The rise of “operator VCs” former startup founders turning to venture capital has long been a trend in the U.S., but it’s now gaining traction in Europe. While most European VCs traditionally come from finance or banking, recent shifts have introduced a new wave of founder-led funds. Examples include Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus, Glovo’s Oscar Pierre (Yellow Fund), and Pitch’s Christian Reber. Now, DIG Ventures, led by MuleSoft founder Ross Mason, is adding to that movement with its newly closed $100 million institutional fund.
After selling MuleSoft to Salesforce in 2018 for $6.5 billion, Mason launched DIG Ventures first as a family office, later transitioning it into a venture capital firm alongside co-founder Melissa Klinger, previously the U.K. sales head at MuleSoft. The new fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in B2B SaaS, AI, and cloud infrastructure — mainly across Europe, but also in Israel and the U.S.
Backers include The Hillman Company, Granite Capital, Sofina, Grove Street, Datadog founder Olivier Pomel, and several former MuleSoft execs. DIG sets itself apart by offering operator-level support in areas like go-to-market strategy, sales execution, and scaling technical products. Its team includes Rytis Vitkauskas (founder of YPlan), and Scott Grimes (co-founder of Stackin’ and Uproxx).
DIG’s portfolio already includes companies like People.ai, Karat, ComplyAdvantage, and PlanetScale. Recent investments from this new fund include observability startup Dash0, AI orchestration platform Nexos.ai, and enterprise integration tool PolyAPI.
Mason sees the next wave of innovation in enterprises building their own AI systems rather than relying solely on cloud-based LLMs. “There’s a huge opportunity to help them build secure, private solutions with open-source foundations,” he said. Klinger added that Europe is uniquely positioned in the AI race, boasting world-class talent at lower costs, though many startups still struggle to secure the funding they need.
As Europe’s early-stage scene heats up, and with geopolitical shifts reshaping global markets, operator-led funds like DIG Ventures could become central players in the continent’s venture landscape.
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