Carlos Espinal

Who they are

Carlos Espinal is Managing Partner at Seedcamp — author of 'The Fundraising Field Guide' and host of the 'This Much I Know' podcast, who started his career as a network engineer before pivoting to VC.

Person

Carlos joined Seedcamp in November 2010 when the fund was roughly three years old and still an early-stage European experiment — he's been there ever since, growing alongside it through six funds and past $1 billion in AUM. He came up as an engineer: a BS in Industrial Management with a minor in Engineering Studies from Carnegie Mellon (1999), then network engineering roles at GTE Cybertrust, Baltimore Technologies, and NYSE Euronext's SIAC before pivoting toward VC via Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. An MBA from Babson in 2006 bridged the two halves, and he completed Wharton's Advanced Management Program in 2022. He's founded or co-founded several initiatives alongside his day job: Velocity Leadership (startup executive search and advisory), TechVets.co (technology for veterans), Techfugees.com (technology for refugees), Startup Coalition (startup advocacy), and TheEuropas.com (a Top 100 European startup ranking). He also co-created Seedsummit.org to standardise term sheets across Europe and curated Seedhack as a free tool resource for founders — and he's developing a game called Pouring Pints for Steam. The through-line is someone who moved from building networks to building the network — engineering instincts applied to founder ecosystems. He writes at thedrawingboard.me and on Medium about fundraising, co-founder dynamics, and seed investing; he wrote 'The Fundraising Field Guide' for founders, hosted the Seedcamp podcast 'This Much I Know,' and has spoken at TEDx, London Tech Week 2026, and HumanX Amsterdam 2026.

Company

Seedcamp's biggest headline in the last two months is its $320 million raise in June 2026 — $220 million into Fund VII (its flagship early-stage vehicle) and $100 million into Seedcamp Select II, a new growth fund backing portfolio winners at Series B and beyond. The raise pushed total AUM past $1 billion and came with a US expansion: new offices in New York and Miami to give European founders a transatlantic bridge to US customers, investors, and hiring networks. Alongside the capital raise, Seedcamp has been signalling a deliberate thematic pivot toward 'physical AI' — the intersection of AI, science, and real-world infrastructure — with recent investments in BioOrbit (space manufacturing, $13.2M seed in April 2026), Sunrise Robotics (autonomous robotics), and Dust (AI agents). Earlier in 2026 it also led a €2M seed round for Topograph (global KYB infrastructure) and participated in portfolio company Curve's £120M acquisition by Lloyds Banking Group. The fund is now run by a seven-person investment team, with Carlos Espinal and Reshma Sohoni as Managing Partners and Tom Wilson and Sia Houchangnia taking on increasing deal leadership.

Market

Seedcamp sits at the top of Europe's seed-stage VC landscape — it coined the 'first check' position in 2007 and has backed Revolut, Wise, UiPath, Synthesia, and Pleo before they were obvious bets, accumulating 550+ portfolio companies, 6 unicorns, 5 IPOs, and 81 acquisitions. Its primary competition comes from global accelerators Y Combinator and Techstars on one side, and European peers like Index Ventures, Atomico, Balderton, LocalGlobe, SpeedInvest, and Earlybird on the other. The broader European VC environment in 2025–2026 is shaped by strong AI investment momentum — European AI startups raised $3.4 billion in Q1 2025, a 55% year-on-year increase — alongside geopolitical complexity, AI regulatory scrutiny, and growing demand for transatlantic bridge strategies, all of which Seedcamp is explicitly positioning around.

Network

Carlos's closest collaborator is Reshma Sohoni, co-founder and co-Managing Partner at Seedcamp, who has co-led the firm since its founding. Within the investment team, Tom Wilson and Sia Houchangnia are partners taking on increasing deal leadership, while Hilary Howe leads Seedcamp's US expansion from New York and Antonia Whitecourt serves as a Director and close collaborator in London.

Reshma Sohoni· Co-founder and Managing Partner, Seedcamp
Tom Wilson· Partner, Seedcamp
Sia Houchangnia· Partner, Seedcamp
Hilary Howe· US Expansion Lead, Seedcamp (New York)
Antonia Whitecourt· Director, Seedcamp
Saul Klein· Co-founder of Seedcamp

How they likely show up

Long tenure at Seedcamp (joined November 2010, now 15+ years) → thinks in decade-long fund cycles, not quarterly deal flow — patience is a feature, not a bug.
Engineering background (network engineering at GTE Cybertrust, SIAC, Baltimore Technologies) before VC → likely applies structured, systems-level thinking to portfolio problems, not just gut-feel investing.
Multiple founder-support initiatives alongside full-time investing (Seedsummit.org, Seedhack, Techfugees, TechVets, Velocity Leadership) → high agency; generates platforms and infrastructure, not just capital.
Active public writer and podcaster (thedrawingboard.me, Medium, 'This Much I Know,' 'The Fundraising Field Guide') → comfortable being the visible explainer; probably responds well to substantive, specific questions about the craft of early-stage investing.
TEDx speaker, HumanX Amsterdam 2026, London Tech Week 2026 — consistently on stage at founder-facing events → values knowledge transfer and community, not just deal-making.
Wharton AMP in 2022 after 12+ years in VC → still investing in his own learning at a senior level; likely respects intellectual curiosity and self-improvement in founders.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific post or chapter from 'The Fundraising Field Guide' — he'll know immediately whether you've actually read it or are name-dropping.
→ Ask about the physical AI thesis by name — it's the freshest strategic bet from the June 2026 raise and he'll have a sharp point of view on why robotics and space manufacturing belong in a seed portfolio.
→ Connect on the transatlantic bridge angle if you have a European–US market angle: it's clearly central to how Seedcamp is positioning Fund VII and the Select growth fund.
→ Don't treat him purely as a capital allocator — his engineer-to-VC arc and his community-building projects (Techfugees, TechVets) suggest he engages most when the conversation has a systemic or infrastructure dimension.
→ Mention Estonia or another non-obvious European ecosystem if relevant — he has visited regularly and has woven pan-European ecosystem building into Seedcamp's DNA.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the $320M raise and the 'Transatlantic Bridge' framing — Seedcamp just closed its largest fund in June 2026 with a dedicated US expansion into New York and Miami, which is a sharp strategic bet worth probing.
Bring up the physical AI pivot: Seedcamp's recent investments in BioOrbit (space manufacturing), Sunrise Robotics, and Dust signal a deliberate move beyond SaaS, and asking what convinced him that 'physical AI' belongs at seed stage is a specific, high-signal opener.
Reference 'The Fundraising Field Guide' by name — he wrote it specifically to demystify the seed fundraising process for founders, and it's the clearest window into how he thinks about the investor-founder relationship.

Discovery questions

With Fund VII and the new Select growth vehicle running in parallel, how do you manage the tension between writing first checks at pre-seed and deciding when to double down at Series B?
You've built a lot of infrastructure for founders beyond capital — Seedsummit, Seedhack, the podcast — what's the thing founders still systematically misunderstand about seed-stage fundraising that none of those resources have fixed?
The physical AI thesis — BioOrbit, Sunrise Robotics — is a big departure from the SaaS-heavy portfolio. What's the diligence framework at seed stage when there's no standard revenue metric to anchor on?

Avoid

Don't open with generic European VC market commentary — he's been shaping that market since 2010 and will disengage quickly unless you bring a specific angle he hasn't already addressed in a podcast or blog post.

Make it yours