In a market where “AI fund” can mean almost anything, Lumo Labs is unusually specific: digital deep tech, deployed early, and anchored in one of Europe’s densest innovation clusters—Eindhoven, home of Philips’ legacy and the High Tech Campus (“smartest square kilometer” energy).
In this EUVC pitch episode, Andreas sits down with Andy Lurling, founder & GP of Lumo Labs, to unpack how an entrepreneur-turned-investor built a fund that’s deliberately more than money: a structured support program, deep technical selection, and a thesis shaped by real-world constraints, health systems under pressure, and cities as the source of most emissions and pollution.
What’s covered:
00:59 Why “Labs” and why Eindhoven: origin story + Philips legacy
02:31 Andy’s founder journey: EyeOpener, ESA as first investor, and the exit
06:15 From angel tickets to a fund: two cornerstone LPs pull them into fund building
08:26 Fund I recap: €20m, 23 pre-seed/seed investments
08:58 Fund II status: just over €40m raised, targeting €100m final size
10:34 The actual thesis: AI + digital deep tech (security, IoT, AR)
13:12 SDG focus: health, education, sustainable cities + climate action (urban)
15:31 Why these sectors: prevention over curing, and cities as the “source problem”
19:22 Where they invest: Netherlands/Belgium/Germany core; Spain/Portugal + Nordics via scouts
20:30 “Smart capital” in practice: leadership, market fit, storytelling, follow-on readiness
23:30 Track record snapshot: 30 companies; 3 dead; 9 (soon 11) moving into scale-up territory
🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify, or queue it for later with chapters ready to go.
Show Notes
Why “Lumo Labs”
“Lumo” means light/enlightened (Esperanto + Latin), a nod to Eindhoven and Philips’ roots in lightbulbs. “Labs” is literal: Lumo started in former Philips lab buildings, and their sweet spot is very early-stage tech transfer where a lot of real innovation still begins.
The founder-to-fund arc
Andy built EyeOpener, developing algorithms that combined satellite navigation and gyroscope data to accurately track high-speed objects—first backed by the European Space Agency, with applications across motorsports and safety. The exit was undisclosed, but the point he emphasizes is timing: building through the financial crisis shaped how he thinks about resilience and capital.
From there, he and his co-founder made five angel investments—then got pulled into fund formation by two powerful local anchors:
the owner of High Tech Campus Eindhoven
the Brabant Regional Development Agency
Instead of “deciding to start a fund,” the fund emerged because the ecosystem basically demanded it.
Fund strategy: digital deep tech, not hardware-heavy
Lumo is software-first. They can look at companies with a hardware component, but they avoid hardware development and inventory—preferring teams that build hardware-agnostic platforms so they can scale across brands and ecosystems.
Core tech buckets:
AI-first (the base layer across everything)
cryptology / digital security
IoT infrastructure layers
AR (“display of the future”)
Usually it’s “AI + one” of the above.
SDGs as a filter, then focus within the focus
Lumo’s impact framework started early (2016/2017), using the UN SDGs to force focus. Over time, the firm centered on:
Good health & wellbeing (largest)
Quality education (smallest)
Sustainable cities & communities
Plus climate action, framed as climate tech for the urbanized environment
The important nuance: they avoid being “climate generalists.” They want the problems where people live and work—grid optimization, circular buildings, mobility, water management, citizen participation—rather than, say, an ocean-only thesis.
The wedge in health: cure → prevention
Their health thesis is blunt: costs are rising, workers are scarce, so the system must shift from curing to prevention and early diagnosis. Their example is practical: earlier detection reduces intensity, recovery time, and cost burden across the system.
“Smart capital” = a repeatable support system
Lumo positions itself as more than cheques. They’re not a venture builder or accelerator, but they run a structured program that acts like a “main menu” across four areas:
Excellent leadership (founder dynamics, gaps, team building)
Product-market fit (including pilot customer access via network)
Marketing + storytelling (especially for engineering-heavy teams)
Follow-on readiness (preparing founders for the very different Series A investor landscape)
They also do a monthly “five-minute digital check-in” to systematize support with ongoing data signals, rather than pure intuition.
Fund II snapshot
Fund I: €20m, 23 investments, very early
Fund II: €40m+ raised so far, targeting €100m
Geography focus: NL/BE/DE core; Spain/Portugal + Nordics via local presence
Portfolio: 30 companies total, 3 didn’t make it; 9 (soon 11) from Fund I progressing toward “scale-up” stage
One-line takeaway
Lumo is building a deep-tech, AI-first early-stage fund that aims to win on selection and structured founder support, rooted in Eindhoven’s industrial R&D heritage and focused on the biggest system constraints: health capacity and urban sustainability.
