Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
HV Capital
Munich- and Berlin-based multi-stage venture firm, formerly Holtzbrinck Ventures. It started in 2000 as the venture arm of the Holtzbrinck publishing group, became partner-run and renamed itself HV Capital in 2020. It backed Zalando, Delivery Hero, FlixBus, Scalable Capital and sennder early and is one of Germany's largest venture managers, with ~€2.8bn raised by 2023 (reported) and a €710m Fund IX (2023).
At a glance
- Founded
- 2000, Munich, as Holtzbrinck Ventures (venture investing arm linked to the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group)
- Founders
- Set up by the Holtzbrinck publishing group; the long-serving partner team (incl. Martin Weber, verify founding roles) built the investment franchise
- Headquarters
- Munich, with an office in Berlin
- Ownership / structure
- Independent, partner-led manager (HV Capital Manager GmbH, verify entity); Holtzbrinck family / group remains associated as a historical anchor investor (verify current LP role); funds structured as German GmbH & Co. KG vehicles
- Leadership (2026)
- Managing partners reported to include David Fischer, Lars Langusch, Rainer Märkle, Christian Saller, Jasper Masemann and Martin Weber (verify current roster and titles)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~€2.8bn raised across funds (reported, 2023; verify); latest flagship Fund IX €710m (May 2023, split into Venture and Growth vehicles)
- Stage focus
- Seed through growth: seed programme cheques of €50k–€500k, early-stage initial cheques of ~€0.5–5m and growth follow-ons up to ~€40m+ (Fund VII terms, 2018); Fund IX targets seed to Series D and beyond
- Signature investments
- Zalando (2009, ~8% stake by 2013), Delivery Hero (2011), FlixBus (2013), Scalable Capital (2015, led first round), Depop (2015, sold to Etsy for $1.625bn), sennder (2018, co-led Series A); instructive cases: Wooga (Facebook-era leader that plateaued), payleven (lost the European mPOS race and merged into SumUp)
8 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2009
Zalando
Early-Stage Venture
2010
Wooga
Series A
2011
Delivery Hero
Early-Stage Venture
2012
Payleven
Early-Stage Venture
2013
FlixBus
Series A
2015
Depop
Venture Round
2015
Scalable Capital
Series A
2018
Sennder
Series A