Janneke Niessen

Who they are

Janneke Niessen is Co-founder and Founding Partner at CapitalT — she also wrote 'The New Girl Code' and built VCVolt, a platform for data-driven VC team assessment.

Person

Janneke co-founded CapitalT in October 2018, building it from day one as a people-focused, data-driven early-stage fund investing in software, AI for climate tech, and future of work. Her pre-VC formation included executive education at Harvard Business School in 2007 and the Deloitte Academy in 2014 — a track that reads as operator-to-investor rather than analyst-to-partner. She founded VCVolt, a platform for data-driven VC team assessment, and #Fundright, an initiative promoting diversity and inclusion in venture capital. She also wrote 'The New Girl Code', a book aimed at inspiring young girls to pursue technology careers, tied to the InspiringFifty initiative. She publishes actively across Fortune MPW, TNW, Wonder Women Tech, Inc., and LinkedIn — her themes are VC, entrepreneurship, and diversity in tech, and she shows up on panels too: Impact Week Barcelona in 2025 on impact investing and climate tech, and SuperReturn Venture in 2026. The through-line is backing people and building structures — in portfolio selection, in the fund, and in the industry's talent pipeline.

Company

CapitalT was co-founded by Janneke Niessen in October 2018 as a data-driven, team-focused early-stage VC fund based in Amsterdam. The fund invests in software technology, AI for climate tech, and the future of work. Portfolio companies include Overstory and Cur8, both of which Janneke has amplified publicly around recent milestones. The fund's investment thesis is explicitly people-first — using data to assess founding teams rather than relying on pattern-matching alone. VCVolt, a platform Janneke founded for data-driven VC team assessment, appears to be an extension of that thesis into tooling.

Market

CapitalT operates in the European early-stage venture market, with a focus on climate tech and future-of-work software — two of the more crowded thesis areas in European VC right now. The fund differentiates on a quantitative team-assessment approach rather than sector specialisation alone, which sets it apart from generalist and purely thesis-driven Dutch and pan-European peers. The push toward impact and climate tech investing has drawn increasing institutional interest across Europe, raising both the competition for deals and the scrutiny on outcomes.

Network

No direct edge data is available for Janneke's network, but her public activity surfaces two portfolio company relationships: Overstory and Cur8, both frequently amplified by CapitalT. Her conference presence at SuperReturn Venture 2026 and Impact Week Barcelona 2025 puts her in regular contact with European VC and impact-investing circles.

How they likely show up

  • Long tenure at CapitalT (co-founded 2018, still Founding Partner in 2026) → thinks in fund cycles and long holding periods, not short-term optionality.
  • Founded VCVolt alongside running CapitalT → high agency operator who builds tools to solve problems she hits in her own work.
  • Active publisher across Fortune MPW, TNW, Inc., and LinkedIn on VC and diversity → comfortable being a visible public voice, likely engages substantively with people who reference her published work.
  • Data-driven team-assessment thesis embedded in the fund's DNA → probably brings structured frameworks into conversations, not just gut feel.
  • Speaking at SuperReturn Venture 2026 and Impact Week Barcelona 2025 → actively works conference circuits, expects peers to be current on European VC and climate-tech dynamics.
  • Harvard Business School executive education in 2007 → professional-services formation before VC, likely comfortable with rigour and structured argumentation.

Conversation tips

  • → Reference a specific piece she's written — Fortune MPW, TNW, or a recent LinkedIn post — she'll know immediately whether you've actually read it.
  • → Ask about VCVolt specifically: building a team-assessment platform alongside a fund is a deliberate product bet, and she'll have strong views on why the market needed it.
  • → She's been vocal about #Fundright and diversity in VC — engage on the structural or market dimensions of that, not as a values statement but as an investment thesis question.
  • → She just spoke at SuperReturn Venture 2026 — ask what she took from it rather than what she presented; it signals you're interested in her perspective, not just her credentials.
  • → Don't skip the climate-tech angle: Overstory and the forestry/drone thread on her LinkedIn suggest this is a live conviction area, not just a fund label.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on VCVolt — she built a data-driven VC team-assessment platform alongside running CapitalT, which is a pointed internal bet that most funds get people selection wrong.
  • Lead with her SuperReturn Venture 2026 appearance and the forestry/drones/cleantech thread she posted around it — it signals you're tracking her current portfolio thinking, not just her bio.
  • Reference 'The New Girl Code' and its connection to InspiringFifty — it's not a side project, it's a years-long infrastructure play on the talent pipeline, and she'll respond to it being treated seriously.

Discovery questions

  1. VCVolt operationalises your team-assessment thesis into a product — how has building that tool changed how CapitalT actually makes investment decisions?
  2. You've been investing in climate tech through a software and AI lens — after backing companies like Overstory, where do you think the European climate-tech market is underpriced right now?
  3. The #Fundright initiative frames diversity as a structural VC problem, not just a values one — have you seen LP behaviour actually shift in response to that framing over the past few years?

Avoid

Don't treat her diversity and inclusion work as separate from her investment thesis — she has built funds, platforms, and initiatives that operationalise it, so framing it as a personal cause rather than a professional conviction will read as uninformed.

Make it yours

Tailor these openers to what you sell

These openers are generic. Sign in and tell Brief what you sell — it rewrites the hooks and questions around your pitch.

Sources

Brief on your next meeting?

Type any name. Get a structured pre-meeting brief in seconds.

Try Brief →

Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on June 5, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →