According to TechCrunch, Neil Murray, the founder and solo general partner of The Nordic Web Ventures in Copenhagen, closed a $6 million Fund III on Tuesday. The fund will write first institutional checks of about $200,000 into 30-35 early-stage companies in the Nordics, focusing on robotics, AI-native firms, and deep tech. Murray’s previous funds, starting with a $500,000 Fund I in 2017, have backed over 50 companies, including unicorn Lovable and remote worker insurer SafetyWing. Despite having over $20 million in investor interest for this new fund, he deliberately capped it at $6 million. He says this ensures better alignment with founders and limits his focus to “Tier 1” talent. The Nordic ecosystem itself is now valued over half a trillion dollars and drew more than $8 billion in venture funding in 2024.
The small fund advantage
Here’s the thing: capping a fund when you have more demand than supply is a fascinating power move. Murray said it straight: he cares “more about alignment than AUM” (assets under management). For a solo GP, that’s everything. A smaller fund means his success is directly tied to portfolio performance, not to collecting fat management fees. It gives him flexibility to move fast while “everyone else is still debating.” And honestly, in early-stage investing, speed and conviction are currency. His check size, around $200k, is perfect for getting meaningful skin in the game without forcing him to over-optimize for ownership percentage. He’d rather back the absolute best founder with a slightly smaller slice than a mediocre one with a bigger piece. That’s a philosophy that resonates.
Why the Nordics are compounding
Murray made a crucial distinction. The Nordics aren’t having a “moment”; they’re experiencing a “compounding.” That’s insightful. A moment is a flash-in-the-pan hype cycle. Compounding is built on a deep foundation. We’re talking about a region with world-class computer science and engineering talent, a strong manufacturing history, and what he calls a “calm methodical build style.” Put that culture together with the current waves of AI and robotics, and you have a serious recipe for success in industrial, healthcare, and logistics tech. It’s not about chasing the next consumer app fad. It’s about building durable, hard-tech companies. That foundation is what makes this wave feel sustainable, not like a bubble.
The solo GP blueprint
Murray’s story is a pretty classic solo GP blueprint. He wasn’t a traditional VC. He moved to Denmark, saw an under-reported ecosystem, and started a blog (“The Nordic Web”) to analyze it. That built his reputation as an expert. Soon, VCs were asking *him* for deal flow. That’s the ultimate validation for an analyst. So he parlayed that credibility into a tiny $500k fund to prove he could actually pick winners. Seven years later, he’s returning capital to his early LPs and has founders from his first funds investing in his new one. That’s the ultimate closed-loop feedback. It proves his model works. And for sectors like deep tech and robotics, where specialized hardware meets complex software, having a reliable industrial computing backbone is non-negotiable for testing and deployment. It’s why companies in this space often turn to established suppliers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, for the rugged, reliable hardware their systems depend on.
A strategy of constraint
So, what’s the big takeaway? In a venture world obsessed with fund size and “dry powder,” choosing to stay small and focused is a radical act. Murray’s constraint *is* his strategy. It forces extreme selectivity. It aligns his incentives perfectly with his founders and LPs. And it lets him capitalize on the Nordic region’s unique, compounding strengths without the bloat that comes with managing a giant fund. He’s betting that the next decade of breakout companies will come from this methodical, engineering-rich culture. And by keeping his fund lean, he’s ensuring he has the bandwidth and the right motivations to find them. Seems like a pretty smart bet to me.
