Ninepointfive Ventures

Who they are

Elisa Vlerick is a General Partner at Ninepointfive Ventures — co-founded Europe's first VC firm built entirely around co-investing with corporate partners, running two distinct funds: Fund One (industrial digitization) and the Tidal Fund (maritime and offshore energy transition).

Person

Elisa joined Ninepointfive in March 2020, roughly a year after the firm's founding in 2019, when it was still establishing its corporate co-investment model in Europe. Her public presence is concentrated around the Ninepointfive thesis — she's been interviewed on YouTube about the 9.5 VC model, spoke at IMD Geneva on corporate venturing and financing models, and has appeared on the PwC Belgium podcast discussing what happens after a corporate venture is built. She posts on LinkedIn about corporate venturing philosophy and portfolio companies. The through-line across her public voice is a consistent argument that the right structure — pairing startup independence with corporate resources — changes the odds for deep-tech and industrial ventures. Possibly — given the firm's Belgian base and corporate-partner roster (Telenet, Agfa, Beiersdorf), her network leans heavily into established European industrial and consumer-goods groups.

Company

Ninepointfive operates two active strategies: Fund One, targeting the digitization of Europe's industrial value chain, and the Tidal Fund, focused on energy transition in maritime, ports, and offshore sectors. The firm's most recently discussed investment is MakerVerse, a corporate-backed manufacturing venture highlighted in May 2024 as an example of its spin-off-to-scale model. Ninepointfive reports approximately $35 million in assets under management. No new funding round for the firm itself, leadership changes, or additional partnerships beyond its established corporate co-investor base have been reported in available sources.

Market

Ninepointfive sits at the intersection of traditional venture capital and corporate venture building — it co-invests with corporations (Telenet, Agfa, Beiersdorf) from pre-seed through maturity, a model that pairs startup agility with corporate technology and market access. The firm positioned itself at founding as Europe's first VC firm exclusively structured around this corporate co-investment approach. No named direct competitors are identified in available sources, though the broader corporate venture capital space in Europe has been active, as reflected in Ninepointfive's presence at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium in London.

Network

Elisa's closest collaborators at Ninepointfive are Pieter Van de Velde and Bart Houben. Van de Velde co-founded the firm and previously co-founded Bundl, a venture builder, and has appeared alongside Elisa on the EU CVC podcast discussing blending structures for innovation. Bart Houben is General Partner and CFO at Ninepointfive, a role he has held since September 2019, and also joined the EU CVC podcast conversation.

Pieter Van de Velde· Co-founder, General Partner, Ninepointfive
Bart Houben· General Partner & CFO, Ninepointfive

How they likely show up

Active on the conference and podcast circuit (IMD Geneva, PwC Belgium, EU CVC, Global Corporate Venturing Symposium, YouTube interviews) → comfortable making the firm's thesis the public argument, not just the investment track record.
Co-investor model built around long-term corporate partners (Telenet, Agfa, Beiersdorf) → likely operates through relationship-depth rather than deal velocity; trust-building over transaction speed.
Joined Ninepointfive in March 2020 — during a period of significant market uncertainty — and has stayed through the firm's fund expansion into maritime/energy → Possibly — comfortable with long arcs and thesis conviction over short-term signals.
Two distinct fund strategies (industrial digitization vs. maritime energy transition) with different sector focuses → suggests comfort holding parallel, non-overlapping investment theses simultaneously.
Public LinkedIn writing focuses on the corporate venturing model itself, not individual portfolio wins → frames herself as a practitioner-thinker, not just a capital allocator.

Conversation tips

→ Come in with a view on corporate venturing structures — she debates the model publicly and will engage more if you have a specific angle, not just curiosity.
→ Reference the EU CVC podcast or the PwC Belgium interview specifically — she'll know you've actually listened, not just skimmed her bio.
→ Ask about the Tidal Fund's maritime/offshore thesis — it's a distinctive bet that's less discussed than Fund One and likely reflects a conviction she'd enjoy unpacking.
→ Be specific about which corporate partner dynamic interests you (Telenet vs. Agfa vs. Beiersdorf are very different industries) — she thinks in structures and sector fit, not generic 'corporate-startup' narratives.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on MakerVerse — Ninepointfive's investment in this corporate-backed manufacturing venture (discussed May 2024) is the clearest public example of their spin-off-to-scale model in action, and a natural entry point into how they actually structure a deal.
Reference the EU CVC podcast episode on 'blending structures for innovation' — she and her partners laid out their structural thesis there, and it signals you've engaged with the actual intellectual content of what they're building.
Lead with the Tidal Fund — a VC fund explicitly focused on maritime, ports, and offshore energy transition is an unusual and specific bet; asking what drew Ninepointfive to that sector signals genuine curiosity about differentiation.

Discovery questions

When a corporate partner like Agfa or Telenet co-invests alongside you, how do you manage governance so the startup doesn't get captured by the corporate's priorities?
The Tidal Fund focuses on maritime and offshore energy transition — how did you identify that sector as a gap in the European deep-tech VC market?
With roughly $35 million in AUM across two fund strategies, how do you think about the right portfolio size to maintain genuine corporate-partner engagement at each company?

Avoid

Don't treat the corporate co-investment model as a constraint or a compromise — she has built the entire firm around the argument that this structure is a deliberate advantage, and framing it otherwise will signal you haven't done the work.

Make it yours