With AI reshaping how businesses reach customers, traditional approaches like cold outreach have lost much of their effectiveness, and many early startups struggle to find deeply experienced operators who understand how to build and scale in this new environment.
Baobab Ventures, a $15 million solo GP fund launched by Carles Reina, steps in to fill this gap. It focuses on backing very early-stage companies with global ambitions operating in AI, robotics, and defence.
Reina comments: “Building startups has dramatically changed in the last few years. Sales cycles are faster, there are hundreds of competitors within months, and AI has killed cold outreach conversion rates. Founders need to move incredibly quickly while building a sales and growth motion fit for the AI age. To do that, they need operators on their cap table who can draw on relevant frontline experience from the AI era and who are hands-on with their help. This AI-informed operator experience is a clear gap in the European landscape, and it’s one I believe Baobab can fill.”
The fund was oversubscribed and closed in a single round, attracting support from major global LPs including Cendana Capital, Isomer Capital, RSJ Investments, Emergence Ventures and Cyber Fund.
Alongside institutional backers, the fund also includes partners at Concept Ventures and Credo Ventures, family offices such as Lucca & Stella Norton’s, and individual investors including professional footballer Mario Götze, media entrepreneur Carles Cuní, and deep-tech investor Dr Fatima Godall.
Backing founders at the very start
Carles Reina has backed over 70 companies, including ElevenLabs, Revolut, Vsim, Happyrobot, Strawberry Browser, Praktika AI, Praxipal and Theker Robotics, where he was the inaugural investor and an early team member. With Baobab Ventures, he aims to enable founders to outpace their competitors by combining capital with hands-on, frontline guidance tailored for the AI-driven era.
Baobab Ventures plans to make average cheques of $300K–$350K into very early founders. The fund’s core philosophy is simple: help teams build momentum faster than the market around them.
Reina told TFN, “I keep an open mind to sectors, use cases and technologies. I particularly focus on specific theses of how I see the world evolving in the coming years; this tends to result in unsexy use cases or verticals that other VCs aren’t paying attention to.”
Competitors include venture funds such as Concept Ventures and Credo Ventures, as well as accelerator programs such as Y Combinator and Techstars. However, Baobab’s solo GP model, rooted in extensive operator expertise and laser focus on nascent tech sectors, is uniquely positioned to address the nuanced challenges founders face today.
Rather than just writing checks, Carles works closely with founders on market strategy, hiring, operations, and sales execution.
What about a diversity strategy?
On diversity, Reina explained to TFN, “I’m a huge believer that talent takes many forms. One of the best things about angel investing is how broad-ranging you can be in the founders you back and how diverse the startups you meet with are. I want to bring that mentality into Baobab Ventures.
We will back founders based anywhere in Europe, as well as those in the US and further afield. And I want to build a portfolio that reflects both diversity of background and diversity of thought. From my experience, the most exciting founders don’t fit a mould, so retaining that mentality is very much part of the thesis going forward. “
What’s next?
Baobab Ventures aims to deploy its fund evenly between Europe and global markets, including the US. The fund has already begun investing. Early pre-seed deals include Theker(robotics), Altan AI (collective AGI platform), Murphy (debt-collection tech), and three additional stealth-mode companies. Baobab is launching with a positive MOIC, signalling early traction.
Reina concluded, “All of these companies had global ambitions from day one and are building to scale. They are also very technical founders who build products themselves while spending time directly with their customers or potential customers. That’s the kind of founder I want to back; someone with a bold vision that has global expansion in their sights from the very beginning, yet is technically driven. “
