Additional €5 million from Invest-NL in Rubio Fund III

Invest-NL just made its first investment from their new Diverse Manager Programme, and we are happy to announce this investment is going to Rubio Fund III. An additional €5 million to back our fund where diversity isn’t a talking point, but built into our DNA. ❤️ 

This commitment is a top-up to Invest-NL’s initial investment in the first close of our Fund III last November, bringing our current commitments to €98 million. 

The Diverse Manager Programme is a €50 million initiative to bring more diversity into VC fund management. Not just gender, but also cultural and ethnic diversity. Because different perspectives lead to better decisions and better returns. 

And the data shows why this is needed. In the Netherlands, 38% of entrepreneurs are women, yet they receive just 13.7% of business financing. Zoom out to Europe and all-women founding teams still receive only 2% of venture capital, while more than 80% goes to all-male teams. Only 15% of VC decision-makers are women. 

At Rubio, diversity is who we are. Female founded, majority female GPs, 31% of our portfolio companies have a female founder, and 50% of portfolio leadership is held by women. Not because we set quotas, but because this is what good investing looks like. Companies led by women generate 2.5x more revenue per euro invested and are more often above-average profitable. 

There are enough reports describing the problem. This investment is about changing it.