Herbert Ventures Launches €32.5M Zurich DeepTech Fund With No Follow-On Reserves

TL;DR: Zurich-based Herbert Ventures has launched a €32.5M (CHF 30M) Pre-Seed and Seed fund targeting DACH and pan-European DeepTech founders, with a radical twist: no follow-on reserves. Founders Ben Simon (ex-VAY, Forbes 30 Under 30) and Luis Huber (ex-QBIT Capital) are betting on a single-shot funding model to eliminate sunk-cost bias, an 8% hurdle rate for LPs, and about 30 concentrated bets. First portfolio company: DroidRun, a German Pre-Seed building an MCP orchestration layer for AI agents in mobile apps.

Key Takeaways

• Fund Size: €32.5M (CHF 30M), structured as a Luxembourg SCSP via HS Capital AG
• Stage: Pre-Seed and Seed, roughly 30 investments planned
• Geography: DACH core, Europe-wide mandate
• Sector: DeepTech and technical founder teams
• Unique angle: No follow-on reserves, single-shot funding model
• LP terms: 8% hurdle rate before carry kicks in
• First check: DroidRun (mobile AI agent MCP orchestration)

Fund Overview

Herbert Ventures announced the first close of its debut fund on April 9, 2026, making it one of the freshest independent Pre-Seed vehicles in the Swiss and broader DACH ecosystem. At €32.5M, the fund is concentrated by design: instead of spraying capital across hundreds of tickets, Herbert plans to back roughly 30 founder teams with meaningful ownership from day one.

The fund is domiciled in Luxembourg as an SCSP and managed out of Zurich via HS Capital AG. Unusually for a first-time European micro-VC, it targets both Pre-Seed and Seed, with a DeepTech and technical-founder bias rather than the usual generalist consumer/SaaS playbook.

Why This Fund Matters

The headline innovation is what Herbert is not doing: the fund holds no follow-on reserves. In practice, that means every check is a one-shot commitment. Herbert bets, then steps aside so later-stage specialists can lead follow-ons without signaling risk or pro-rata politics.

The logic is behavioral: follow-on reserves create sunk-cost bias. GPs double down on struggling portfolio companies to protect optics, not returns. By removing reserves entirely, Herbert forces each first check to stand on its own merits. Combined with an 8% hurdle rate, the structure is unusually LP-friendly for a first-time manager and signals confidence in the underwriting.

This is contrarian in 2026, where most European Pre-Seed funds are stacking reserves at 50 to 70 percent of fund size to defend positions through longer private cycles. Herbert is making the opposite bet.

The Team

Ben Simon is co-founder and GP. He was previously co-founder and COO of VAY, an ETH Zurich spin-off in computer vision for fitness and movement analysis that was acquired by BowFlex Inc. Simon was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Tech Europe list for his work at VAY. He brings operator credibility and a technical network through ETH.

Luis Huber is co-founder and GP. He was previously a Senior Partner at QBIT Capital, a Swiss university spin-off fund, where he built direct experience backing technical founders out of research institutions. Huber owns the LP relationships and fund operations side.

Early Portfolio

Herbert's first disclosed investment is DroidRun, a German Pre-Seed building an MCP (Model Context Protocol) orchestration layer for AI agents operating inside mobile applications. DroidRun sits at a timely intersection, mobile agentic AI, and is exactly the kind of technical, infrastructure-layer bet the fund's thesis is designed for.

What This Means for Founders

If you are raising Pre-Seed or Seed in DACH, Herbert Ventures is an active, writing-checks LP right now. A few practical implications:

• Expect clean cap table mechanics. No reserves means no pro-rata drama at your Series A. Later leads will appreciate it.
• Expect concentration. With roughly 30 slots across a several-year deployment, the bar is high. Herbert will go deep on diligence.
• Lean technical. The fund explicitly targets founder teams with DeepTech or research-lab DNA. Consumer-only pitches are a poor fit.
• Europe-wide access. Zurich HQ, but the mandate is pan-European, with the strongest deal-flow muscle in the DACH region.

Fund Momentum Take

The no-reserves model is intellectually honest and structurally elegant, but it is also a big LP-persuasion lift for fund II. If a portfolio company breaks out and Herbert cannot follow its winners, Fund I's TVPI will depend entirely on initial ownership and dilution discipline. That is a tough spot when markups come but recycled cash does not. We expect Herbert will need to work hard on secondary strategies or warrant coverage in Fund II to capture more upside.

The 8% hurdle is genuinely differentiated and signals that Simon and Huber are underwriting to outperform, not just collect management fees. Combined with a tight 30-deal portfolio, this is a high-conviction, high-ownership play. We like it.

The risk for founders is binary selection: Herbert will either love your company or pass hard. There is no "we'll do a small check and see." If you get the yes, you get meaningful ownership and zero politics downstream. That is rare in 2026.

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