Notion Capital is a London-based, operator-built venture firm backing Europe's best early-stage B2B software and fintech founders, with a stated requirement that every company it invests in have a credible pathway to $100m in revenue. Built by the founders of MessageLabs, the firm pairs capital with a dedicated 'Platform' value-add team that helps companies navigate the distinct scaling barriers from $1m to $100m+ ARR. Its remit now spans SaaS, AI-native 'services-as-software', fintech/embedded finance and software in the physical world (Knowledge, Labour, Machines, Money).
A problem genuinely worth solving for a small group of customers who love what you do but that generalises to a very large market.
“Are you solving a problem that is truly worth solving and are you solving that problem for a small group of customers that love what you do and generalise to a very large market?” — From $1m to $100m revenue: START, BUILD, SCALE
“CEO & CTO Willem Delbare, a serial entrepreneur, has firsthand experience overcoming challenges in establishing robust code security frameworks.” — Kamil Mieczakowski
A solution that can be delivered consistently, repeatably and predictably - not a bespoke one-off; there are no fixed playbooks, only patterns and principles.
“Can you solve that problem consistently, repeatedly and predictably?” — From $1m to $100m revenue: START, BUILD, SCALE
“I believe there are no fixed playbooks for building startups, only patterns and principles.” — Stephen Millard
A market large enough to support a credible path to $100m revenue and a billion-dollar outcome; small initial customer love that generalises to a very large market, sized with real, citable TAM.
“GoodFit is focusing on B2B tech companies which is a $3.3bn TAM” — Why We Invested in GoodFit
“the market cap of Stablecoins now worth over $240bn and over $27T worth of Stablecoins transacted in 2024” — Itxaso del Palacio and Thomas Diehl
Evidence of repeatable, founder-independent go-to-market - customers who love the product, marquee logos, and growth that signals a working engine rather than founder heroics.
“I loosely call go-to-market fit when a sales team can make a sale without the founder in the room.” — Scaling Enterprise Software Startups, A Story of 1s and 3s
“In less than a year since launching they have already signed up 1000+ organisations.” — Kamil Mieczakowski
“signed marquee customers like United Airlines, IQVIA, and Synopsys” — Andy Leaver
Founders with a massive, captivating vision and the ability to inspire diverse people and resources to execute; ideally with directly relevant, proven operating/GTM track record.
“I love the prickle down my spine when I meet a founder who articulates a massive vision and instils confidence they can inspire the diverse people and resources needed to execute upon it.” — Stephen Chandler | Notion
“Harrison and Aleks worked together at Paddle...and together were instrumental in building and scaling its GTM operations to over $100 mil annual revenue.” — Itxaso del Palacio
“I love to meet founders that blow me away, are passionate about what they do and captivate me with their vision” — Itxaso del Palacio
A repeatable, tunable growth engine where every component runs smoothly; defensibility from proprietary data/infrastructure, and unit economics the firm can model lever-by-lever.
“Think of growth as an engine - every component must run smoothly, and be tuned and optimised.” — From $1m to $100m revenue: START, BUILD, SCALE
“GoodFit leverages proprietary AI tooling to create datasets that are unique to each customer, are high-quality, and constantly updated.” — Itxaso del Palacio
A defensible wedge - typically an infrastructure or data layer, an embedded-finance angle, or a category where SaaS has expanded beyond the app layer - rather than a thin application that incumbents can copy.
“SaaS has evolved beyond the application layer into infrastructure, hybrid, cloud, edge computing, all of those kinds of things... We're seeing people taking a share of payments, having other embedded finance propositions, marketplaces. All of those things sit within the Notion wheelhouse.” — Notion hits €300M for its fifth fund (Stephen Chandler)
“TechWolf build the AI infrastructure layer for skills, creating foundational data assets and frameworks that enable a skills-first approach to talent management” — Andy Leaver
A clear inflection - a newly mainstream methodology, a regulatory shift, a maturing market, or an AI platform shift - that makes the product necessary now rather than someday.
“DevSecOps - now a well-established methodology - has permeated organisations of all sizes.” — Why we invested in Aikido
“Software businesses are grappling with an increasing number of compliance requirements; Europe and US-issued cyber resilience acts, SOC2 and ISO 27001 have evolved into baseline necessities for B2B SaaS companies.” — Kamil Mieczakowski
“companies face increasing difficulty in acquiring qualified leads” — Itxaso del Palacio
“a significant gap remains in offering yield-bearing products as traditional Stablecoins don't offer yields to their holders” — Itxaso del Palacio and Thomas Diehl
A raise sized to clear the next specific revenue boundary - the firm thinks in discrete journeys ($1m to $3m, $3m to $10m, etc.) - and to re-engineer the people, process and tech needed to get there, not generic 'growth'.
“Think of journeys from $1 million ARR to $3 million, from $3m to $10 million, and then $10 to $30 million and finally to the magic $100 million revenue.” — Scaling Enterprise Software Startups, A Story of 1s and 3s
“The 'people, process and tech' that enable a startup achieve a particular revenue boundary are unlikely to deliver on the next.” — Andy Leaver
“I love the prickle down my spine when I meet a founder who articulates a massive vision and instils confidence they can inspire the diverse people and resources needed to execute upon it.”
“I love to meet founders that blow me away, are passionate about what they do and captivate me with their vision”
“I loosely call go-to-market fit when a sales team can make a sale without the founder in the room.”
“I believe there are no fixed playbooks for building startups, only patterns and principles.”