FundraiseOct 1, 2026, 05:42 UTC

Dig Ventures raises $120M for European AI infrastructure startups

What's the deal? European venture firm Dig Ventures has raised US$77.6M third fund to back early-stage startups building the infrastructure underpinning AI. The firm plans to invest in around 30 European companies at the pre-seed and seed stages.

What's the endgame? Fund III targets the foundational layer of AI — the tools, systems, and infrastructure that newer applications depend on. Dig Ventures is concentrating on Europe's earliest-stage founders.

The signal: A dedicated $120 million fund aimed at AI infrastructure signals investor conviction that Europe can produce startups at the base of the AI stack, not just at the application layer.

The team: Dig Ventures is led by founding partner Ross Mason, who built MuleSoft before its $6.5 billion acquisition by Salesforce in 2018, general partner Melissa Klinger, an early MuleSoft commercial hire, and general partner Rytis Vitkauskas, a former Lightspeed Venture Partners investor and founder of YPlan.

The backers: Fund III's institutional LPs include Horsley Bridge Partners, Sofina, and Granite, alongside a US university endowment, plus founder-LPs including Datadog's Olivier Pomel, Slack's Cal Henderson, GitHub's Thomas Dohmke, Nord Security's Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas, and Dash0's Mirko Novakovic.

The track record: Dig Ventures' institutional debut, Fund II, backed Dash0 — now a unicorn following US$71.2M Series B — Taktile (US$71.2M Series C led by Goldman Sachs), CUBE, Jack & Jill, and Nexos.ai. The firm has already recorded three exits: Flock (acquired by Admiral), Tower (acquired by MotherDuck), and Cofide (acquired by Keyfactor).

The strategy: Dig Ventures plans to write $1 million-to-$5 million checks across Europe and Israel, aims to lead most of the rounds it joins, and will use Fund III to help portfolio companies expand into the US market.

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