Baseline closes €4M first close on pre-seed venture fund to back…

Team S · 2026-01-03T14:31:54.000Z

Dublin-based Baseline Community + Fund a founder-led independent venture capital initiative and workspace has successfully completed a €4 million first close on its pre-seed venture fund, with the goal of investing in more than 50 early-stage startups across Ireland and Europe. The fund was established by longtime local tech founders and angel investors Eamon Leonard and Fiona Kelly to address funding gaps in the Irish ecosystem and help promising founders build global companies from home. Launched out of the growing Baseline Community + Workspace in Dublin’s Liberties district a 24/7 accessible hub for entrepreneurs focused on building scalable software and technology businesses the venture capital vehicle aims to deploy pre-seed checks of around €100,000 into teams as they start to find product-market fit. The €4 million first close forms part of a target fund size of €5 million and is backed by a network of exited founders, high-net-worth private investors and early-stage supporters from Ireland, the UK, continental Europe and the United States. Fund principals say the mission is to keep more early-stage capital in Ireland, helping founders avoid the all-too-common path of raising abroad before scaling their businesses. Baseline’s founders, Leonard and Kelly, have built the initiative not only as a financial vehicle but also as a community ecosystem where peer learning, shared workspace and founder-to-founder support create momentum for early-stage companies. Early-stage founders, exited entrepreneurs and angel investors make up the Baseline community, and the VC fund sits on top of that network to accelerate growth opportunities and bridge the gap between idea and scale-ready execution. As part of the fund’s deployment, Baseline intends to support founders with both capital and community harnessing the workspace, mentorship, and founder events to help startups refine products, attract follow-on funding, and connect with larger venture partners across Europe and the U.S. Baseline’s founders emphasize that this dual-support model is designed to build a vibrant startup ecosystem that is less reliant on foreign capital and more rooted in founder communities. #VentureCapital #PreSeed #IrelandStartups #BaselineFund #StartupFunding #EarlyStageInvesting #TechEcosystem #IrishTech #FoundersFirst #CommunityVC #Innovation #EuropeStartups #DublinTech #StartupSupport

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Baseline closes €4M first close on pre-seed venture fund to back… | Newnex