makes gender diversity a primary investment criterion: the fund only invests in companies with gender-diverse teams[4]. This is not a nice-to-have but a hard requirement, which simultaneously narrows the addressable market and ensures portfolio alignment with the fund's core conviction.
Borski's value proposition extends well beyond check-writing. The fund combines market knowledge, an expansive network, strong entrepreneurial track records, and investment experience to remain actively involved post-investment[2]. This hands-on approach—rooted in the partners' own operating experience—differentiates Borski from passive capital providers and positions it as a true operating partner for founders navigating scaling challenges.
While maintaining flexibility across sectors (tech-agnostic positioning), Borski gravitates toward companies addressing meaningful problems, particularly those aligned with sustainability and social impact[5]. This allows the fund to capture opportunities across verticals while maintaining a coherent thesis around founders solving real-world problems.
Borski is deeply embedded in the Dutch and broader European startup ecosystem, actively contributing to entrepreneurial talent development and innovation[1]. The fund's participation in initiatives like Beyond the Billion—a global consortium pledged to invest over $1 billion collectively into women-founded technology companies—amplifies its reach and signal-sending power beyond its own capital base.
Borski operates at the intersection of three powerful trends reshaping venture capital: the growing recognition of the gender funding gap as a market inefficiency, the rise of impact-driven investing, and the maturation of European tech ecosystems as genuine alternatives to Silicon Valley.
The fund's existence signals a market correction. Research increasingly demonstrates that female-founded companies generate superior returns on invested capital, yet continue to receive a disproportionately small share of funding[2]. Borski's model—treating diversity not as corporate social responsibility but as a return-optimization strategy—reframes the conversation from charity to capitalism. This positioning matters because it attracts LPs motivated by both financial returns and impact, expanding the addressable capital base.
Geographically, Borski benefits from Amsterdam's emergence as a genuine European tech hub with strong infrastructure, regulatory clarity, and access to talent. By anchoring in the Netherlands while maintaining a Europe-wide investment mandate, the fund captures deal flow from a region historically underfunded relative to its innovation potential, while avoiding the saturated, expensive markets of coastal US cities.
The fund also participates in a broader ecosystem shift toward founder-friendly, operator-led venture capital. As the venture industry matures and returns compress, differentiation increasingly comes from genuine operational support rather than brand or network alone. Borski's partners—particularly Brummelhuis's track record of successful exits and board positions—position the fund as credible in this regard.
Borski Fund represents a compelling thesis: that the venture capital market has systematically mispriced female-founded and female-led companies, creating an arbitrage opportunity for disciplined investors willing to do the work. The fund's $50 million target size is modest by global standards but appropriate for a focused, thesis-driven vehicle operating in a specific geography and demographic segment.
Looking forward, Borski's trajectory will likely be shaped by three factors. First, the fund's ability to generate outsized returns will validate its investment thesis and attract follow-on capital—success here would be the most powerful argument for the model's replicability. Second, the broader venture industry's continued reckoning with diversity and inclusion will either accelerate capital flows toward funds like Borski or risk commoditizing the approach as larger, generalist firms co-opt the messaging. Third, European tech's continued maturation and the potential for regulatory tailwinds around ESG-aligned investing could create structural advantages for impact-focused vehicles.
The fund's influence on the broader ecosystem extends beyond its own portfolio. By demonstrating that gender diversity can be a primary investment criterion rather than a secondary consideration, Borski challenges the venture industry's default assumptions and creates proof points for alternative models. In a landscape where capital allocation shapes which founders get heard, which problems get solved, and which regions develop thriving innovation ecosystems, Borski's work—grounded in both financial rigor and historical precedent—matters.
