Continuing on our path of unpacking the major players within venture capital ecosystems across Europe, today is the day to cover one of the continent’s biggest economies - Germany.
As could be expected from a country so large and economically powerful, Germany has quite a plenty of venture-related organizations and innovation programs going on. Take for example the fact, that in the past year the nation has enjoyed an almost 3-time increase in tech investments when compared to the year 2020 bringing it closer to the traditional tech capital of Europe - London.
Aside from capital, the country also has significant R&D capabilities, accounting for the largest amount of filed patents (as reported by Speedinvest’s report) as well as a continuous inflow of talented engineers flocking to nations’ tech hubs in Berlin, Munich, and others.
Plus, no wonder Germany is so attractive for brain gains. It offers good conditions for developing the startup environment, for example, accelerators and incubators.
So without further ado, let’s talk about Top VC funds from Germany investing in early-stage startups.
Global Founders Capital (GFC)
Geography: Global
Preferred industries: Internet and Technology-based
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Multistage
The very first on our list, Global Founders Capital is decidedly among the best known and heard of venture firms in Europe as well as Germany, where it habitually appears among the most active early and growth-stage investors. As an investment arm of Rocket Internet, its approach has been notable for finding proven commercial models to incubate and scale them all the way through in various markets across the globe. Therefore, it is fair to expect that in exchange for a seat at your cap table, the GFC will be a super helpful partner by involving the right people in operations and giving a hefty capital injection ensuring you’d move in the best traditions of German warfare - through an assertive blitz all the way to the end goal at sight. You can recognize a great deal of the firm’s investments in giants like Delivery Hero, Zalando, Slack, and literally countless more to date.
Target Global
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Fintech, Healthtech, Consumer-enabled SaaS, Mobility, and Edtech
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Multistage
Another fund on our list, Target Global is a multistage technology investor spanning its focus across the whole of Europe in selected sectors. Having deep operational expertise in the verticals firm is focused on, its portfolio company can benefit from both the knowledge of the investment team and the ability to have a full lifecycle of funding opportunities ranging from pre-seed to pre-IPO stages. Throughout the years, the fund has had a good number of remarkable investments including neobank giant Revolut, used car marketplace AUTO1, and digital asset investing gateway Copper.
Earlybird Venture Capital
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries:digital technology, ICT, Deeptech, Digital health, Medical devices, Diagnostics, Enabling technologies, and Biopharma
Investment ticket: €500k - €10M
Company stage: Early stage
One of the most mature and renowned on the list, Earlybird is a European-wide investor with 4 separate investment teams dedicated to various parts of the region and/or industries. Having little over 25 years of operating and a 70-people strong team, Earlybird would provide one’s venture with both the connections across the whole continent and beyond, as well as the domain expertise needed to succeed and thrive. Among some of the most famous investments of theirs, you may find an RPA giant UiPath, the first Bulgarian unicorn Payhawk and a platform for financial technology FintechOS.
Point Nine
Geography: Global
Preferred industries: B2B SaaS and Marketplaces
Investment ticket: €500k - €5M
Company stage: Mostly seed, sometimes pre-seed or early Series A
The next from our selection, Point Nine is a Berlin-based seed investor in SaaS and Marketplace models. In their strategy, investing team is quite unusual by immediately committing themselves to participate in your series A if they’ve invested in your startup idea. The team also uses a short, two-page term sheet that requires only a handful of due-diligence docs to be submitted, saving you a lot of time and effort on the funding-related hustle. To date, Point Nine has a pretty impressive track record stroke of 10 unicorn companies over its almost a 15-year existence, including Algolia, Delivery Hero, and Loom.
Project A
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Digital Health, Enterprise Software, Developer & Data Tools, FinTech, Education, Real Estate & Construction, e-Commerce, Media or Mobility.
Investment ticket: $1M to $8M
Company stage: Pre-seed to series A
Project A is an early-stage operational VC conveniently spreading its offices between the two biggest tech hubs of Europe in Berlin and London. In their search for opportunities, the fund is ready to get involved as early as possible and deploy its large 100-people team of full-time operation experts to support startups in a truly wide range of specialties: engineering, design, sales/marketing, and more. The investment decision usually takes 3 weeks and if you land an investment from Project A, you can expect pretty standard terms and dilutions (15% - 30%).
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF)
Geography: Germany
Preferred industries: Digital tech, Industrial technology, Life sciences, Chemistry, or a related business area
Investment ticket: up to €1M
Company stage: Seed
The very next on the list, a Bonn-based HTGF is effectively the most active seed investor in the German startup ecosystem. In its approach, the firm usually joins in as a traditional hands-off VC who prefers to be among the first investors in your venture doing everything it takes to get you to the series A. HTGF also assists you in establishing a product-market fit, helps secure IP rights and finds the right partners among their long list of corporate LPs and connections. In addition, the firm has had more than 150 exit/IPO events so it's safe to assume their startups are in good hands. Some of their investment include companies like ML pricing startup 7Learnings and automation platform for insect breeding Farminsect.
btov
Geography: Europe, with emphasis on DACH
Preferred industries: B2C- and B2B-oriented businesses in the fields of AI SaaS, Logistics, Digital health, Marketplaces, and Deeptech
Investment ticket: €250k - €5M
Company stage: Early stage
The next on our list, btov is a European venture investor with over a two-decade history and 5 funds under direct or shared management. In their search for opportunities, the fund is chiefly looking at two broad categories: deep tech and digital technologies of various sorts. The firm has a longer-than-usual investment horizon of 5 to 10 years and if you get involved with btov, you can more than count on a 250-people strong network of private investors for your funding needs, and entrepreneurial experience that the group can share along with sector-specific expertise. Some of the firm’s investments include Facebook, ML platform LatticeFlow and AI language translation company DeepL.
Cherry Ventures
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Software, Foodtech, Fintech, Commerce, Climatetech and Health + Crypto/Web3
Investment ticket: €300k - €3M
Company stage: Pre-seed and seed
A yet another one from our selection, Cherry Ventures is a Berlin-based firm targeting the earliest stage (including pre-revenue and pre-product) startups across Europe. When searching for opportunities, Cherry’s sweet spot is a quite dazzling triad of TTT (team, team and team!) which neatly describes the firms’ focus on finding the right people solving ambitious, big-market problems. Then, if you end up joining their portfolio, you may benefit not only from the cash injections and connections to further fundraises but also from (what Cherry Ventures call themselves) dedicated “SWAT teams” that will help you with recruiting, fundraising, and communications.
APX
Geography: Global
Preferred industries: Sector agnostic
Investment ticket: €50k - €500k
Company stage: Pre-seed
The next on the list, APX is a pre-seed venture builder owned by Porsche Digital and Axel Springer Digital Ventures. In its operations, the firm is not limited by set industry or sector but is rather looking for pre-seed teams from all fields aside from hardware-related ones. If you start working with APX, you can expect a quick €50k investment and a kickstart in building your company for the upcoming 4 weeks to see if theres’ a place for further cooperation. Some of the investment teams’ bids include companies like MLOps platform Syndicai, luxury investments platform Konvi, and a debt fintech Piggit.
HV Capital
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Fintech, Enterprise, Mobility, Consumer, Education, Healthcare, Retail
Investment ticket: €500k - €5M
Company stage: Early and sometimes growth stages
Another firm worth noting is Munich’s HV Capital. To begin with, the firm is targeting opportunities across the earliest stages of development willing to deploy from €500k to €5M. When it comes to the things you may acquire by joining the firm’s portfolio, they include a great partnership with the fund having over two decades of continuous venture investing experience, a wide community network, and a high possibility of the follow-on investments as they’ve raised a completely new funding vehicle for such purposes. Some of the famous names HV Capital has invested in include freight forwarder unicorn Sennder, a mobility giant Flixbus and fresh food provider HelloFresh.
Atlantic Labs
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Digital health, Future of work, Mobility, Industrial automation, Artificial intelligence, Fintech & Proptech
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Pre-seed
An upcoming firm from the list, Atlantic Labs is a Berlin-based pre-seed investor looking to support mission-driven founders within a range of select verticals. Founded and run by Christophe Maire, the founder of the now-unicorn company Here Technlogies (previously known as Gate5), the fund has invested in 100+ startups and remains quite active up to this day. Given its almost a decade-long history, you can expect strong operational support on the way to closing further rounds and connections to facilitate it. Some, though not all of their early-stage investments include music streaming platform SoundCloud, travel booking platform Omio and a grocery delivery platform Gorillas.
FoodLabs
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Food, Sustainability and Health
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Early-stage
The next on our list, FoodLabs is an Early Stage VC venture studio for food, sustainability, and health. In its approach, the Foodlabs acts as a combination of a venture builder and an incubator where they invite aspiring researchers/entrepreneurs to join their programs in building a thesis for a new venture. Later down the line after the program, when you have a clear business idea and company at hand, Foodlabs can become your seed investor and bring product and marketing/sales + finance people to develop a go-to-market strategy and get you prepared for the next rounds. The fund has already backed over 30 foodtech companies, among which you can find cultured (lab-grown) meat startup Meatable, cultured mushroom company Mushlas and the dairy biotech Formo.
Fly Ventures
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: automation and applied deep tech
Investment ticket: €500k - €1.5M
Company stage: Pre-seed to seed
Fly Ventures is a hard tech and enterprise investor with a special interest in automation and applied deeptech. As a quite specialized VC, Fly Ventures chiefly looks for highly technical founders addressing rich and big markets. Throughout the investment process, the fund aims to be as transparent as possible in publishing its term sheet and its love for a continuous “dating” before capital commitment. Some of the firm’s startups include the autonomous electric airplanes producer Pyka and self-driving technology Wayve.
Capnamic
Geography: DACH, with a preference for Germany
Preferred industries: Sector agnostic
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Pre-seed to Series A
An upcoming VC on our list, Capnamic is an early-stage fund for German-speaking countries with a special focus on their home startup ecosystem in Germany. To sum up Capnamic’s approach, we’d have to say they’re aiming to be the first investor of choice for pre-seed and seed startups building software-driven products. In exchange for getting onboard with Capnamic, you may find tailored support in marketing, PR, and finance and mentorship sessions with industry experts not to mention the traditional help with getting your leg into the doors of first customers and follow-up investors. Some of their investments include insurtech company Getsafe, construction management platform Capmo and enterprise architecture SaaS LeanIX.
Picus Capital
Geography: Global
Preferred industries: Real Estate, Finance & Insurance, Human Resources, Renewable Energy, Mobility, E-Commerce, and Health
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Early stage
Picus Capital is a transnational VC investing into pre-seed to series A startups across the globe. As a privately owned fund, the Picus’s team does not have an exit horizon meaning they won’t pinch you every now and then to reach an attractive valuation for an exit but rather are there for the long haul. In addition to capital investment, the firm would often provide the support of their in-house HR team, help with internationalization, and when the right time comes - assistance with the IPO or an exit. Some of the firm’s investments include but are not limited to recruitment management software Personio, B2B payments platform Billie and an e-comerce fulfillment provider Hive.
IBB Ventures
Geography: Berlin
Preferred industries: Health Care, Industrial Technologies, Consumer & Digital, Software & IT
Investment ticket: €200k - €1M
Company stage: Early stage
IBB Ventures is the first and only investor pointing solely and exclusively towards Berlin-based startups. In their search for opportunities, the investment team aspires to be your first-ever institutional investor and will consider backing the earliest possible stages of your venture with up to €1M in funding. The investment is oftentimes co-led by one or more partners helping you benefit from a wider pool of connections and support. You may recognize the IBB by their investments in a book summarizing app Blinkist, language learning app Babbel and customer analytics platform CrossEngage.
Cavalry Ventures
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: B2C and B2B software
Investment ticket: €500k - €2M
Company stage: early stage
The very next on our list, Cavalry Ventures is a super humble and cool (just look at their website!) investor from Berlin searching for software innovation across Europe. As people who’d started and scaled million/billion dollar companies themselves, the fund’s team is pretty much aware of what it takes to get where your startup wants to be. With all this in mind, Cavalry Ventures team has built an internal platform with basically everything you’d need: connections to customers/investors, workshops and training in industry-specific domains as well as marketing/HR matters, not to mention product perks for your enterprise.
La Famiglia VC
Geography: Europe and US
Preferred industries: Sector-agnostic
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Early stage
La Famiglia VC is a compact VC situated in the capital of Germany. In its search for investment opportunities, the firm does not cement its thesis around a certain topic but is rather exploring early-stage proposals from different sectors and industries. In exchange for becoming one of their portfolio companies, La Famiglia aims to be a connecting bridge between the old economy and the new digital world, creating well-thought synergies between the two. Some of its investments include one of the most notorious crypto exchanges Coinbase, a super big payroll and compliance unicorn Deel, and the largest payment processing company Stripe.
Bayern Kapital
Geography: Bavaria
Preferred industries: Biotechnology/Life science, Software & IT, Medical technology, New materials, Nanotechnology, and Environmental technology
Investment ticket: €750k - €10M
Company stage: Seed to growth
Bayern Kapital is a Bavarian institutional fund focused on supporting and growing the local innovation ecosystem. When it comes to the seed stage strategy, the fund is open to those building and developing their first MVPs with up to €750k across selected verticals and is ready to double down on the investment with additional capital deployments through other funds and partners among private investors. Some of the firm’s investments include but are not limited to e-mobility startup DeepDrive, data science platform Halerium and real estate digitization platform Casavi.
Visionaries Club
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: Sector agnostic with B2B model
Investment ticket: Undisclosed
Company stage: Seed to early growth
The next on our list, Visionaries Club is a Berlin-based VC established and run by experienced entrepreneurs and venture investors. When looking for investment opportunities, the firm seeks companies disrupting or doubling down on the industrial might of Europe which they believe to be the competitive advantage of the old world when compared to the highly digitized US and China. Some of the funds’ bets include companies like restaurant logistics startup Choco and spending management platform Yokoy.
Lunar Ventures
Geography: Europe
Preferred industries: deeptech
Investment ticket: €300k - €1M
Company stage: early stage
Last but definitely not least, Lunar Ventures is a deeptech fund comprised of people with tech backgrounds and research. Common with other hard tech investors, the team of Lunar wants to find the right technology and people to them back as early as possible and help to scale from complex-to-grasp abstractions into sellable products and services. As may be expected from a research-driven investor, the team occasionally lets out interesting posts on their blog (like this one) so we can’t find a single reason for you not to check them out! Some of the team’s bids include computer vision startup Mobius Labs, research marketplace Molecule, and image recognition for retail Neurolabs.
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