When Joe Schorge (JEMBA2003) arrived at London Business School in 2001, he described himself as “studied electrical engineering, became a tech and operations kind of a guy.” Twenty-five years later, the LBS alumnus is the founder and managing partner of Isomer Capital, a venture capital firm that has backed more than 100 funds across Europe and helped support 58 unicorn companies.
But the journey between those two points was far from straightforward.
“LBS changed my life,” Joe says. “It catalysed the conversion of a tech/operator into a business-focused investor. So, I’m forever grateful to LBS.” That transformation became the foundation for a career built on spotting opportunity where others saw uncertainty.
After graduating from LBS, Joe worked on several startups and co-founded a company in the early 2000s. “All failed,” he says candidly. “I learned a lot the hard way.” At the time, Europe’s venture ecosystem was still in its infancy. While Silicon Valley dominated the global conversation around technology investing, Europe lacked the infrastructure, funding networks and institutional confidence that founders needed to scale.
Yet Joe saw signs that the market was beginning to change. A self-described “tech fanatic,” he moved into investment and private markets roles, including positions at Cambridge Associates and Pomona Capital. Travelling across Europe during and after the financial crisis, he began to notice a new generation of ambitious founders emerging across the continent. “I saw that tech innovation in Europe was taking off,” he explains. “Founders were building super-cool startups, but there wasn’t an institutional way for large investors to access that.”
Looking beyond the obvious markets
One of Joe’s key insights was that Europe’s next generation of successful technology companies would not come exclusively from established hubs like London.
“Europe is far more geographically diverse than the US. You don’t know where the next great tech company is coming from” he says.
He points to companies like UiPath, founded in Romania, as evidence that world-class innovation could emerge from unexpected places. The challenge for investors was knowing how to find those opportunities early enough. Joe believed the answer lay with local seed investors – the people closest to emerging founders and regional ecosystems.
“If it’s in Eastern Europe, it tends to be the local seed fund that discovers the company first,” he says. “So I thought: what if I could partner with those groups?”
That idea became the foundation of Isomer Capital. The firm’s model combined investments into early-stage venture funds with direct co-investments into promising companies and secondary investments that provided liquidity to existing investors. Today, Isomer is launching its fourth flagship fund.
Building a business from conviction
In hindsight, Europe’s venture boom can appear inevitable. But when Joe first began pitching the idea for Isomer Capital, most investors remained unconvinced.
“There were 20 unicorns in all of Europe when we started,” he recalls. “I was this crazy man running around Europe going, ‘You’ve got to trust me. The entrepreneurs are really cool and they’re going to build cool stuff.’”
To build credibility, Joe spent years developing his investment thesis. While still working full-time, he dedicated nights, weekends and even family holidays to building a proprietary database and mapping the European venture landscape.
“My wife thought I was a complete nut,” he says with a laugh. “At three in the morning at the beach, I’m still working on my database.”
For Joe, the process was about more than enthusiasm. He knew he needed evidence, a clear strategy and a compelling proposition before anyone would commit capital.
“I felt I had to produce a bulletproof market view, a strategy to go after that market and some kind of team,” he says.
For nearly two years, he searched for an anchor investor.
“My test for myself was: can I get some like-minded investors with capital to back this idea? If not, that’s the market talking, and maybe I shouldn’t do it.”
That changed when a family office agreed to partner with him, enabling Isomer Capital to get off the ground. That first fund took years to raise, and closed at €110 million.
“At the time, people thought it was crazy,” Joe says. “One investor told me that if I ever raised €100 million for European venture, he would bow to me every time we met.”
Backing Europe’s next wave of innovation
The market Joe believed in has since transformed dramatically. Isomer Capital has now committed capital to more than 100 venture funds and completed dozens of co-investments and secondary transactions. Along the way, the firm has backed companies across sectors ranging from fintech to semiconductors.
“We got unicorn number 58 this week,” Joe says. What excites him most is the diversity of innovation now emerging across Europe.
“It’s not all about London, Berlin and Paris,” he says. “It’s the Nordics. It’s Eastern Europe. It’s everywhere.” For Joe, the evolution of European venture capital reflects the power of long-term conviction, and the importance of looking beyond established assumptions.
Advice for future founders
For Joe, building Isomer Capital was never just a professional commitment. In the early years, while holding a demanding full-time role, he spent evenings, weekends and even family holidays building databases, mapping Europe’s venture ecosystem and refining his investment thesis. Reflecting on his own journey, Joe emphasises that building something meaningful takes persistence, resilience and support from the people around you.
“To anybody who founds anything, get your partner involved,” Joe says. “You spend your nights and weekends building something. Make sure the people around you understand the journey.” Long hours, uncertainty and financial risk inevitably affect family life, making transparency and shared understanding essential. “I always invited my wife to the annual meeting for the firm,” he explains. “She’s not a venture person, but seeing the business grow helped her understand what we were building.”
For Joe, involving partners is not simply about support, it is about making the journey sustainable. Building a company or investment firm can take years before success becomes visible externally, and maintaining trust during that period matters just as much as conviction in the business itself.
And for someone who once described himself as “a crazy man running around Europe” trying to convince investors that European founders could build world-class companies, that long-term conviction has paid off.
This article is an extract from the Private Capital Symposium 2026 session titled “Venture Ecosystem in Europe: How to Strengthen it to Succeed in Challenging Times”. Read a summary of the session here.