SeedRound Media
Rushed for time? Here is the top 5 Early Stage Venture investors for Software startups. Scroll down for more information on these investors or to view the rest of the investors.
Name | Website | Stages | Location | Socials |
|---|---|---|---|---|
High-Tech Grunderfonds | Early Stage Venture, Seed | Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Europe | ||
TA Ventures | Early Stage Venture, Seed, Venture | Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany, Europe | ||
TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen | Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed | Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany, Europe | ||
Paua Ventures | Early Stage Venture, Seed | Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe | ||
seed + speed Ventures | Early Stage Venture, Seed | Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe |
At SeedRound we track over 200,000 investors and over 1,000,000 people who hold key positions in these firms. We use this directory of investors to highlight top employees, LP’s and funding organisations we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
We’ve ranked the top Software Early Stage Venture investors in Germany. The companies, startups and institutions listed in this article are all exceptional companies, well worth a follow. We have included links to their websites, socials and CrunchBase (if you’re interested in their financials).
We selected the organisations listed in this article based on:
- Track record
- Executive leadership
- Market share
- Innovation
- ESG rating
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Top Software Investors & Funds (Germany)
High-Tech Grunderfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven startups. With EUR 895.5 million in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge more than 500 startups since 2005. Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and startup experts help guide the development of young companies. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech startups in a range of sectors, including software, media, internet, hardware, automation, health care, chemistry, and life sciences. To date, external investors have injected over EUR 2 billion into the HTGF portfolio via about 1,400 follow-on financing rounds. HTGF has also successfully sold interests in more than 100 companies. Investors in this public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V., as well as the companies ALTANA, BASF, BAYER, B.Braun, Boehringer Ingelheim, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deutsche Post DHL, Dräger, Drillisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, FOND OF Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, Postbank, QIAGEN, RWE Generation SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Gruppe, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Informatik, WACKER and Wilh. Werhahn KG.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Hardware, Health Care, Software, Venture Capital
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TA Ventures
TA Ventures is globally-minded and network-driven VC firm investing in early-stage tech startups in Europe and North America shaping the industries of tomorrow. Our ticket size starts from $100k up to $1M. We offer speed of execution, proactive support, and access to a broad international network. Drawing upon our network, we support our portfolio companies by proactively soliciting large, growth-minded co-investors in subsequent rounds. We utilize our industry knowledge and network to give portfolio companies and partner VCs access to the highly skilled and cost-effective R&D outsourcing teams in Central and Eastern Europe.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed, Venture
Location: Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Enterprise Software, Finance, Financial Services, Logistics, Venture Capital
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TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen
TGFS – Technologiegruenderfonds Sachsen is an early stage VC fund targeting high tech startups with strong growth potential. The fund invests into ventures located in Saxony/Germany, Europe’s leading semiconductor cluster. The team has invested into more than 120 companies so far, including more than 40 investments from the current fund.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Enterprise Software, Venture Capital
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Paua Ventures
Paua Ventures is a Berlin-based venture capital firm. Established in 2010 and funded only with management money, Paua has built its way up to become a leading tech investor in Berlin. Paua invests in European early-stage B2B Software companies, acting both as lead or co-lead investor. Their focus is on sectors where they can add the most value to your business: Enterprise Software, Software as a Service, Industry 4.0, Deep-tech (Robotics, Security, IoT, AI/ML, NLP, DevTools..) Paua provides a broad range of services and the team is truly committed in being the best partner for entrepreneurs, aiming to be the bridge between new businesses and the corporate world.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, B2B, Enterprise Software, Finance, Financial Services, SaaS, Venture Capital
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seed + speed Ventures
Seed + Speed Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on seed investments. They invest in software startups mainly in the B2B sector mostly in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. As part of the Maschmeyer Group with offices in Hanover, Munich, Berlin, and San Francisco, they provide innovative startups with equity investments and free of charge sales support.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe
Industries: Enterprise Software, FinTech, Software, Virtual Reality
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Join Capital
JOIN Capital is an early stage VC focused on pre-Series A investments in Industry 4.0 and enterprise tech. Our portfolio companies are front and center at factories, delivering smart machinery and robotics for high-volume manufacturing. They’re behind the scenes with powerful algorithms for managing global production systems. They rethink and rewire essential processes, with the goal of maximizing human capabilities. We invest in technologies related to core business functions: operations, manufacturing, data analytics, supply chain and software development. We seek innovative solutions to real customer problems that have achieved product-market fit. Technologies we invest in include: machine learning, robotics, cloud computing, IoT, smart sensors.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe
Industries: B2B, Enterprise Software, Venture Capital
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Smac Partners
Smac Partners focused on early-stage ICT technologies and services of start-ups. The investment geographies are mainly Europe and Israel, with leverage of a global network. The secondary investments provide highly flexible customised solutions to optimise the value of single assets or entire portfolios of corporate and institutional venture capital companies. In 2001 they started with Siemens Mobile Acceleration as a corporate venture arm of Siemens Mobile. In 2006 they performed a secondary transaction of the total Siemens fund with the new name Tempo Park Fund 1. smac | partners advises the fund with originally more than 30 ICT early-stage investments in the USA, Asia, Europe and Israel. In 2007 smac partners executed a typical tail-end secondary venture capital transaction by acquiring a portfolio from Vertex Venture Capital, Israel. This fund, smac partners Fund II, comprises nine ICT portfolio companies. In 2008 smac partners closed its third fund in 3 years, smac partners Fund III, and so far has acquired stakes in 10 ICT-companies in Finland, Israel and USA. Their exceptional background and remarkable global network in the ICT industry and relevant communities substantially underpins smac | partners’ passion for “leading entrepreneurs to successâ€.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Private Equity, Venture
Location: Unterhaching, Bayern, Germany, Europe
Industries: Enterprise Software, Information Technology, Telecommunications
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SaaSgarage
SaaSgarage, the Pre-Seed Angel Fund for SaaS Startups, is the collective term for all of Alexander Bruehl’s Business Angel activities from founding, early financing to professional advising and coaching European seed stage SaaS companies. SaaSgarage was founded because founders need a true committment for experience driven advise and coaching, which is complemented with pragmatic early external money during the first six to nine months after having solidified their idea, funded a company and developed a MVP, which they can demonstrate to early adopters in their target market. Over the past thirteen years, SaaSgarage has develop a very unique, success oriented cooperation model, which persuaded more than twenty founders of (by now) well regarded B2B SaaS companies to join forces with SaaSgarage. Combining its associated Pre-Seed Angel Fund for SaaS Startups with Alexander’s passionate, true value-add advising and mentoring, SaaSgarage can offer founders a very unique, success oriented cooperation model, which appealed more than twenty SaaS companies accross Europe.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Munich, Bayern, Germany, Europe
Industries: Advice, Angel Investment, Finance, Information Technology, SaaS, Software, Venture Capital
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VCDE Venture Partners
VCDE Venture Partners was started in 2008 in Frankfurt/Germany and is a growth equity investment firm with a clear focus on technology companies in the field of software, the internet, mobile telecommunications and IT business services. Their main purpose is to build and develop successful growth companies. By partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams venturecapital.de delivers true value beyond financing and pro-actively works with portfolio companies to accelerate growth. They look for companies, that have a proven business model and through a strong value proposition address large markets and deliver real value to their customers be it consumers or enterprises. Out entrepreneurs‘ fund „venturecapital.de“ is funded by 150 European tech entrepreneurs, founders and industry veterans. It constitutes one of the strongest and most value adding business networks in Europe with an excellent platform for an exchange of expertise and know-how between investors, the fund and its portfolio companies.
Stages: Early Stage Venture
Location: Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Financial Services, Internet, Software, Telecommunications, Venture Capital
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TRUMPF Venture
The corporate venture capital arm TRUMPF Venture extends TRUMPF’s comprehensive activities to promote innovation and to detect disruptive technologies and business models early on. TRUMPF is the world technological and market leader for machine tools used in flexible sheet metal processing as well as industrial lasers. TRUMPF Venture invests globally in early-stage start-ups active in areas complementary or adjacent to the TRUMPF core, such as Advances Photonics and Smart Factory. Funded start-ups benefit from an extensive network, deep domain knowhow, proven skills in scalability as well as support to access the TRUMPF group and its ecosystem. The requirements for a potential investment are a strategic fit, a high innovation leverage and differentiation in business model or technology, an experienced management team and risk adequate financial returns.
Stages: Early Stage Venture
Location: Ditzingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Europe
Industries: Electronics, Information Technology, Laser, Machinery Manufacturing, Manufacturing, Optical Communication, Quantum Computing, Software, Venture Capital
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Catagonia Capital
Catagonia Capital is an early stage company based in Berlin, Germany. They invest in software and service companies that make use of online and mobile technologies. In so doing, they rely on disruptive business ideas with the potential to redefine established markets. They actively support theur founding teams with resources and comprehensive knowledge. They also apply their experiences to founding their own new companies in the areas of mobile Internet, social and local network applications, as well as other online business models. In addition, they provide support to established companies and corporations in expanding their business in strategically significant technology and Internet areas. With the foundation of spin-ins, corporate start-ups with innovative business models, they help parent companies achieve greater long-term growth through innovation. Catagonia Capital GmbH was founded in 2009 by entrepreneur and investor Ralph Eric Kunz.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe
Industries: Consulting, Software, Venture Capital
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Carcharodon Capital
Carcharodon Capital provides seed financing for start-ups. The funds can also be provided during the foundation and serve the development and development of the company. The investment volume is between € 50,000 and € 200,000 per investment and can be provided in the form of equity, debt capital or as a hybrid (eg silent partner).
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Europe
Industries: Finance, Financial Services, Internet, Software
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Shortcut Ventures
Shortcut Ventures is a German venture capital enterprise created by founders for founders. The main focus of Shortcut Ventures investment strategy is on international startups specializing in the fields of internet, mobile, games, and social media. The company mainly invests in startups that are in the early growth stages. Along with the financial support, firms in the portfolio are also provided with access to founder knowledge and know-how. Shortcut Ventures is managed by Dirk Freise, Martin Ostermayer, and Thorsten Rehling, entrepreneurs and founders of multiple companies such as blau.de and handy.de. The enterprise’s main investor is the Dutch telecommunications corporation, KPN.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Europe
Industries: Enterprise Software, Finance, Venture Capital
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EXTOREL
EXTOLL GmbH was founded in 2011 as a spin-off of the University of Heidelberg. The spin-off process has been significantly supported by the German EXIST program. The core technologies of the company were developed at the chair of computer architecture of Dr. Ulrich Brüning, who is a co-founder. The IP has been transferred to EXTOLL GmbH. The research group has also developed a method for low-cost mass production of high-density Active Optical Cables (HD-AOC). Such HD-AOC enable signal transmission over longer distances than it would be possible with purely electrical interconnects. This IP has been exclusively licensed to EXTOLL GmbH. Consequently, EXTOLL GmbH has developed a complete product solution, necessary for interconnecting clusters with sizes ranging from a few nodes up to 64.000 nodes.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture
Location: Munich, Bayern, Germany, Europe
Industries: Electronics, Software
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RWE
RWE has reliably supplied people and companies with electricity for more than 120 years – night and day. Many of us take electricity for granted. As well as the fact that it comes out of our sockets at any time. And we can, because power generators like RWE make sure that it does – with clean, secure and affordable electricity.
Stages: Early Stage Venture
Location: Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Clean Energy, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Enterprise Software, Oil and Gas, Renewable Energy
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Mavericks Founders
Mavericks Founders is an Angel syndicate from Berlin, made up of experienced founders backed by seed investments from other entrepreneurs to support great minds and their visions. We’re not an incubator, accelerator or financial investor. We’re your peer. We’re like you. We’ve been in your shoes. We package experience, manpower and startup investments into your idea to bring it to life!
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe
Industries: Health Care, Medical, SaaS, Software, Wellness
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CHECK24 Ventures
CHECK24 Ventures is the venture capital division of the CHECK24 group that provides young internet companies with seed and growth financing. It works independently from CHECK24 and makes the financially driven investment decision in growth companies in the areas of financial technology, insurance technology, online marketplaces and software sectors in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Eckhard Juls and Henrich Blase founded it on November 1, 2016, with its headquarters in Frankfurt in Germany.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Private Equity, Seed
Location: Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Financial Services, FinTech, InsurTech, Internet, Marketplace, Software, Venture Capital
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Best Nights VC
Best Nights VC wants to create a better world by bringing people together in memorable social experiences and out of the growing technology addiction, self-optimization quest stress of everyday life. To achieve this, Best Nights VC makes structured investments in seed companies of the most ambitious founders that share that mission. The investment focus lies on consumer-tech startups the shape the way people socialize
Stages: Early Stage Venture
Location: Wolfenbüttel, Niedersachsen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Consumer Software, Finance, Financial Services, Industrial, Nightlife
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Expedite Ventures
Expedite Ventures is a Business Angel investment club, backed by Europe’s finest tech and product experts to support tech founders hands-on with our expertise and learnings. We expedite their companies to become profitable and/or VC-ready. We solely expedite digital companies in the software space. We particularly aim to support notoriously underrepresented groups such as first-time founders, women and immigrants.
Stages: Convertible Note, Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe
Industries: Angel Investment, Software
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STIHL Digital
Investment Focus: We invest from late seed to series B, with sweet spot series A. We prefer to syndicate with existing or new investors and we can take the lead as necessary.
Stages: Early Stage Venture
Location: Waiblingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Europe
Industries: Construction, Drones, Forestry, Home and Garden, Landscaping, Robotics, Software
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Cumulus Ventures
Cumulus Ventures provides venture capital for early stage and growth phases for companies in the net economy, software, telecommunications, digital life and gaming in German-speaking countries.
Stages: Early Stage Venture
Location: Feldafing, Bayern, Germany, Europe
Industries: Financial Services, Software, Telecommunications, Venture Capital
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ICOA UG
ICOA UG is a venture capital firm based in Hamburg, Germany helping tech entrepreneurs and innovators turn ideas into international businesses. Since 2018, we’ve partnered with entrepreneurs in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa who are building technology to rebuild the world we live in. ICOA covers early investment stages. Opportunity is a mindset and we believe in founders who spot something others haven’t seen yet.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Europe
Industries: Angel Investment, Information Technology, Software, Venture Capital
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SIB Innovations- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft
SIB is a investment company that provides its clients with equity financing solutions and services.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Dresden, Sachsen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Information Technology, Manufacturing, Software, Venture Capital
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Next Mobility Labs
We Build Companies That Shape Sustainable Mobility Innovation. We are company builders. We know from experience how difficult it is to launch and scale new businesses. While funding is important, success requires much more. That’s why we also provide guidance and mentorship, concept validation, and hands-on support from an experienced team of strategists, designers, and developers – whatever it takes to build long-lasting companies. “We are pioneering a new model of entrepreneurship: Side-by-Side, Heads-Down, Roll-Up-Your-Sleeves Company Building.”
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Location: Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, Europe
Industries: Automotive, CleanTech, Consulting, Finance, Information Technology, Internet, Software, Venture Capital
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Up2B Accelerator
Accelerator programs for business-to-business startups.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Grant, Non Equity Assistance
Location: Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Europe
Industries: Information Technology, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Software
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Munkky Ventures
Behind Munkky Ventures, a venture capital company founded in June 2019 by Samuel Azarev (Founding Partner and CEO).There is a young, dynamic team of entrepreneurs and experts that has finished the year 2020 with 4 ventures in the portfolio and already one exit. This year we are pleased to announce that Scherwin Salehi has joined the Munkky Family as a further partner and 4 other great ventures have joined the Munkky Family. We love the founders of our ventures and they are the most important part of our decision-making process when investing in a new startup, for example. FOUNDER, FOUNDER, FOUNDER, and then idea, concept, vision, etc. Based on our experience, we know which next strategic steps are relevant for your startup and which investors from our network can drive your business forward. Our goal is to help startups grow and succeed.
Stages: Early Stage Venture, Non Equity Assistance, Seed
Location: Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany, Europe
Industries: Consulting, Coworking, CRM, E-Commerce, Fashion, FinTech, Manufacturing, Personal Branding, Software
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