How one venture firm is investing in an increasingly fragmented world
How one venture firm is investing in an increasingly fragmented world
一家风投公司如何在一个日益碎片化的世界中进行投资
The world today is riven by cultural differences, political divisions, and geopolitical disputes — a challenging environment for any investor hunting for startups that can grow large enough to deliver venture-scale returns. Kompas VC, which operates out of offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Tel Aviv, has developed a regionally sensitive strategy to help it navigate, and invest in, this fragmented world. And it’s putting fresh capital towards this approach with a new €160 million fund ($187.5 million), the firm told TechCrunch.
当今世界深受文化差异、政治分歧和地缘政治争端的撕裂——对于任何寻找能够成长到足以实现风投规模回报的初创企业的投资者来说，这都是一个充满挑战的环境。Kompas VC 在阿姆斯特丹、哥本哈根、柏林和特拉维夫设有办事处，该公司制定了一项具有区域敏感性的战略，以帮助其驾驭并投资于这个碎片化的世界。该公司告诉 TechCrunch，他们正通过一只规模为 1.6 亿欧元（约合 1.875 亿美元）的新基金，为这一战略注入新的资本。
“We see the world really falling into three main spheres of economic activity, of political activity — the U.S., Europe, and China,” Sebastian Peck, partner at Kompas VC, told TechCrunch. “We certainly see today that these three domains follow very, very different trajectories.”
“我们看到世界实际上正陷入三个主要的经济和政治活动领域——美国、欧洲和中国，”Kompas VC 合伙人 Sebastian Peck 告诉 TechCrunch。“我们当然可以看到，今天这三个领域正遵循着非常、非常不同的轨迹。”
Kompas has staked its reputation on backing startups that tackle core industrial competitiveness challenges, from manufacturing and supply chains to critical infrastructure and sustainability. Those themes haven’t disappeared, but different regions emphasize them to varying degrees.
Kompas 将其声誉押注在支持那些解决核心工业竞争力挑战的初创企业上，涵盖从制造业、供应链到关键基础设施和可持续发展等领域。这些主题并未消失，但不同地区对它们的重视程度各不相同。
“There was a lot of enthusiasm around these themes back in 2021,” Peck said of the year that Kompas was founded. “In 2026, we’re in a very, very different paradigm. It’s all about AI, it’s all about fast growth, very explosive growth. A lot of big topics that we partially play to but also are not really part of what we stand for.”
“在 2021 年，人们对这些主题充满热情，”Peck 在谈到 Kompas 成立的那一年时说。“到了 2026 年，我们处于一个非常、非常不同的范式中。现在一切都围绕着人工智能，一切都围绕着快速增长，甚至是爆炸式增长。很多热门话题我们虽然部分参与，但它们并不真正属于我们的核心理念。”
“Our focus is in the physical world, anything around producing physical goods,” he added, saying that Kompas focuses on startups working on decarbonization, productivity, and risk management. “We’ve found our niche.”
“我们的重点在于物理世界，即任何与生产实物商品相关的事物，”他补充道，并表示 Kompas 专注于从事脱碳、生产力和风险管理工作的初创企业。“我们已经找到了自己的利基市场。”
That niche turns out to be pretty broad. Reshoring is en vogue in nearly every market, and depending on the startup, those markets typically have more than enough scale for a firm like Kompas.
事实证明，这个利基市场相当广阔。制造业回流在几乎每个市场都很流行，根据初创企业的不同，这些市场对于像 Kompas 这样的公司来说，通常拥有足够大的规模。
Though dwarfed by some venture funds these days, Kompas’s newly raised second fund should give it ample opportunity to lead early stage rounds with checks ranging from €3 million to €5 million. As a European fund, Kompas has access to a range of founders and startups in the region. But it must weigh how global fragmentation might limit the potential for some to deliver venture returns.
尽管与当今的一些风投基金相比规模较小，但 Kompas 新募集的第二只基金应能为其提供充足的机会，以 300 万至 500 万欧元的投资额领投早期融资轮次。作为一家欧洲基金，Kompas 可以接触到该地区的各类创始人和初创企业。但它必须权衡全球碎片化如何可能限制某些项目实现风投回报的潜力。
Peck cites prefab housing as an example. The approach is widely used in Scandinavian countries, but it isn’t as common in Germany or the rest of Europe, let alone the United States. “It feels like such an intuitive solution. It’s a product that is effectively an industrial product. It should be highly scalable,” he said. Ultimately, the reason it doesn’t resonate outside Scandinavia has more to do with “cultural conditioning” than the technology itself, he said. “In that industry, if the U.S. isn’t the market you can go to, you need to look very, very carefully at whether there’s a large enough addressable market.”
Peck 以预制房屋为例。这种方法在斯堪的纳维亚国家被广泛使用，但在德国或欧洲其他地区并不常见，更不用说美国了。“这感觉是一个非常直观的解决方案。它实际上是一种工业产品，应该具有很高的可扩展性，”他说。他表示，归根结底，它在斯堪的纳维亚以外地区无法引起共鸣的原因，更多地与“文化习俗”有关，而非技术本身。“在那个行业，如果美国不是你可以进入的市场，你需要非常、非常仔细地审视是否存在足够大的可寻址市场。”
The fragmentation extends beyond housing. For example, in Europe, sustainability is still broadly attractive, in contrast to the U.S., where the theme doesn’t have the cachet it did several years ago. Still, a lot can change quickly, Peck acknowledges. “We are investing over 10-, 15-year horizons. That’s a few legislative periods to bridge, and sometimes things swing in unexpected directions.”
碎片化不仅限于住房领域。例如，在欧洲，可持续发展仍然具有广泛的吸引力，这与美国形成了鲜明对比，在美国，这一主题已不再像几年前那样具有号召力。不过，Peck 也承认，很多事情可能会迅速改变。“我们的投资周期是 10 到 15 年。这跨越了几个立法周期，有时事情会朝着意想不到的方向发展。”
The shifting landscape poses a challenge, but also an opportunity for a smaller investor like Kompas. “I think there’s a great space for highly focused, highly specialized, smaller funds like ours to be the first check-in and bring sweep up certain themes and certain founders,” Peck said.
不断变化的格局对像 Kompas 这样的小型投资者来说既是挑战，也是机遇。“我认为，像我们这样高度专注、高度专业化的小型基金，在作为首轮投资人并挖掘特定主题和特定创始人方面，有着巨大的空间，”Peck 说。