Luca Banderet

Swiss-Swedish entrepreneur and early-stage investor.
I grew up Swiss-German; now also fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Building. I've spent most of my career starting things from zero:

  • - Co-founded and built J12 Ventures from scratch into a multi fund VC brand.
  • - Co-founded NOWO, a Swedish fintech (IPO 2021)
  • - Co-founded DHS, an angel network and fund

Investing. Been backing tech founders for the last decade:

Background.
- B.Sc. in Economics and M.Sc. in Finance from SSE (Sweden), HEC (Switzerland), IIMC (India)
- Largely retired professional sax player.

Companies I've backed and actively worked with lately

Description
Validio$45MAgentic AI data observabilityLead investor, pre-seed2020Stockholm
Treyd$35MAutomated trade financeLead investor, pre-seed2021Stockholm
Dema$12MAI OS for retailLead investor, pre-seed2022Stockholm
Context Systems—AI context engine for legal workLead investor, pre-seed2023London
Dropcode—1000x cheaper data for biotech AILead investor, pre-seed2024Cambridge
Stealth—EV / Industrial InfrastructureCo-Founder2025Stockholm/SF

Other selected investments from the J12 portfolio

Description
Lovable$933MAI full-stack engineerPre-seed2023Stockholm
Tandem Health$160MAI medical assistant for cliniciansPre-seed2023Stockholm
Verda$195MAI cloud infrastructureSeed2024Helsinki

I'm fascinated by the power of storytelling and believe that founders' success often relies on their ability to tell a compelling story of tomorrow, today:

  • - To attract investors
  • - To attract talent
  • - To inspire a vision
  • - To acquire (early) customers before the product is ready
  • - To leverage PR as marketing

I help founders tell their story better, today. Free of charge, below my pitch deck guide.

Seed Pitch Deck Engineering. For humans and AI.

Grid of slides from the 2026 Seed Pitch Deck Guide template, showing cover, problem, traction and team layoutsRead the guide

Raw, unfinished, half-serious ideas

Walk'n'work treadmill for the office