Andre de Haes: 28 yr old VC with Pan European dreams

He is 28 years old and has one of the most impressive CV in the world. It just leaves you wondering what more can be in there- Oxford, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, The Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, Andreessen Horowitz, and Index Ventures. Looks unreal for a moment.

But that’s not all. There’s a latest addition, a €30 million (£23.6 million) startup fund- "Backed VC"thatAndre de Haes launched on Thursday with school friend and fellow Oxford graduate Alex Brunicki.

The fund, which has been quietly run out of London's Clerkenwell neighbourhood over the last six months, is making investments of between €500,000 (£394,000) and €1 million (£788,000) on average, although there is scope to invest from as little as €200,000 (£157,000) right up to €2 million (£1.6 million).

Around one investment is being made each month through this VC fund.

Backed VC has ‘pan-European’ plans of investment that can provide a more scalable offering, according to de Haes, adding that he wants Backed VC to do for Europe what Andreessen did for the US. The fund is only interested in companies that have global ambitions, "We don't want to back regional winners and definitely not national winners," he said.

De Haes and Brunicki believe that being young is their USP and claim that unlike some other VCs, they're "culturally connected" to the entrepreneurs in their "clan" and "ingrained in the networks through which they build their teams." The duo would also be sharing profits with anyone who refers them to a company that they end up investing in (and profiting from).

Though Europe is yet to produce a tech company worth $100 billion (£70 billion), De Haes thinks it won't be too long before this changes. "Within the next five years, I think there will be a business founded in Europe that will become a $100 billion business," said de Haes. "In the next decade we'll have a $100 billion business built out of Europe."

De Haes said startups are starting to grow rapidly across Europe because there's a management layer of talent coming out of businesses that have already been built. "There is seed-level expertise available now," he said, pointing to TransferWise, Criteo, and Supercell.

Over the last six months, Backed VC has invested in 10 companies across four cities: London, Paris, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Those companies include music video streaming service Boiler Room, 3D printing startup Unmade, and AI music composing startup Jukedeck.