London tech firm Omnea has launched a fund giving its employees the chance of winning investment for their own startups.
The AI-native procurement orchestration platform, used by many of the world’s fastest-growing companies, says the Omnea Future Founders Fund – launched in partnership with European angel fund Firedrop – will allow employees of more than five years to pitch founder and CEO Ben Freeman and Pietro Invernizzi, founder and investor at Firedrop, for 30 minutes.
They say employees with winning ideas can secure $250,000 of seed funding on the spot.
“Joining a high-growth startup is often the ideal way to practise building one of your own,” said Freeman.
“People who want to start their businesses in the future are looking for an environment that allows them to develop the skills they need and to provide a launchpad. Omnea does exactly this.
“And that is why we have the confidence to invest in any long-serving Omnean who chooses to go on that path.”
In addition to the capital, successful employees will also receive workspace, operational support, and hands-on coaching from Omnea’s CEO and executive team, as well as access to Omnea and Firedropʼs network of operators, advisors, and investors.
The extended network includes successful entrepreneurs and investors, including Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO at Stripe), Anne Raimondi (COO at Asana), Joel Hellermark (CEO at Sana), and Harsh Sinha (CTO at Wise).
Invernizzi said: “Omnea attracts and develops the kind of operators who become great founders: they work hard, care deeply, think outside the box, and make decisions with a longer time horizon.
“These are all qualities that early stage investors actively look for. We believe Omnea can be a launchpad for the next generation of ambitious founders, and we’re excited to partner to help make that happen.”
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In the last four years, Omnea has grown to nearly 200 employees across London and New York, becoming one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies. It interviewed more than 10,000 candidates for its first 50 roles.
Today, around 15% of Omneaʼs employees have previously founded companies themselves, including Arie Barendrecht, founder and former CEO of PropTech WiredScore; Ben Champion, co-founder of Fygo, an Accel-backed student marketing and loyalty app; and Chris Mansfield, co-founder and CEO of GoodCourse, a YC-backed corporate learning platform.
“When you build a team of ambitious, hard-working, and entrepreneurial people, some of them are inevitably going to want to start their own companies one day. I saw that first hand among my Tessian alumni-founder peers – including ElevenLabs’ Piotr Dabkowski, Maze’s Harry Wetherald, and Tracebit’s Andy Smith,” Freeman continued.
“If we can provide the structure, network and initial capital injection that will help these exceptional people get their businesses off the ground faster, that’s a great outcome.”
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