Brighteye Ventures Raises $72M First Close for HumanOS Fund III

Brighteye Ventures has announced a $72 million first close for its third fund, Fund III, taking the European early-stage investor’s total assets under management to $245 million. The new fund formalizes a broader strategy called HumanOS: technology intended to help people learn, work and adapt as artificial intelligence changes education and employment. 1

What Fund III will invest in

Brighteye says Fund III will back early-stage European companies with the potential to serve global markets. Its central investment premise is that as AI makes intelligence more abundant, products that strengthen human capability, judgment and talent will become increasingly valuable. 1

The firm’s investment focus falls into three connected areas:

• AI-native learning: Products designed to make learning more engaging and effective, including tools that help users develop AI fluency. 1
• Intelligence and productivity software: AI-enabled platforms for complex or high-stakes settings, including healthcare, education, infrastructure, cybersecurity and climate. 1
• Workforce infrastructure: Managed-labour marketplaces and talent software built to address changing labour demand, agentic workflows and the operational needs of AI-era work. 1

Rather than treating AI primarily as a replacement for workers, Brighteye’s stated strategy is to find companies using it to expand what people can do. 1

Fund size, deployment plan and first investments

The $72 million raise is a first close, rather than a final fund total. Brighteye expects Fund III to make as many as 35 investments over the coming years. It said it had already completed eight new investments at the time of the announcement, though not all had been disclosed. 1

Among the investments it did name were:

• imagi, which works with schools on AI fluency;
• NEX Health Intelligence, which provides augmented-intelligence software for hospital infection-control teams; and
• Gyver, a marketplace for electricians aimed at helping meet demand tied to European energy infrastructure. 1

Together, the examples illustrate the fund’s wider remit: learning tools, decision-support software in healthcare, and labour-market infrastructure for skilled trades.

New limited partners and portfolio track record

New investors in Fund III include Lumina Foundation, Zanichelli Venture and PI Impact. They join existing limited partners including the European Investment Fund, the Jacobs Foundation and European family offices. 1

Brighteye says it has invested in more than 50 companies since inception. Those portfolio companies have collectively raised more than $1 billion, according to the firm, and multiple companies generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. 1

The firm highlighted Zen Educate, Ornikar, Shakers and installer as established holdings in labour-marketplace categories. These companies are relevant to Fund III’s thesis because they sit where training, job access and workforce operations intersect. 1

Why Brighteye sees a market opening

Brighteye cited its research showing that European venture funding for learning-and-work companies rose from $825 million in 2024 to $1.85 billion in 2025, the highest level since 2021. The firm also said companies in the sector raised $1.63 billion in the first half of 2026, a pace it believes could nearly double the prior year’s total. 1

That funding trend does not guarantee company outcomes, but it helps explain why the firm is widening its scope beyond traditional education technology. The opportunity it identifies is not only software for classrooms, but also the systems through which people build skills, make decisions and find work alongside AI. 1

A broader platform for learning and work

Founding Partner Ben Wirz framed the strategy as using machines to expand human capacity. Brighteye argues that the next category-defining companies will be those that redefine human capability through technology. 1

Alongside the fund announcement, the firm introduced a refreshed brand and website and expanded its Sidekick content platform. It also promoted David Guérin to Partner, Isabella Vahdati to Principal and Rhys Spence to Head of Platform & Research. 1

Fund III therefore marks more than a new pool of capital: it is Brighteye’s explicit move from a specialist edtech position toward a wider bet on European companies building the learning, productivity and labour systems of the AI era.