A field guide to patient venture funding in the late-cycle Eurozone economy.
CONTENTSInside this issue
Inside this issue
01The marketWhere Eurozone venture capital actually moves in 2026.Pp. 04 – 12
PART ONESlow Capital · §1
01
CHAPTER OPENS
The market.
THE NUMBERSource: ECB · Q1 2026
€4.8B
Withdrawn from European VC funds, Q4 2025.
The fastest single-quarter outflow on record. Most of it flowed not to safer instruments but to private credit and direct lending — a structural rotation, not a panic.
KEY INDICATORSYoY · 2024 → 2026
The board reads four numbers, in this order.
Cycle time−47%Days from first contact to term sheet.
VOICESAn interview
“
The fastest investor on the table is not the one who reads the room. They are the one who has stopped reading altogether.
— Petra Adelmann, partner at Karst Capital
In conversation, March 2026
THEN & NOWA study in contrast
Two operating models, ten years apart.
2016 · THE OLD WAY
Speed as a moat.
Closing fast was the strategy. The fund that returned a term sheet by Friday usually won the round, regardless of price.
2026 · THE NEW WAY
Patience as a moat.
Diligence cycles have stretched from four weeks to fourteen. Founders are picking investors who can sit with ambiguity.
THREE PRINCIPLESAn operating philosophy
What we look for, in order.
A reminder, framed for the partners' meeting on Tuesday.
01Cash that compounds.Margin profile that pays for the next bet. We treat free cash flow as the only durable form of optionality.
CHECKLISTA standing rule
Five questions, every Monday morning.
Ask them out loud, in order, before any other agenda item.
01What did we learn that changed our minds?Force a written answer, not a verbal one.
PART TWOSlow Capital · §2
02
CHAPTER OPENS
The strategy.
A CONVERSATIONIn the room
The longest LP meeting we ever had ran for nine hours.
Nobody left to take a call. Nobody opened a laptop. We talked about one paragraph in a Q3 letter — what we meant when we wrote that we were "comfortable" with the position size. The conversation that followed reshaped the next vintage.
image · 4 : 5
A CONVERSATION · IIIn the room
image · 4 : 5
A discipline of writing things down before saying them.
Our investment committee opens each meeting with twenty minutes of silent reading. A pre-circulated memo, no slides, no shorthand. Half of the disagreements that used to surface around minute thirty-five never get raised — they were never disagreements, only collisions of incomplete reading.
A SHORT HISTORY2018 – 2026
Eight years of slow capital, mapped.
2018Fund I closes€18M raised, mostly from family offices in Munich.
A DECADE OF MARGINSEBITDA, Euro VC fund returns, 2016 – 2025
Returns flatten, then bend in 2024.
FUNDS & FLOWSDeployment vs. distribution
Distributions overtake deployment, late 2024.
HOW THE DECISION FLOWSFrom sourcing to commit
Four gates, in series, no exceptions.
STEP 01SourceInbound or warm intro only. No outbound this cycle.
STEP 02ReadThree partners read the memo, in silence, on Monday.
STEP 03DebateTwo written cases — for and against — pre-circulated.
STEP 04CommitVote on Wednesday. Three of four required.
FUND VINTAGESAs of 31 Mar 2026
Six vintages, twelve years, one number.
Fund
Vintage
Size
DPI
TVPI
Net IRR
Larkfield I
2014
€18M
2.4×
3.1×
22.4%
PART THREESlow Capital · §3
03
Cases.
Three companies, three decisions, three years out. What we learned by holding our nerve.
image · full-bleed 16 : 9
CASE 01 · LARK & FELLER
A logistics company that refused to grow.
Photograph by Naoko Mori · 2025
FROM THE PORTFOLIOFounder voices
What our founders told us, unprompted.
“
They were the only fund that called us when we missed our number. Not to ask why. To ask what they could carry.
Hannah ReuterCEO · Northwind Logistics
A WORD FROM THE PARTNERAn afterword
portrait · 1 : 1
“
Patience is not a virtue you summon. It is a system you build, then defend against yourself every Monday morning.
— Roland LansingFounding partner, Larkfield · 22 years on the desk
WHERE THE PORTFOLIO LIVESAs of 31 March 2026
Four offices, twenty-three companies.
Concentration is a feature: we only invest where a partner can drive to the office in under three hours.
THE DESKSix people, no committees
Who actually answers the phone.
3 : 4
Marit KovalevaManaging partner
THE PORTFOLIOTwenty-three companies, twelve sectors
Companies we read into long after we've left the meeting.
Northwind
HOW WE WORKThree ways to engage
Three engagements, one philosophy.
SEED€500KFirst cheque · 6–12 mo runwayFor the founder still writing the memo to themselves. We co-write it with you.
PART FOURSlow Capital · §4
04
CLOSING NOTES
Looking ahead.
A FEW LAST QUESTIONSFrom the LP letter, March 2026
What you keep asking, and what we keep answering.
Q · 01Why has cycle time gone up so much?Because reading takes the time it takes. We have stopped pretending it doesn't.
A SHORT RECAPFor the road home
Four sentences, if you remember nothing else.
i.Patience compounds where conviction holds.
A FINAL WORDLarkfield Partners
Read it twice.Then write back.
The slowest way to invest, when done well, is also the fastest way to learn.