# Barend Van den Brande

> Barend Van den Brande is a seed investor at Hummingbird Ventures (Gent) backing iOS and Apps. See 16 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Hummingbird Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hummingbird-ventures)
- Location: Gent, Belgium
- Total investments: 16
- Last investment: Feb 2025
- Lead investor: 31%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/barend-van-den-brande/0/513/219

Barend Van den Brande is a seed investor at Hummingbird Ventures in Gent focused on iOS and Apps. Barend is the founder of Hummingbird Ventures (2010) with 15+ years of venture capital experience.He is involved with Showpad, Deliveroo, Elder and Automata, Pristyn Care and Khatabook.Previously, he started his career in the US as a financial analyst for SG Cowen in Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on internet and data-networking companies.Barend holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Louvain, Belgium.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| iOS | 1 | 6% |
| Apps | 1 | 6% |
| SaaS | 1 | 6% |
| Mobile | 1 | 6% |
| Retail | 1 | 6% |

28 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 3 | 19% |
| Series A | 3 | 19% |
| Series B | 3 | 19% |
| Series D | 2 | 13% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 13% |

7 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Belgium | 2 | 13% |
| United States | 2 | 13% |
| Greece | 1 | 6% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 6% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Karman+ | Asteroid mining has lived at the intersection of scientific research and popular culture for decades, with as many academic papers published as there are books, TV shows and movies about it. Access to resources, with its finite nature and disparate distribution of resources, plays an essential part in the geopolitical web of power and wealth. Ithas defined economic growth to such an extent that we have been using them as primary demarcation lines and identifiers in our history, from the stone to bronze and iron age to our current silicon age. But our resources-driven growth faces a massive existential challenge, with climate change, ecosystem degradation and resource depletion demanding a complete reset. Humanity needs to shift global transportation, manufacturing, construction and energy onto a sustainable path. Expanding beyond the Kármán line is where we believe transformative future growth and innovation will be found. Recent missions by NASA (OSIRIS-REx & DART) and JAXA (Hayabusa2) have firmly pushed the idea of using space resources from academic research into commercial opportunity. We believe the Regolith Age, powered by abundant space resources, is an inevitability that we can accelerate. | $20M | Seed | Feb 19, 2025 |  |
| Starpath Robotics | Starpath Robotics builds spacecraft propellant that reduces the deep space transport cost. | $12M | Seed | Aug 20, 2024 |  |
| Showpad | At Showpad, we believe that the buyer experience is the ultimate differentiator. And this is why we built the most complete and flexible sales enablement platform that marketing and sales rely on to prepare sellers, engage buyers, and optimize performance with insights. With a single user experience, our solution makes it easy to discover and sharethe right content, deliver training and coaching, and maximize seller productivity.Our teams drive rapid deployment and adoption with best-in-class technology and practices based on the success of more than 1,200 customers in over 50 countries. GE Healthcare, Bridgestone, Honeywell, and Merck, among others, rely on Showpad's sales enablement platform in every step of the buyer journey.Founded in 2011, today Showpad is a team of 450+ people working from the company's headquarters in Ghent and Chicago and regional offices in Brussels, London, Munich, Portland, San Francisco, and Wroclaw. Showpad has experienced explosive growth in recent years and has now raised a total of $185 million in funding. In 2019 Showpad was included on the Best Workplaces list by Inc. Magazine. | $70M | Series D | Jun 25, 2019 |  |
| Showpad | At Showpad, we believe that the buyer experience is the ultimate differentiator. And this is why we built the most complete and flexible sales enablement platform that marketing and sales rely on to prepare sellers, engage buyers, and optimize performance with insights. With a single user experience, our solution makes it easy to discover and sharethe right content, deliver training and coaching, and maximize seller productivity.Our teams drive rapid deployment and adoption with best-in-class technology and practices based on the success of more than 1,200 customers in over 50 countries. GE Healthcare, Bridgestone, Honeywell, and Merck, among others, rely on Showpad's sales enablement platform in every step of the buyer journey.Founded in 2011, today Showpad is a team of 450+ people working from the company's headquarters in Ghent and Chicago and regional offices in Brussels, London, Munich, Portland, San Francisco, and Wroclaw. Showpad has experienced explosive growth in recent years and has now raised a total of $185 million in funding. In 2019 Showpad was included on the Best Workplaces list by Inc. Magazine. | $50M | Series C | May 19, 2016 |  |
| Showpad | At Showpad, we believe that the buyer experience is the ultimate differentiator. And this is why we built the most complete and flexible sales enablement platform that marketing and sales rely on to prepare sellers, engage buyers, and optimize performance with insights. With a single user experience, our solution makes it easy to discover and sharethe right content, deliver training and coaching, and maximize seller productivity.Our teams drive rapid deployment and adoption with best-in-class technology and practices based on the success of more than 1,200 customers in over 50 countries. GE Healthcare, Bridgestone, Honeywell, and Merck, among others, rely on Showpad's sales enablement platform in every step of the buyer journey.Founded in 2011, today Showpad is a team of 450+ people working from the company's headquarters in Ghent and Chicago and regional offices in Brussels, London, Munich, Portland, San Francisco, and Wroclaw. Showpad has experienced explosive growth in recent years and has now raised a total of $185 million in funding. In 2019 Showpad was included on the Best Workplaces list by Inc. Magazine. | $8.5M | Series B | Nov 06, 2014 |  |
| Beat | Beat creates a new ride experience by connecting thousands of passengers with nearby available drivers in real time. Through the app, you can request a driver 24/7.The company was founded in 2011 and was acquired by mytaxi, Europe’s top taxi-hailing app (Daimler Mobility Services GmbH, part of Daimler Group) in February 2017. Beat iscurrently available in Athens (Greece), Lima (Peru), Santiago (Chile), Bogota (Colombia) and has plans to expand to more cities in South America.Beat is available on iOS and Android platforms. | $4M | Series B | Dec 20, 2013 |  |
| Shutl | Shutl is a technology startup that offers convenient fulfillment services by connecting online retailers with local same-day couriers.The company solves fulfillment for retailers and shoppers by enabling immediate or convenient delivery of online purchases. Its platform creates a marketplace from the capacity of local courier firms and usesretail partners’ local stocks to fulfill purchases. It integrates with all major dispatch software and retailers’ existing technologies.Shutl operates in more than 50 towns across the United Kingdom with a virtual fleet of thousands of couriers who complete 10,000 deliveries every day.Shutl was founded in December 2009 by | $828K | Seed | Apr 01, 2011 |  |
| Shutl | Shutl is a technology startup that offers convenient fulfillment services by connecting online retailers with local same-day couriers.The company solves fulfillment for retailers and shoppers by enabling immediate or convenient delivery of online purchases. Its platform creates a marketplace from the capacity of local courier firms and usesretail partners’ local stocks to fulfill purchases. It integrates with all major dispatch software and retailers’ existing technologies.Shutl operates in more than 50 towns across the United Kingdom with a virtual fleet of thousands of couriers who complete 10,000 deliveries every day.Shutl was founded in December 2009 by | $524K | Angel | Aug 26, 2010 |  |
| Clear2Pay | Clear2Pay is an innovative payments technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely and streamlined payments processing. Clear2Pay's Open Payment Framework (OPF) enables financial institutions to improve internal payments processing efficiencies whilst at the same time providing their clients withbetter payment services that are faster, with richer payments related information.Clear2Pay's solutions within the Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) based Open Payment Framework offer financial institutions the ability to process payments through a centralised payments engine that utilises a library of re-useable business services across all payment types. The bank can thus combine new services models with existing infrastructures, thereby protecting previous investments whilst gradually moving to a more modern efficient payments environment. | $8.3M |  | Dec 16, 2008 |  |
| Clear2Pay | Clear2Pay is an innovative payments technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely and streamlined payments processing. Clear2Pay's Open Payment Framework (OPF) enables financial institutions to improve internal payments processing efficiencies whilst at the same time providing their clients withbetter payment services that are faster, with richer payments related information.Clear2Pay's solutions within the Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) based Open Payment Framework offer financial institutions the ability to process payments through a centralised payments engine that utilises a library of re-useable business services across all payment types. The bank can thus combine new services models with existing infrastructures, thereby protecting previous investments whilst gradually moving to a more modern efficient payments environment. | $17.2M | Series D | Jun 29, 2006 |  |

10 of 16 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Dawn Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dawn-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Fusion Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fusion-fund) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Balerion Space Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/balerion-space-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Day One Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/day-one-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Idinvest Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/idinvest-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Intel Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/intel-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Hummingbird Ventures

VC Fund · Gent, Belgium

Hummingbird Ventures is a venture capital partner for outlier founders building generational companies. Hummingbird teamed up with many transformative companies, including Kraken, Peak Games, Deliveroo, BillionToOne, Showpad, OneCard, Pristyn Care, Gram Games and many others.

5 contacts available at Hummingbird Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Akshay Mehra | Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/akshay-mehra-1f84 |
| Barend Van den Brande | Founding Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/barend-van-den-brande |
| Firat Ileri | Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/firat-ileri |
| Lola Wajskop | Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lola-wajskop |
| Lukas Decoster | Chief Financial Officer & General Counsel | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lukas-decoster |

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## FAQ

### What does Barend Van den Brande invest in?

Barend Van den Brande invests primarily in iOS, Apps and SaaS startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 16 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Belgium. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Barend Van den Brande last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Barend Van den Brande closed in Feb 2025. Shizune tracks 16 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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