November 18, 2021

Unicorn Founders Invest in €255M Fund for Game-Changing Ideas from UVC Partners

Some of Europe’s most successful founders, including Bastian Nominacher of the Decacorn Celonis and Jochen Engert, Daniel Krauss and André Schwämmlein of the mobility platform Flixbus, are investing in UVC Partners' new €255M flagship and opportunity fund. Alongside these top founders, well-established family offices, such as the families Strüngmann, Klatten, Schörghuber and others, are joining in to power one of Europe’s largest B2B early-stage funds. With its unique ecosystem, UVC Partners aims to pave the way for the next generation of European unicorns.

Investors in the new fund by UVC Partners include Bastian Nominacher of the Decacorn Celonis, Jochen Engert, Daniel Krauss, and André Schwämmlein of the mobility platform Flixbus, and the founders of CANCOM, and fos4X. For the last decade, UVC Partners has built and maintained trusted relationships with these top founders. “Our own success story is closely intertwined with UVC Partners," states Jochen Engert, founder of Flixbus. “Over the last years, we have benefited from UVC’s ecosystem on many different levels; from our own experience, we know precisely how UVC Partners can identify tomorrow’s game changers and lead them to success. That’s why we invested – and believe in the startups that will soon profit from this fund.”  

Bastian Nominacher, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Germany's first Decacorn Celonis, has been a close follower of UVC’s success story for quite some time. “It is impressive what UVC Partners has built together with UnternehmerTUM over the last years. Numerous startups have benefitted from UVC Partner’s expertise and were able to scale their business and enter markets; I am proud to be part of such a unique ecosystem at TU Munich’s startup environment.”

Investing in the Game Changers of Tomorrow

The third fund by UVC Partners has a tenfold higher investment volume than the first fund and builds on the success of the previous ones. “The fact that the founders we’ve known for a long time – and whom we have invested in – are now re-investing in our fund is great validation of our work,” says Johannes von Borries, Managing Partner at UVC Partners. “With this new fund, we want to continue our success story and keep investing in the game changers of tomorrow.”

Alongside these successful founders, well-established family offices such as the families Strüngmann, Klatten and Schörghuber, as well as experienced investors like Ann-Kristin Achleitner, believe in UVC Partners’ new fund. “I have been observing and following UVC Partners’ development for many years; I am convinced they will play an essential role in bringing fundamental innovations – developed by the next wave of European startup founders – to the market,” says Ann-Kristin Achleitner.

Unique Ecosystem

One of the main reasons for UVC Partners’ success is the unique ecosystem the venture capital firm provides for their startups: with direct access to UnternehmerTUM – Europe’s leading center for business creation and innovation – UVC Partners is at the core of an established network of research departments, startups, mid-sized companies, DAX corporations and family businesses.  

At the same time, UVC Partners can make use of the resources of UnternehmerTUM: 5,000 talented participants from TU Munich, 100 corporate partners and 300 employees, including 30 top experts for artificial intelligence at the Initiative for Applied AI. This empowers UVC Partners to support startups all over Europe with market entry, recruiting, networking and technology.  

Florian Biller, founder of Capmo, is also convinced by the special mix of expertise, networking and partnership. “Whether recruiting, finding the best next investors or networking within the B2B SaaS community, we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today without UVC Partners,” states Biller. “That’s why we value UVC Partners’ advice as an experienced, founder-centric voice on our board."

Once a successful investment round is closed, the real work for UVC Partners begins. “Together with tomorrow’s game changers we intend to make the world more sustainable, efficient and simply better,” says Dr. Ingo Potthof, Managing Partner at UVC Partners. "We have shown in the past that we can contribute intensively with our entire ecosystem, including investments in Flixbus, KONUX Isar Aerospace, Capmo, TWAICE and many others. Now, we want to continue our successful path with the next generation of top founders."

About UVC Partners

UVC Partners is a Munich- and Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in European B2B startups in the areas of enterprise software, industrial technologies and mobility. The fund typically invests between €0.5M - 5M initially and up to €20M in total per company. Portfolio companies benefit from the extensive investment and exit experience of the management team as well as from the close cooperation with UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s leading innovation and business creation center. With over 300 employees and more than 100 industry partners, UnternehmerTUM can draw from many years of experience in establishing young companies. This cooperation enables UVC Partners to offer startups unique access to talent, industry customers, and other financial partners.
www.uvcpartners.com

The Fund is supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing.

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