Raphaël Hannaert
Brussels & Lisbon French, English & Portuguese
Principal at a European VC. Former McKinsey. Engineer by training. Strong believer that the best way to understand founders is to be one. So I buildget Opus 4.6 to build things for me.
Background
European early-stage VC, €200M across two funds. Investment team of four. Focused on crypto, robotics, and AI.
See Network below for relevant details
Offices in Europe and South East Asia. Strategy and due diligence for financial institutions. Product & IT transformation.
Rated distinctive — top 5%
Built and launched a consumer app for housemate matching.
Blockchain research and education in Seoul. Early immersion in the crypto ecosystem.
Engineering & Management of Technology. Honor Student (top 5%). Exchange at Seoul National University.
GPA 84%. Graduated Magna Cum Laude, ranked 8th out of 400 (top 2%).
Network
Direct contact with over 1,000 portfolio founders. Spoken with more than 3,000 founders over my years as a VC — sourcing, advising, and building alongside them.
Direct contact with 100+ VCs across Europe. Indirect access to virtually any fund on the continent through co-investment networks and deal flow partnerships.
Through indirect connections, I'm less than one degree away from 99% of the crypto space, 50% of robotics, and 20% of broader AI. This means I can ask for a direct intro to a vast universe of startups across these fields.
Active participant in builder pop-up cities, builder residencies, and startup programmes across Europe. Embedded in the communities where founders go from idea to product.
Deep domain expertise in crypto, robotics, and AI. Able to go relatively deep with startups across these categories, with a good overview of the market landscape and key projects.
London, Paris, Brussels, Lisbon, and Singapore. Spent more than 3 months in each over the past 3 years, deepening my network across these major cities.
Projects
A crowdfunding platform for brick-and-mortar venues. Neighbours back cafés, bakeries, and shops before they open — and become their first regulars. Fully functional with payments, campaigns, and a backer dashboard. Built as a non-profit (1% fee covers operational costs). Built solo, then handed off to my sisters for business development.
Visit seedly.brusselsA deployment platform for humanoid robots. Over 100 companies build the hardware and $5B+ has flowed into foundation models — but nobody solves the last mile: getting robots into real factories, stores, and warehouses. Motion is that missing layer. A long-term project I'm building gradually, since humanoids are still 5+ years away from 99.9% reliability.
Fun fact: I have two humanoids at home
A personal portfolio management dashboard aggregating positions across European brokers and crypto platforms. Real-time P&L, allocation views, and performance tracking — built because nothing on the market connected all the accounts I needed.
