Menu
Our Point of View

We’ve built two of Europe’s largest B2B software companies. Now we back AI founders with global ambition from day one.

Our Background

We’ve founded and built two of Europe’s largest B2B software companies in the first internet technology wave:

  • eCircle became Europe’s category leader in digital marketing cloud. Acquired by Teradata in 2012 for $250m at $50m ARR, after raising €20m from European VCs and a €60m secondary with TA Associates. Alex and Thomas stayed on for three years and helped manage the business unit with $250m ARR.
  • Hybris became the global category king in eCommerce infrastructure. Acquired by SAP in 2013 for $1.4b at $140m revenue, having raised just $35m. Moritz stayed at SAP for seven more years, growing the business past $1b ARR by 2020.

Where We Invest

Corporate life wasn’t for us. So we started a small equal VC partnership with a clear focus:

  • B2B: what we know best from building it ourselves. Today that means AI infrastructure and applications for the digital and physical world.
  • Pre-Seed & Seed: first money in, last money out. Both our companies only became a success after year eight, and we invest for the long term. That also means proper reserves in the funds to stay meaningful along the journey.
  • Europe: we’ve always believed European talent can build global category leaders. And we mean the whole of Europe, with 700m people, not only the EU27 with 450m.

How We Support You

We want to be the go-to fund for B2B founders raising a first round in Europe. Our narrow focus lets us put our operating experience to full use:

  • Product-market fit and go-to-market. We help you find fit, create winning category dynamics and build an efficient sales motion that scales. We’ve built go-to-market to >$1bn in ARR in our own startups, and helped our portfolio companies do the same many times since.
  • Hiring. In 20+ years as operators, we’ve hired and built trusted relationships with over 20,000 people in B2B software across Europe, the US and APAC. We help you build a stellar C-level team.
  • Sparring. We know the sleepless nights from our own time as founders. You get a partner with first-hand experience, not an investor who sees your company as a spreadsheet.
  • Peer network. Our portfolio founders face the same challenges and share what works.
  • Follow-on funding. Nearly all our companies raise a Series A. For every €1 we invest, €10+ follows from Accel, Creandum, Northzone, Atomico, Spark, Balderton, Lightspeed and others.

How We Work With You

We don’t call ourselves “smart money”. We aim to be “not annoying capital”. As founders, we received plenty of unsolicited advice from investors, so we respect your time:

  • You pull, we don’t push. You decide when and how we get involved.
  • Workshops, not check-ins. No recurring status calls. We work on the topics that matter, when they matter.
  • Clear opinions, your decision. We say what we think. You decide what to do.
  • Patience. Building a meaningful company takes time and there will be setbacks. We don’t panic.

That’s our point of view on how we work. But our founders are the best judges of how well we live up to it, so feel free to ask them.