Unconventional Ventures Adds Investinor and Wire Group to Fund II Second Close, Doubling Down on Nordic Overlooked Founders
TL;DR
Unconventional Ventures, the Danish Nordic impact VC co-founded by Nora Bavey (Swedish) and Thea Messel (Norwegian), has announced a second close on its €80M Fund II, adding Norwegian government investor Investinor and Dutch impact firm Wire Group as new LPs. The vehicle targets pre-seed and seed companies across climate, health, femtech, education and financial inclusion, with an explicit mandate to back women and founders of color — categories that have historically captured a rounding error of European VC dollars. That LPs are writing checks into a diversity-led impact thesis during one of Europe's coldest fundraising cycles since 2020 is the real story.
Key Takeaways
Sovereign LPs are still choosing impact managers with conviction theses. Investinor re-upping from Fund I signals that Nordic state capital believes the underrepresented-founder thesis is investable at scale, not just signaling. That's a meaningful data point for any emerging impact GP trying to unlock government balance sheets right now.
Wire Group joining is a tell on LP consolidation around specialist impact platforms. European LPs are narrowing their impact exposure to a shrinking list of managers with hard measurement frameworks. Unconventional making that list at Fund II is a competitive moat in itself.
The thesis arbitrage is still wide open. All-women founding teams captured roughly 1 to 2 percent of European venture funding last year. Founders of color tracked below half a percent. If a fraction of that gap reflects mispriced talent instead of pipeline, the alpha is large and uncrowded.
A second close in 2026 is a harder flex than a first close. European emerging-manager Fund IIs have been stalling at first close for 18 months. Adding named institutional LPs after the first close proves the GP can keep a fundraise moving through a hostile cycle, which is a track record in its own right.
Fund Overview
Fund Name: Unconventional Ventures Fund II
Fund Size: €80M target (€50M first close in November 2025; second close just announced)
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Check Size: Not disclosed for Fund II; Fund I wrote first checks into Nordic impact founders
Geography: Nordics and broader Europe
Focus: Diverse founders building impact tech across climate, health and femtech, education, and financial inclusion
Key LPs: Investinor (Norway), Wire Group (Netherlands), Merete Lundbye Møller, and a community of returning family offices
Why This Fund Matters
European impact fundraising has bifurcated violently over the past 18 months. The largest generalist climate platforms keep scaling on the back of sovereign anchors and strategic LPs. Below them, hundreds of thesis-driven emerging managers are being quietly passed over, often at the exact stage where their alpha is highest. Unconventional closing a second tranche into that backdrop is notable less for the headline size and more for the LP composition. Returning sovereign capital plus a specialist impact LP plus individual contributors is the exact ladder most Fund IIs need to climb, and few are managing it right now.
The firm's wedge — backing founders the European VC industry has systematically underweighted — is also one of the few impact theses that can defend itself on pure returns math. If the pool of overlooked founders is as large as the capital allocation gap suggests, the market inefficiency is structural, not sentimental. Unconventional's Fund I portfolio, which includes Climate X in climate fintech, Scifree in Swedish edtech, Cellugy in Danish biotech, and The Blue Box in femtech, already points to categories where the thesis has produced real traction.
Timing also matters. Nordic LPs are about to re-underwrite their impact books as the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation tightens what counts as Article 9. Funds with documented diversity metrics and measurable impact KPIs will be disproportionately favored, and Unconventional has been building that reporting infrastructure from day one.
Finally, the Nordic region itself is quietly becoming one of Europe's more attractive seed-stage geographies. Lower valuations than London or Paris, strong technical talent coming out of Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen, and earlier-stage cap tables that still leave room for a seed lead to earn outsized ownership. A Nordic-anchored, pan-European impact seed fund is a structurally sensible product for this moment.
The Team
Nora Bavey and Thea Messel co-founded Unconventional Ventures as a purpose-built vehicle for underrepresented founders in the Nordics, well before the topic became a fashionable LP narrative. Both have been visible operators across the Nordic ecosystem, building the firm's data-driven approach to pipeline — the team has published annual research on underrepresented founders in the Nordics that has become a reference point for the region's LPs and policymakers. That operational credibility, combined with disciplined fund sizing and a tight portfolio construction, is what has kept institutional LPs engaged into Fund II. The firm is Danish-domiciled, with the GP team operating across the Nordics.
Early Portfolio
Fund I's investments include Climate X, a UK-based climate risk analytics company; Scifree, a Swedish edtech platform; Cellugy, a Danish biomaterials startup; and The Blue Box, a femtech company focused on women's health diagnostics. The portfolio reflects the fund's willingness to back technical founders outside typical European seed patterns.
What This Means for Founders
If you're a Nordic-based underrepresented founder at pre-seed or seed with an impact-aligned thesis in climate, health, femtech, education or financial inclusion, Unconventional is one of the few funds in Europe purpose-built to lead your first institutional round. Their operating value-add is strongest around pipeline building, community access to other diverse founders and LPs, and positioning you for follow-on rounds with larger pan-European seed funds that need diligence comfort on impact KPIs.
If you sit outside the focus areas but close — adjacent fintech, B2B SaaS with a meaningful social dimension, circular economy infrastructure — it's still worth pitching. The team is known for being thesis-driven but not dogmatic, and they'll tell you quickly if your deal isn't a fit.
Fund Momentum Take
We like this raise more than the headline number suggests. In a market where plenty of bigger-name European Fund IIs are quietly getting cut or folded into continuation vehicles, Unconventional keeping a second close on track with named sovereign and institutional LPs is a credibility signal that compounds. The diversity thesis remains underpriced in European VC, and Unconventional is one of maybe three or four European managers that can credibly claim to have been executing on it through a full cycle.
The risks are real, though. €80M across pre-seed and seed is small enough that a handful of bad vintages could consume the fund, and European seed exits have been painfully slow over the past 24 months. The LP base is also impact-aligned, which is a feature on the way up and a constraint if performance requires harder portfolio decisions. Unconventional's discipline on portfolio construction — smaller first checks, tight reserve math — mitigates some of that, but this is a fund that needs to return capital to prove the thesis, not just deploy it.
Our bet: this is the kind of European seed manager that compounds reputationally over the next three years. If Fund II delivers even a mid-tier DPI by 2029, Unconventional graduates from a diversity impact story to a core European seed allocation for sovereign LPs, and Fund III looks very different in size and shape.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much has Unconventional Ventures raised for Fund II?
The fund is targeting €80M with a €50M first close reached in November 2025. The second close just announced brings in additional institutional LPs, with the firm continuing toward the €80M target.
Who are the GPs behind Unconventional Ventures?
Nora Bavey and Thea Messel co-founded the firm and serve as its general partners. Nora Bavey is Swedish and Thea Messel is Norwegian; the firm itself is Danish-domiciled. Both co-founders focus on underrepresented founders across the Nordics and Europe.
What stage does Unconventional Ventures invest at?
Pre-seed and seed. The fund leads or co-leads first institutional rounds in diverse founder teams building impact-aligned technology companies.
Who are the LPs in Fund II?
Disclosed LPs include Norwegian government-backed investor Investinor (returning from Fund I), Netherlands-based impact firm Wire Group (new to Fund II), individual investor Merete Lundbye Møller, and a broader community of family offices.
How does Unconventional Ventures define "diverse founders"?
The fund's thesis centers on women founders, founders of color, and founders from other groups historically underrepresented in European VC funding data. The firm has published recurring research on this pipeline in the Nordic region.
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