Investor profile
KfW Capital
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KfW Capital is a 100%-owned subsidiary of KfW Bankengruppe and one of Europe's largest institutional investors in venture capital and venture debt funds. Its core mission is to sustainably strengthen the VC ecosystem in Germany and Europe by investing pari passu with private investors in European VC and venture debt funds — requiring each fund to reinvest at least the capital contributed by KfW Capital into innovative, technology-oriented companies in Germany. KfW Capital is sector-agnostic and stage-agnostic, covering ICT, Life Sciences, Industrial Tech, and generalist funds, with a particular emphasis on deep tech, artificial intelligence, biotech, climate tech, and defence tech. Through programmes such as the Germany Fund (Tech Fund Invest), ERP VC Fund Investments, WIN 400, Scale-up Direct, and the Growth Fund Germany (Wachstumsfonds), KfW Capital mobilises private capital at scale — coordinating the Federal Government's Future Fund (€10 billion+) and deploying up to €50 million per individual fund commitment — with the overarching goal of closing Germany's venture capital gap and enabling start-ups and scale-ups to grow into global champions.
Notable quotes
“In order to make the digital and sustainable transformation of the German economy a success, we urgently need more disruptive technological innovations that have the potential to provide new, groundbreaking solutions to the great challenges of our time. More venture capital is needed to fund them. This is often provided by venture capital funds. That is why the sector needs to be strengthened!”
“Europäisches VC hat in den letzten zehn Jahren amerikanisches Venture Capital outperformt. Auch wenn das Portfolio noch sehr jung ist, sehen wir bereits eine marktmäßige zweistellige Rendite.”
“With the launch of the Scale-Up Direct programme as part of the Germany Fund, KfW Capital now has the opportunity for the first time to invest directly in start-ups together with private fund managers from the portfolio. The programme is designed to provide targeted support to innovative technology companies that have the potential to grow significantly, both economically and technologically, thereby strengthening Europe's competitiveness in the long term.”
Team
Birgit Brück
Senior Investment Manager
Martin Neumann
Senior Investment Manager
Sebastián Harlander
Senior Investment Manager
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proxima Fusion | Series A Extension | $450m | 2026-07 |
| Isar Aerospace | Series D | $296m | 2026-06 |
| Quantum Systems | Growth | — | 2024-12 |
| numares Health | Debt | — | 2022-12 |
| Earlybird Venture Capital (fund) | Fund Investment (LP) | — | — |
| HV Capital (fund) | Fund Investment (LP) | — | — |
| Speedinvest (fund) | Fund Investment (LP) | — | — |
| Partech Partners (fund) | Fund Investment (LP) | — | — |
| Redalpine (fund) | Fund Investment (LP) | — | — |
| Acton Capital Partners (fund) | Fund Investment (LP) | — | — |
Frequent co-investors
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