Brighteye Ventures Announces €62.4 Million Fund III First Close to Back the Future of HumanOS

European venture capital firm Brighteye Ventures has announced a €62.4 million ($72 million) first close of its third fund, expanding its investment focus beyond traditional EdTech toward technologies designed to help people learn, work and continuously adapt.

The new fund brings Brighteye’s total assets under management to approximately €212.2 million ($245 million). New limited partners include the Lumina Foundation, Italian publishing group Zanichelli and PI Impact, joining existing backers such as the European Investment Fund (EIF), Jacobs Foundation and European family offices.

Founded in 2017 by Benoit Wirz and Alex Spiro Latsis, Brighteye initially built its reputation around early-stage EdTech investments across Europe and North America. The firm has now backed more than 50 companies, whose combined follow-on funding has exceeded €866 million ($1 billion). Several companies in its portfolio have also surpassed $100 million in annual revenue.

Brighteye typically invests from Pre-Seed through Series A, with initial cheques ranging from approximately €400,000 to €4 million. The firm generally leads or co-leads rounds, reserves capital for follow-on investments and takes an active role through board participation. Its portfolio includes companies such as Zen Educate, Ornikar, Hack The Box, Shakers and Installer.

With Fund III, Brighteye is broadening its thesis to what it calls “HumanOS” — technology that enables people to learn faster, work more effectively and adapt continuously. The firm argues that as AI makes machine intelligence increasingly accessible, the ability to develop and amplify human skills could become an increasingly important source of economic value.

The new strategy comes as investment in European companies operating across learning and work has accelerated. Brighteye’s 2026 research reports that funding in the sector increased from €714.5 million in 2024 to €1.60 billion in 2025, while its first-half 2026 figures reached €1.41 billion.

As Brighteye begins deploying Fund III, the firm plans to back European founders building globally ambitious businesses around the evolving relationship between technology, human capability, learning and work.