Ali Najafbagy

Ali Najafbagy is co-founder and managing partner of 4impact Capital, a Dutch venture firm he established in 2019 alongside former Goldman Sachs colleague Pauline Wink. The two had known each other for more than 20 years from their time working in London, and joined forces in 2018 to build a fund around the intersection of software, impact, and financial returns. He is a TU Delft aerospace engineer and a Harvard Business School alumnus.

Before venture capital, Najafbagy spent roughly seven years in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, after which he joined Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company in January 2009. It was at Mubadala — through exposure to renewable-energy vehicles such as Masdar, as well as education and healthcare investments — that he encountered impact investing, concluding that "with the skills that you learned in investment banking, you can also really do business and do good." His senior career also spans Mubadala GE Capital and executive-search firm Egon Zehnder.

Bridging his corporate career and 4impact, he served as a venture partner for a UK impact venture fund and became a personal angel investor in European software startups delivering positive environmental and social outcomes. Today he leads 4impact from The Hague — a city he describes as Europe's impact-investing hub ("Impact City") — where he is also known for outdoor sports and, personally, writing a biography of his father.

• Invests on three pillars, repeatedly stated by the firm: software + impact + strong financial returns. He argues "the double bottom line works within the software + impact combination."
• Backs digital, software-first solutions (not hardware-heavy plays) that scale impact — often deeper-tech such as satellite IT, AI, and blockchain applied to environmental and social problems.
• Focuses on impact across "Planet and People" themes: energy transition, climate, circular economy, water, and workforce/HR.
• Writes seed-to-Series A checks of roughly €250k–€2.5m across Benelux, DACH, and the Nordics.
• Prefers systemic solutions over individual gestures: "Eating less meat and cycling more on an individual level is good, but only a collective and systematic approach can bring about positive change."
• Values founder quality — his own firm bio describes him as focused on "talent spotting" and commercial rigor.