--- title: "Investing" url: https://jelmerdejong.com/investing/ description: "What Jelmer de Jong invests in at RTP Global: pre-seed and seed rounds, and sometimes an A round, in enterprise software, cyber security, developer and cloud tooling, critical infrastructure and fintech infrastructure, in Europe and the US. What he looks for, how he works with founders, and how to reach him." date: 2026-11-09 author: Jelmer de Jong --- # Investing I am a Partner at [RTP Global](https://rtp.vc/), a global early-stage venture capital firm investing from a $1bn self-funded fund, with teams in Europe, the US and India. I am part of the global investment team and invest in the United States and Europe, working out of Amsterdam, London and New York. I am also the firm's Chief Technology Officer: I built the data and intelligence platform we use to find founders, run deals and support portfolio companies, so the way we source and decide is itself a product I own. ## Stage Pre-seed and seed, and sometimes an A round. That means the first cheque for a team with a prototype and conviction, the first institutional round once a product is in the hands of early users, and occasionally the round that funds the go-to-market engine. I lead or co-lead, and I like to be the first call when something goes wrong, not only when something goes right. ## What I invest in In one line: anything that is or can be big on GitHub, and any startup going after a line item on the price list of IBM, Oracle or SAP. - **Enterprise software.** Systems of record and systems of action for large organisations, sold to the people who run them. - **Cyber: security, intelligence, defence.** Securing and defending organisations, and the data and intelligence tooling around that. - **Developer and cloud tooling.** Tools for the people who build software: developer tools, infrastructure software, data and AI infrastructure, open source with a commercial model. - **Critical infrastructure and global resilience.** Software and hardware for the systems a country or an economy cannot do without: energy, industry, logistics, robotics. - **Fintech infrastructure.** The plumbing behind financial services rather than the consumer app. I spent ten years at Backbase building digital banking software for over a hundred banks, so I know how this is bought. Recent investments I have been part of include Ahead Health, All3, emma and Fever Energy. The current list is on the [RTP portfolio page](https://rtp.vc/companies). ## What I look for I was a founder and an operator before I was an investor, and I look for what I have seen work from the inside: - **A founder who ships.** [Execution speed](https://jelmerdejong.com/posts/on-speed/) is the single most reliable signal at seed. If the planning unit is days rather than quarters, I pay attention. - **Technical depth sold to a real buyer.** Deep tech is not enough; I want to see that the team understands who signs the contract and why. - **A wedge into a budget that already exists.** The best enterprise companies replace a line item before they create one. - **Evidence over narrative.** I run the firm's data and intelligence capability, so by the time we meet I will have done my homework on the market, the code and the team. I expect the same of founders. ## How I work with founders Product, go-to-market and enterprise sales are where I have spent most of my career, so that is where I am most useful: the first ten enterprise customers, pricing and packaging, building the product and engineering organisation, and the hard conversations about pivots and people. I am hands-on and reachable, and I would rather hear about a problem the day it happens than in a board deck a quarter later. ## How to reach me A short message on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jelmerdejong/) with what you are building and why now is enough. A warm introduction helps but is not required. If it is not for me, I will say so quickly and, where I can, point you to who it is for. --- Jelmer de Jong, Partner and Chief Technology Officer at RTP Global. More at https://jelmerdejong.com/ (https://jelmerdejong.com/llms.txt).