Maciej Lehmann

Startup Insider has released the German "Investoren-Report 2024," featuring an interview with EQT Ventures. 🇩🇪 Link in comments. What's your top advice for startup founders currently fundraising or aspiring VC investors? Doreen Huber, Partner EQT Ventures: "Stay resilient, cultivate relationships, and prioritize delivering tangible value. Adopt a learning mindset, welcome feedback, and glean insights from setbacks. Furthermore, build a diverse team that both strengthens and challenges your abilities. Remember to prioritize your well-being and stay connected to your purpose, as it will guide you through challenging times."  💪

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Bunch: Streamlining Private Market Investments bunch (founded in 2021, in Berlin) is a comprehensive platform designed to simplify the complex operations of venture capital and private equity firms. By centralizing data, automating workflows, and providing essential tools, Bunch aims to enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and improve overall fund management. Founders: Levent Altunel, and Enrico Ohnemüller The platform addresses the pain points of manual data entry and management prevalent in the industry, replacing traditional methods like Excel spreadsheets with a streamlined digital solution. This allows fund managers to focus on core investment activities rather than time-consuming administrative tasks. Bunch currently oversees €2 billion in assets under management. With a recent $15.5 million Series A funding round backed by investors such as Cherry Ventures, Motive Ventures, Broadhaven Ventures, and TinyVC, Bunch is poised to expand its platform and solidify its position in the market. While competing with established players like Apax, Vistra, IQEQ, and Carta, Bunch differentiates itself by offering a more focused solution tailored to the specific needs of venture capital and private equity firms. By automating complex workflows and integrating pre- and post-close services, Bunch effectively creates an operating system for funds, enabling them to scale efficiently and build stronger relationships with limited partners. Key Points: - Bunch is a platform designed to automate and streamline operations for VC and PE firms. - The platform addresses the industry's reliance on manual processes and reduces operational overhead. - With a recent funding round, Bunch is well-positioned for growth and expansion. The company competes with established players but offers a more specialized solution. #privatemarkets #venturecapital #softbank #aviato #tracxn #crunchbase #eqt #fundraising #somacapital #investmentmanagement #databases #tools #vctools

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Three biggest learnings from a fundraising journey. Shared by Rainer Märkle, General Partner at HV Capital at EUVC 1/ Have a time box with a deadline attached. Have a defined horizon & create a clear plan. Have some urgency to get things done at some point. Execute very transparently and reliably. 2/ Stick to your narrative. But don't do it blindly. Tweak it when necessary. Adapt it. Don't let yourself be surprised by major changes. Keep focusing on delivering according to your strategy & plan. 3/ Fundraising is a marathon with many sprints. There are moments when you'll ask yourself - Why do I do this? Is it gonna work out? But don't get too negative during the down phases. Adapting and pivoting is part of our job. As it is for the founder of a company. How about you? What fundraising lessons have you learned? Join the conversation. 🔽 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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Germany’s Investor Drop – Why Climate Tech is Bucking the Trend A recent article by Nadine Schimroszik in Handelsblatt today mentioned that the number of active investors in Germany has dropped by 40% this year. Based on PitchBook data, the conclusion is that venture capital in Germany has become significantly more challenging, particularly in early-stage and growth-stage investments. However, for Climate Tech, the story is different. Despite the overall decline in venture capital, the sector continues to attract attention, with a 16.2% increase in pre-seed and seed investments. Indeed, we have seen some positive developments recently: 1. Growing Commitment to Addressing the Climate Crisis 🌱 2. Long-term Investment Horizon ⏳ 3. Robust Capital Availability for Scalable Solutions 💰 Big thanks to Nadine Schimroszik for raising awareness on this important issue. As investors, how can we ensure we're not just reacting to trends, but actively driving the transformation needed for a sustainable future? 🌍🔋 #ClimateTech #SustainableInvestment #VentureCapital  

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🎙Redefining Energy Ep158 and 159: COP29. In the Zone #applepodcast https://lnkd.in/eweCntq #spotify https://lnkd.in/d7SYADs As #COP29Baku veers towards its conclusion, two episodes where we dive deep into the functioning of COPs. Conference of Parties. Cartel of Oil Producers? China Omni Potent? It is easy to be cynical, because, underneath the surface, COPs remain essential. 158: COP29 is supposed to be the “Finance COP”, whatever that means, but all major head of states will not participate. Are COP still useful? Is it the correct format? Who is really committed and who is just paying lip service to fighting Climate Change? Those questions and more with Lord Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) a global coalition of companies committed to achieving a net zero global economy by 2050. Lord Turner is a leading British businessman and academic, former Chairman of the Financial Services Authority (2008-13). From 2008-2012 Lord Turner was the first chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. 159: Chaos, Shock and Hope Live in Baku to discuss with Bruce Douglas, CEO Global Renewables Alliance (GRA) and tireless promoter of Renewable Energy. Bruce is the one who coined the famous “Triple Renewables” rallying cry, and has been rewarded by joining the precious list of TIME 100 Climate leaders. COP in a few words: Shambolic, Rudderless and Essential nevertheless. The world of renewables is at the centre stage, dealing with diplomats who are doing politics without a calculator while policy makers are busy inventing more alphabet soup concepts while ignoring geopolitics. COP is the summary of the world’s contradictions. COPs are useless and irreplaceable at the same time.

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European VC Fundraising Uptick Germany's KfW Capital, has reported a significant uptick in VC fundraising, indicating a positive trend for startup investments. Jörg Goschin, managing director at KfW Capital, noted that fundraising was sluggish in 2022 and 2023, but things are "steadily improving." He highlighted that KfW Capital examined around 220 funds last year, expecting an even higher number this year. Goschin stated, “I think we can say that the light at the end of the tunnel which we saw last year is getting brighter.” KfW Capital is a prominent limited partner (LP) in various European VC funds, including Germany’s Project A, Earlybird Venture Capital, and France’s Partech. Since its establishment in 2018, KfW Capital has invested in 120 VC funds, with nine funded this year. Goschin also mentioned an increase in capital calls from VCs, which he described as a “reassuring” sign that investments in startups are also on the up. In analyzing the types of funds being considered, KfW Capital found that 50% of the 220 funds were from the ICT sector (SaaS startups, AI, marketplaces, and e-commerce). About a quarter of the funds focused on life sciences, while the remainder were generalist funds without a specific sector focus. Notably, KfW Capital is also witnessing an increase in deeptech funds seeking investment, which Goschin identified as necessary, given the longer development times associated with these types of investments. Gender diversity is a key focus for KfW Capital in its due diligence process, with 46.3% of the funds having at least one female GP in 2023. The firm’s €200 million emerging manager facility, aims to invest in funds with €50 million in AUM that prioritize representation of women and non-binary individuals in leadership roles. Its first investment through this facility was in Nucleus Capital, a deeptech and climate tech VC fund led by GPs Dr. Isabella Fandrych and Maximilian A. Schwarz. In terms of increasing private capital in VC, Goschin highlighted the launch of Germany's €1B Fund of funds last year, which aims to boost investments in German and European VC funds. He noted the importance of mobilizing private capital, especially as state budgets become tighter. “The mobilization of capital from private investors is very important, especially from a point of view as a sovereign investor,” he remarked. ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #VCfund and increase the international pool of your LPs?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments (Series A/Series B)?   ▶ Please use G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks, or send an inquiry to [email protected] #VentureCapital #VentureFunding #VentureDebt #Fundraising #Innovation #Technology #Entrepreneurship #Investing #Network #Investors #LPs #GPs #EmergingManagers #Economy #Business #Founders #Startups #StartupFunding #ai #artificialintelligence #unicorn #secondaries #secondarydeals

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Europe unfortunately is a combination of many individual capital markets, some bigger and some smaller, which is keeping the industry's growth modest and never really challenging the US. #vc #funding #startups #privatefunding #privatecapital #investmentstrategies #growth #deeptech #seed #startupcapital

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🎙Redefining Energy Ep155: VPP & DER #applepodcast https://lnkd.in/eweCntq #spotify https://lnkd.in/d7SYADs What are #VPPs? Virtual Power Plants. What are #DERs? Distributed Energy Resources As electricity demand grows and intermittent #renewable energy on the grid increases, the VPP/DER platforms provide a critical role by shedding demand, sometimes for only a few minutes, to alleviate stress on the grids. VPPs can avoid using polluting peakers via pre-agreed and targeted demand reduction, or shifting consumption via batteries, and even participating in the frequency response market. And system operators are willing to pay a decent price to have access to these resources. That is the mission of Dana Guernsey. Dana is the CEO of Voltus, a leading DER technology platform and virtual power plant operator connecting distributed energy resources to electricity markets. As interconnection queues lengthen and capacity costs explode, are we at the on the dawn of a crazy development of VPPs? Dana explains that while working with for Walmart or a fleet of electric school buses, she can reduce Voltus’s clients power bills by up to 20% while keeping their core services unchanged. Gerard Reid and I are going to talk about technology, heating and cooling management, AI… and lasagna. Take a deep dive into the future.

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Munich, Germany based VC Vsquared Ventures recently closed its latest early-stage #deeptech fund. 💸 €214 million for Vsquared II, with backing from Novo Holdings, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), European Investment Fund (EIF), KfW Capital, Lingotto, among others. 💡 The fund targets six generational growth themes: #artificialintelligence & next-gen software, #energytransition, new computing and sensing, new space, #robotics and manufacturing and tech-bio. 🌍#Europe 📈 Vsquared manages around €450M in assets. The VC has invested in 30+ start-ups incl. NEURA Robotics, cylib, Quantune Technologies GmbH, Atrandi Biosciences, Dynelectro, Lace Lithography, constellr, among others. 💭 “... we remain dedicated to leveraging not only capital, but also our expertise, extensive partner and network for our founders, with the goal in mind to prove that the next global deep tech leaders can and will be European.” - Vsquared’s GPs 💭 “We believe Vsquared is one of the funds in Europe with the best understanding of deep tech startups, proven by the track record in investing early in some of the current frontrunners in the ecosystem.” - Sören Thinggard Jensen, Senior Partner and Head of Private Equity at Novo Holdings, 🗞️ EU-Startups https://lnkd.in/eUPjJ7e5 👏 For the #AudaciousInvestors unleashing innovation and empowering tomorrow🚀 Lise I Thomas I Herbert I Benedikt I Michael I Patrick I Gina I Jakob I Patrick I Maria I Team Vsquared Ventures … #venturecapital #vc #funds #startups #entrepreneurs #funding #tech #ai #entrepreneurship #technology #innovation #Munich #Germany #venture

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Writing the Envioronmental Titbits newsletter for as long as I have (700 episodes and counting) I have been able to observe the changing shape of the energy transition. Recently I have seen two broad subjects appearing with increasing frequency; more attention being paid to what one might call "Natural Capital" and the rapid spread of net zero technologies into emerging markets. Both are very significant and important and are covered, amongst other things, in this week's newsletter. https://bit.ly/4e7TGB1

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Berlin-based WealthTech startup NAO has successfully raised €3.4 million in a seed funding round, marking a significant step forward in its mission to democratize alternative investments. This funding round attracted participation from a range of private investors, family offices, and venture capital firms, including FinTech veteran Jakob Schreyer and Zeitgeist X Ventures, both of whom had supported the company in its earlier stages. With this fresh capital, NAO aims to further expand its innovative platform, enabling retail investors to access high-value investment opportunities traditionally reserved for institutional players and the financially elite. Founded in 2022 by #RobinBinder, #PhilippNowakowski, and #AmelHasanovic, NAO offers a unique, app-based platform designed to provide ordinary investors with the ability to invest in alternative asset classes like private equity, infrastructure, hedge funds, and more. These investment types, typically only accessible to wealthy individuals or institutional investors, can now be explored by retail investors starting at just €1,000. #berlin #welthtech #fintech #nao #startup #funding #investor #retail #hedgefunds https://lnkd.in/g7XzsbPW

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Thanks (again) Martin and Jan for the great discussion in today’s Investments & Exits episode of Startup Insider. See the link to the episode in the comments. 👉 TL;DR: (1) Congrats to the team from Caeli Wind GmbH for announcing their 11M EUR Series A from Notion Capital and Santander with participation of existing investors HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds. Ben Schlemmermeier and Heiko Bartels are building a platform to match wind park developers 🍃 with landlords of suitable locations ⛳. On top of matching these parties and taking out the friction in the market, the solution provides deep tooling for both sides of the platforn. (2) In that context we discussed the potential expansion opportunities and also the general need to be empathetic with both sides of such a marketplace model 🔄 (3) We all shared our fascination for the model and the team's approach and also highlighted that in many instances the real power of such a solution lies beyond the obvious. 🔍 (4) Finally, we reemphasized that we are both Cavalry Ventures and Picus Capital very open to talk to founders in the very early stage, especially on the non-obvious and tricky challenges that e.g., the #EnergyTech and #ClimateTech space is facing. #StartupInsider #InvestmentsExits #Podcast #PreSeed #Seed #Series A

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Having already evaluated a multitude of outliers in the current AI-driven innovation cycle at MDSV, we’ve distilled our learnings into three important takeaways for investors: 1. With more startups than ever, investors must take a different approach to navigating an increasingly larger herd to find great investments.  2. The Power Law of Venture Capital rings truer now more than ever, with fewer and faster growing companies driving all returns. 3. With revenue growth fueled by newfound operating leverage from AI and automation technologies, startups may not require as much growth capital as before, making the early stage potentially THE ONLY access point for investors. Learn more about the MDSV strategy to navigate the coming disruptions in venture capital: https://lnkd.in/g7ZWBwXS #VentureCapitalInvesting #Investments #AIInvestments #Strategy

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Many factors play a role when fundraising. How fast does ECB's interest rate decisions translate into market actions? #ecb #funding #fundingrounds #venturecapital #privateequity #publicfunding #markets #interestrate #policy #sentiment #investmentstrategies #rateprediction

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Exciting News - HV Capital's first ESG Annual Report is out! Crafting this document has been an interesting experience. It has allowed us to review our accomplishments and set our sights on future goals, a moment of reflection that we often don't take. Personally, I'm especially proud of the portfolio case studies! Huge thanks and kudos to Graham Major-Ex, Yasmin Ahmed, Silvia Rau, Angela Shirley, LL.M., Dennis G. Jansen, LL.M. (Berkeley), Kathrin Neubert, Andrea Koepfer and Richa Kaul for their amazing contributions! Curious about our ESG initiatives since 2019? Dive into the report for all the details here: https://lnkd.in/enzXYnqT   Please let me know if you have any feedback!

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🚨🚨 Very excited to share the news about our investment in Orus Energy, which has closed a EUR 2.2 million pre-seed round led by b2venture and top French impact funds Asterion Ventures and Ring Capital. The company has built a demand-side flexibility platform enabling commercial building operators to automatically shift energy consumption during peak energy periods. “The power grid has become the Achilles' heel of the energy transition. The rise of intermittent renewable energy on one hand, and the increased electrification of uses with the advent of electric vehicles and heat pumps on the other, are putting more and more pressure on the power grid” says Fanny Sauvée,  COO and co-founder at Orus Energy. “The grid's critical role in balancing production and consumption at all times is becoming increasingly challenged.” Orus Energy is transforming the way buildings interact with electricity markets. By optimizing the aggregated flexibility of numerous buildings, Orus' software dynamically adjusts energy usage, shifting it to times when electricity is cheapest and greenest, thus providing valuable flexibility to the electricity grid. Orus Energy’s next steps are focused on developing new high-impact features and helping a wider range of customers. “Alexandre, Fanny and Théophile form a great team that is tackling huge problems” says Florian Schweitzer, Founding Partner of b2venture. “Making smarter use of our energy grid and leveling out peak demand and supply of energy can have a huge impact on society and bring enormous benefits to the economy.” 🔎 🔎 Read Johanna Junkermann’s post about why we invested in Orus Energy ➡ https://lnkd.in/dyBM5nFP More news on the financing round can be found in the comments!

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🔑 3 key dynamics to understand about the voluntary carbon market today The voluntary carbon market is rapidly evolving. Here are 3 key dynamics you need to know: 1️⃣ Bifurcated Market Landscape The market is split. Low-quality, low-value credits dominate market volume but are losing liquidity fast. High-quality credits are gaining traction as buyers demand better standards to avoid reputational risks. This shift highlights the increasing importance of value over price. Buyers want credibility. 2️⃣ The “Luxury” Purchase Decision Buying carbon credits can be like buying luxury goods. It’s about brand alignment, not just price. Credibility is key. As the US DOE Secretary said, “Credibility, literally is the commodity.” Companies often make one strategic purchase per year based on their annual emissions. It's a brand investment. 3️⃣ Supply and Demand Dynamics Low-quality market: oversupplied and responsive to price changes. These credits are cheap and come online quickly but are increasingly at risk of becoming stranded assets. High-quality market: drastically undersupplied, with long-lead times. Big tech and financial services firms are locking in long-term commitments, which require significant investment and lead times. The premium market has unique opportunities. Strategic positioning in the high-quality market is key. Leverage niche market expertise. Utilise innovative financial solutions. #CarbonMarkets #Sustainability #ClimateAction #NetZero #CarbonCredits

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Have cost declines for renewable energy sources stopped? Accordingly to Lazard's most recent Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) report, costs are leveling out. https://lnkd.in/eJaA7VgG Lazard mentions that their cost range estimates have tightened because the high-end estimates have decline, and more interestingly, the low-end estimates have increased for the FIRST TIME EVER because of cost pressures. Many renewable sources are still less expensive or on cost parity (per MWh) compared to conventional energy. But, the era of consistent cost declines for wind, solar, and geothermal might be over. Despite this, I am optimistic because of new technologies and FOAK projects that are coming online. Continued innovation will solve our climate crisis!

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