{"id":586744,"date":"2026-07-15T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/586744\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:30:12","slug":"revolut-and-elevenlabs-among-first-bets-from-aspire11s-e100-million-capital-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/586744\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolut and ElevenLabs among first bets from Aspire11\u2019s \u20ac100 million capital deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prague-based VC Aspire11<\/strong><\/a> has deployed the first \u20ac100 million of its \u20ac515 million fund of pension capital into a portfolio including Revolut, Databricks, VAST Data, Vinted, ElevenLabs and Baseten.<\/p>\n

The news came along with the announcement that former Ontario Teachers\u2019 Pension Plan investor Zaya Kadyrova has joined as co-founder. The fund was launched in late 2025 to open new pathways for European pension funds to increase their exposure to VC funds and growth companies \u2013 as covered by EU-Startups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pavel Mucha<\/strong>, Founder of Aspire11, says: \u201cEurope has no shortage of innovation, entrepreneurial talent or ambitious founders. The challenge is connecting that innovation with the pools of long-term capital that can help it scale. Aspire11 was created to help bridge that gap and demonstrate how pension capital can play a much greater role in backing the companies shaping the future economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspire11\u2019s capital deployment comes amid at least \u20ac292 million of related capital announcements reported by EU-Startups in 2026 across private-markets infrastructure, investment technology, pension software and venture debt.<\/p>\n

These include fellow Czech firm Orbit Capital\u2019s \u20ac107 million<\/a> Growth Debt Fund II, Berlin-based Upvest\u2019s \u20ac108 million<\/a> financing and bunch\u2019s \u20ac30.1 million Series B, alongside raises by Copenhagen-based Performativ<\/a> and Festina Finance<\/a> and Belgium\u2019s Warren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Including Aspire11\u2019s deployed tranche, related announcements represent at least \u20ac392 million in disclosed or deployed capital.<\/p>\n

Zaya Kadyrova<\/strong>, co-founder and Managing Partner, Eternals, adds: \u201cWhile many of the world\u2019s most valuable technology companies now create the majority of their value while still private, much of Europe\u2019s pension capital remains significantly underrepresented in venture and growth investing. Our goal is to help long-term institutional capital access exceptional businesses while remaining invested through their most important growth phases. Being geography agnostic, we focus on backing global leaders regardless of where they are, whether in Europe or the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 2025, Aspire11 is a private markets investment platform focused on connecting long-term institutional capital with innovation-led growth opportunities. Through its Eternals and Tribes strategies, the firm invests directly in technology companies and selectively in emerging venture and growth managers.<\/p>\n

Data shows<\/a> that the median time to IPO has increased from around seven years to 11 over the past decade, while the world\u2019s private unicorns are now worth an estimated \u20ac6.4 trillion ($7.4 trillion). The rise of AI is accelerating the trend of wealth being built in private markets, with more than half of global venture capital now invested in AI companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company says believes that the public is missing out on the gains made in private markets, particularly in Europe where pension funds allocate only around 4% of assets to private markets. In comparison, Canada\u2019s leading pension funds allocate around 21% of capital to venture and private-capital backed companies.<\/p>\n

T\u00fclin Tokatli<\/strong>, co-founder and Managing Partner, Tribes, says: \u201cAspire11 was designed to create a pipeline of opportunities spanning the entire innovation ecosystem. Our goal is to identify exceptional companies as early as possible and remain a long-term partner as they scale. Tribes gives us exposure to the managers discovering tomorrow\u2019s category leaders, while Eternals allows us to back the most compelling businesses as they mature into global companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspire11 outlines that they achieve exposure across the innovation lifecycle for its pension capital by combining two complementary investment strategies spanning both early stage and growth companies, led by co-founders Kadyrova and Tokatli.<\/p>\n

Through its Tribes strategy, led by Tokatli, Aspire11 invests in emerging venture managers backing companies at the pre-Seed and Seed stages. Through Eternals, led by Kadyrova, the firm builds concentrated positions in later-stage growth companies in Europe and the US with the potential to become enduring category leaders.<\/p>\n

Following today\u2019s announcements, the firm is now focused on expanding its portfolio and\u00a0 deepening institutional partnerships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prague-based VC Aspire11 has deployed the first \u20ac100 million of its \u20ac515 million fund of pension capital into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[178],"tags":[249061,249062,79,9670,18,114747,236,249063,19,17,249064,249065,249066,2639,10927,249067,20232,231185,19037,249068],"class_list":["post-586744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-aspire11","tag-baseten","tag-business","tag-databricks","tag-eire","tag-elevenlabs","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-festina-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-orbit-capital","tag-pavel-mucha","tag-performativ","tag-prague","tag-revolut","tag-upvest","tag-vast-data","tag-vinted","tag-warren","tag-zaya-kadyrova"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116923533231809705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}