Carles Reina, a lead early investor of the artificial-intelligence-based UK startup ElevenLabs, which has become a unicorn, and of the fintech heavyweight Revolut, has come up with a new solo general partner (GP) fund worth $15 mln that will be a source of pre-seed and seed-stage founders’ capital in the high-growth frontier technology sectors. The fund named Baobab Ventures, the new fund of Reina will focus on the startup in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Defence and intend to investing worldwide but at the same time keeping a strong European footprint.
The fund which is “oversubscribed” as per the description of Carles Reina by him has a backing of prominent institutional limited partners like Cendana Capital, Isomer Capital, RSJ Investments, Emergence Ventures, Cyber Fund. Besides these, there are more supporters like Concept Ventures and Credo Ventures partners, business angel and professional footballer Mario Götze and deep-tech investor Dr. Fatima Godall.
Carles Reina is the Go-To-Market (GTM) lead at ElevenLabs—the voice-AI startup recently valued at $6.6 billion—and was only the fourth employee of the company when he initially joined as an angel investor. Besides managing Baobab Ventures, he will be a hands-on operator for the portfolio companies by continuing in his GTM role.
Backing Early-Stage Technical Founders
Baobab Ventures is going to make typical investments that vary from $300,000 to $350,000, and the strategy is primarily focused on giving seed startups strong momentum. The fund has a global mandate, but about half of its money is going to European companies, and the rest will be invested in the U.S. and other foreign markets. Situated both in London and Barcelona, the fund is eager to support founders who think globally from the very beginning.
For Reina, Baobab Ventures is seeking to fill the void it perceives in the European venture environment, where there is a shortage of investors who have up-to-date operating experience and can handle quick AI-driven markets. According to him, the speed and the requirements of company building have changed drastically, thus young companies now need experienced operational support more than ever to survive.
The Need for Speed in the AI Era
“The way to build startups has been altered dramatically over the last three years,” explained Reina. “The time it takes to make a sale has been shortened, and in a matter of months you can have hundreds of competitors; at the same time AI has caused cold outreach conversion rates to decrease. Founders have to be extremely fast at the same time they are creating a sales and growth model suitable for the AI era.”
He claims that traditional venture support models are not compatible with the realities of initiating and expanding a business in fiercely competitive markets where a new player can pop up practically overnight. Hence, Baobab Ventures is willing to bring on board the expertise and the knowledge in use of the respective fields rather than issuing a simple check, with Carles Reina providing hands-on help in such areas as customer and investor pitching, contract negotiations, operations, and key hiring strategy.
“Therein lies the necessity for operators on the board who have valuable frontline experience in the AI era, and who are very active in lending their help, if not directly executing,” he concluded the point. “This is an AI-knowledgeable operator experience gap that is very obvious in the European landscape, and which I think Baobab is capable of filling.”
The Rise of Solo GP Funds
Reina’s move is a reaction to the surge of solo GP funds. These solo ventures, which are run by single investors instead of a big team, are becoming increasingly attractive to founders in search of direct mentorship and easy access to operators with practical experience. Support from established institutional LPs is a sign of increased trust in specialised funds that focus more deeply on a narrower area of expertise rather than broadly.
The presence of Carles Reina on the operator side with a rapidly growing AI unicorn and his great performance as an angel investor, on the other hand, is an excellent combination that makes Baobab Ventures well-positioned to aggressively compete for early-stage deal flow in emerging technology categories, particularly as AI continues to redefine global business models.
As startups look for investors who can also be partners and builders rather than just financiers, Baobab Ventures is there to guide early-stage founders in executing their plans faster in a market where speed, differentiation, and disciplined scaling are becoming essential.
Baobab Ventures is now one of the many funds that are betting on Europe as the next hub for AI, robotics, and defence breakthroughs that will be strong enough to compete globally, thanks to fresh capital and strong institutional support.
