Venture Capital

Holtzbrinck Ventures

Holtzbrinck Ventures (HV Capital) is one of the most established venture capital firms in the DACH region, investing from seed through growth stages in technology companies across Europe. Part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, the firm has been active since the late 1990s and manages over EUR 1 billion across multiple fund generations.

HV Capital has backed some of Germany's most notable tech companies including Zalando, Flixbus, and Scalable Capital. The firm focuses on software, fintech, marketplaces, and digital health, combining deep European market knowledge with a long institutional track record.

GermanyMunichSeed to GrowthTechnologySoftwareFintech

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Munich, Germany

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Startups this investor has backed

Zalando

Berlin, Germany · Startup

Zalando is a Berlin-based online fashion and lifestyle platform founded in 2008 by Robert Gentz and David Schneider. It grew from a Rocket Internet-backed shoe retailer into Europe's largest online fashion marketplace, listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2014. Zalando operates across 25 European markets, connecting over 50 million active customers with thousands of brands. The company transitioned from a pure retailer to a platform model, enabling brands to sell directly through its Partner Program while offering logistics, marketing, and fulfillment services via its Zalando Fulfillment Solutions infrastructure.

StartupPublicE-CommerceFashionMarketplace

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Flix

Munich, Germany · Startup

Long-distance mobility network operating intercity buses and trains across Europe. Flix is a startup based in Munich, Germany at the growth stage. The company operates in the Mobility, Consumer space. Learn more at their website.

StartupGrowthMobilityConsumer

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Matched by sector and location overlap; not a confirmed investment portfolio

Mambu

Berlin, Germany · Startup

Composable banking platform letting digital lenders and neobanks launch services quickly. Mambu is a startup based in Berlin, Germany at the growth stage. The company operates in the Fintech, Software space. Learn more at their website.

StartupGrowthFintechSoftware

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VentureVilla

Hanover, Germany · Accelerator

Established 2016. 100-day accelerator for web and software startups with intensive coaching, mentoring, and free workspace. Focus on B2B software with SaaS and fintech alumni. Support: mentorship, coworking, investor connections. Scope: Regional (Northern Germany).

AcceleratorB2B SaaSFintechSoftware

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Celonis

Munich, Germany · Startup

Celonis is a Munich and New York-based enterprise software company that pioneered the field of process mining – technology that analyzes a company’s IT event logs to visualize and optimize its business processes. Founded in 2011 by three friends (Alexander Rinke, Bastian Nominacher, and Martin Klenk) out of university in Munich, Celonis bootstrapped in its early years and landed Siemens as a key pilot customer for its process analytics tool. The software proved invaluable in identifying inefficiencies in processes like order-to-cash, procurement, and inventory management. By 2015 Celonis was the leader in this niche, and it partnered with SAP which resold Celonis as SAP Process Mining by Celonis. Venture capital soon followed: Celonis raised $27.5M in 2016 (Series A) then $50M in 2018 (Series B). Its growth was massive – from €1M ARR in 2012 to well over €100M by late 2010s. In 2019, Celonis raised $290M at a $2.5B valuation, making it a unicorn. It wasn’t done: by June 2021, Celonis announced a $1B Series D round valuing it at $11 billion, one of Europe’s largest software funding rounds. And in 2022, Celonis reportedly reached a $13B+ valuation, firmly cementing it among Europe’s most valuable private tech companies. The company’s product evolved into the Celonis Execution Management System (EMS), which not only discovers processes but also suggests and implements improvements (sometimes via RPA bots or triggering workflows). Celonis counts thousands of enterprise customers – including Siemens, BMW, Coca-Cola, Uber – and its software helps them save billions by cutting throughput times, reducing errors, and optimizing resource use. With dual HQs in Munich and New York, Celonis has aggressively expanded in the U.S., competing with companies like IBM’s process mining. The firm is also eyeing an IPO; CEO Rinke has mentioned that Celonis is positioning itself for a public listing when market conditions are right. In the meantime, Celonis keeps growing (estimated $400M+ ARR in 2023) and acquiring smaller tech startups to bolster its platform. Celonis epitomizes the success of enterprise software from Europe – deeply technical, essentially creating a new category, and achieving decacorn status within a decade.

StartupGrowthSoftwareData

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DevOpsCon

Munich, Germany · Event Organisator

Organizer of DevOpsCon conferences focused on cloud-native engineering, container orchestration, CI/CD pipelines, and modern software delivery practices. Held regularly in Munich and Berlin, the event attracts thousands of platform engineers and architects seeking hands-on workshops and case studies on scaling DevOps culture.

Event OrganisatorEventsDeveloper ToolsCloudSoftware

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Eileen Burbidge

London, United Kingdom · Angel Investor

Tech veteran and angel building founder communities through Passion Capital and individual bets.

Angel InvestorPre-Seed to Series AFintechSoftware

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Elkstone Ventures

Dublin, Ireland · Accelerator

Multi-family office operating syndicated investments in high-growth Irish startups. Elkstone Ventures is an accelerator programme based in Dublin, Ireland. The programme supports startups in Fintech, Software, Frontier Tech.

Holtzbrinck Ventures

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