KfW Capital is a reliable and professional partner for the VC ecosystem, which generates important innovations designed to improve the future of all of us. We do this by investing in VC funds and helping to further develop the VC ecosystem. In this way, we improve the funding conditions for start-ups and innovative fast-growth enterprises.
As we wrap up the year 2024, we can say that the team at KfW Capital, which has now grown to around 90 members, has performed its tasks with great passion and enthusiasm again. As of 30 November 2024, we have invested in more than 124 VC funds with a volume of around EUR 2.4 billion. The VC funds in which KfW Capital participates invest around four times the capital brought in by KfW Capital in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany. More than 2,200 start-ups and innovative tech firms have received funding in this way. In addition, the Growth Fund Germany, which we support as an investment adviser with a total volume of around EUR 1 billion, has already invested more than EUR 500 million in top-performing VC funds with a strong focus on Germany.
In addition to our VC fund investments, we have again conducted four VC Academies on current VC topics. We have again carried out a comprehensive ESG training programme for VC funds together with our partners BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt & VentureESG. Furthermore, we have presented a prize for “Best Emerging Manager” for the first time as part of the KfW Capital Awards.
For now, we farewell 2024 with our annual retrospective. The team at KfW Capital will continue pursuing its goals in 2025 – driving important topics to further develop the VC ecosystem, including the further mobilisation of private capital.
As of mid-December 2024, 10 building blocks of the Federal Government’s Future Fund are in operation. More than EUR 13.6 billion is already available to strengthen the VC ecosystem up until the year 2030, with around EUR 6.2 billion now committed. The Federal Government’s Future Fund aims to significantly expand growth capital finance by allocating public funds and mobilising private capital. Start-ups that are in the growth phase and have high capital requirements benefit from the various building blocks of the Future Fund. Additional funds from the ERP Special Fund, the EIF, KfW, KfW Capital and private investors will substantially leverage the initial sum (EUR 10 billion by 2030).
KfW Capital itself is implementing the following modules of the Future Fund:
Further information on the Future Fund is available at:The Future Fund (kfw-capital.de)
The Green Transition Facility is about to be fully invested. In just under one and a half years, KfW Capital will then have invested around EUR 100 million in funds of KfW in VC funds that have their focus on the field of “climate tech” and associated climate-relevant thematic areas. “Despite the challenging environment, very good climate tech VC funds were raising funds in the last two years, so that we were able to give the market an additional boost with our capital”, said Dr Jörg Goschin, Co-CEO of KfW Capital. “Climate tech innovations are of existential importance to our future. We have made a significant contribution to the sustainable transformation with the Green Transition Facility on behalf of the Federal Government and with capital from KfW.” The programme also contributes to the German Government’s start-up strategy, in particular to the “innovation” and” transformation” areas specified therein.
Around one year after the final closing, the “Growth Fund Germany” has already committed more than half its target volume, EUR 567 million, to 29 venture capital (VC) funds (as at 30 November 2024). The fund of funds is a key building block of the Future Fund of the German Federal Government and, with a fund volume of just over a EUR 1 billion, is one of the largest VC funds of funds ever launched in Europe. Other facts:
You can find a selection of VC funds from the portfolio of the Growth Fund Germany at:Growth Fund Germany
In July, KfW Capital made the first commitment from the Emerging Manager Facilty (EMF), a building block of the Future Fund. The climate deep tech fund Nucleus Capital received EUR 6.5 million. Nucleus Capital, which is headed by Dr Isabella Fandrych and Maximillian Schwarz, invests in start-ups and innovative tech firms from the sectors of programmable biology, food technology and green industrials. The special, trailblazing role of emerging managers for the VC ecosystem was also emphasised by Alexander Thees in a video that was created in collaboration with VentureCapital magazine and at our second VC Academy this year on the topic of “Emerging managers – a breath of fresh air for the VC ecosystem”.
Juliane Hahn, Founding Partner and Managing Partner at Signature Ventures, is “Best Female Investor 2024”, Xavier Sarras, Founding Partner at 4P CAPITAL, is “Best Impact Investor 2024”, and Nucleus Capital (Dr Isabella Fandrych and Maximilian Schwarz) received the “Best Emerging Managers” award, which was presented for the first time. KfW Capital awards this prize to honour outstanding personalities of the VC ecosystem, shining a media spotlight on the topics of gender, impact and emerging manager, which are still underrepresented in the VC ecosystem. The award recipients had been selected by the juries in a multi-stage procedure. The awards were presented to the winners in their respective categories at the award ceremony in Berlin. The awards carry a prize money of 5,000 euros each, as they did last year. KfW Capital presented the awards for the third time this year.
A review of the awards ceremony can be found here:KfW Capital Award 2024
Under the “KfW Capital Fellowship Women in VC” programme, KfW Capital for the second time awarded two partial scholarships for women this year, each worth EUR 5,000, for the venture capital track of the “Certified Private Equity Analyst” (CPEA) training programme run by the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM). KfW Capital is running the “KfW Capital Fellowship Women in VC” programme in order to encourage more women to complete the qualification course at the TUM and, armed with these skills, to take on further, more exposed roles in the VC ecosystem.
Further information on this year’s winners Liza Kayser and Laura Wolfram is available here:The scholarship holders of the “KfW Capital Fellowship Women in VC” have been announced!
Regular exchange of knowledge and networking with international experts of the VC ecosystem – that is what the KfW Capital VC Academy offers. After the successful launch of the format in 2022, the successful series of events now already boasts a growing number of participants in its third year. In April we hosted the event “Venture Capital: Responsible Investment in AI”, and in July we welcomed guests including Gülsah Wilke, Partner and Head of the German Office of DN Capital, to an event focusing on the topic of “A breath of fresh air: emerging managers for the VC Market”. In September are we focused on “Private and public capital – jointly strengthening the VC ecosystem”, and in November, at the fourth and last KfW Capital VC Academy in 2024, we have the pleasure of welcoming speakers from the European venture capital ecosystem, including Eric de Montgolfier, Chief Executive Officer of Invest Europe, who gave interesting presentations on the topic “Quo vadis, European Venture Capital?”. We will publish the annual programme for 2025 in January.
You can find the review of the programme here: KfW Capital VC Academy
The “Leading in ESG” training courses developed jointly by VentureESG, the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt and KfW Capital have been held regularly since 2022. This year, a total of four courses were carried out for 18 VC funds in Germany, two of them for emerging managers. The aim of the courses is to provide the VC funds with useful knowledge and suggestions for effectively integrating ESG aspects into their own processes. The practical presentations by funds such as HV Capital, Project A or the High-Tech Start-up Fund were important elements. And there is more good news: the training series will also take place in 2025, with dates to be published at the start of the year.
Further information on “Leading in ESG” is available at ESG training for VCs- The new dates will also be advertised there once they have been scheduled.
The evaluation comprised data from a total of 93 VC funds, 67 VC fund managers and more than 1,200 portfolio companies. KfW Capital’s first ESG report is now published. Selected findings of the report:
In its report, KfW Capital describes measures and objectives in the thematic area of sustainability – both as part of the investment process and for KfW Capital as an organisation itself.
Here you can find our LinkedIn post.
You can read the report at ESG Report 2023
Andreas Haug and Dr Maximilian Zimmerer, two new, very experienced members, joined the Supervisor Board of KfW Capital this year. The Board supervises the business activities of KfW Capital and approves major investments. Dr Fritz Becker resigned from the Board after five years at his own request after reaching statutory retirement age. The Supervisory Board of KfW Capital is now made up of seven members: two representatives of the Federal Government (Dr Sabine Hepperle as representative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Dr Eva Wimmer as representative of the Federal Ministry of Finance), three representatives from the VC sector (Andreas Haug, Dr Judith Kölzer-Söding, Dr Maximilian Zimmerer) and two representatives of KfW (Stefan Wintels as Chair and Dr Stefan Peiss as Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board).
Link to press release: New members join KfW Capital Supervisory Board from the VC sector | KfW
KfW Capital’s Advisory Board, an important advisory body for KfW Capital, held its annual face-to-face board meeting in 2024 as well. The 33 experts from all areas of the VC ecosystem, including fund managers, investors, representatives of associations, professors, colleagues from government departments and ministries, Deutsche Börse and KfW, convened at KfW in Frankfurt in October. Keynote speeches were held by Dr Jörg Goschin and Alexander Thees, the two Senior Managing Directors of KfW Capital, and by Stefan Wintels, CEO of KfW and Supervisory Board Chair of KfW Capital.
Further information on the Advisory Board of KfW Capital: KfW Capital's Advisory Board
KfW Capital had nearly 90 staff members at the end of 2024. As can be seen from the group photo of our summer party, that is an impressive number, especially when we consider that we started with 18 employees in 2018, including the two Senior Managing Directors Dr Jörg Goschin and Alexander Thees. “KfW Capital is growing with its challenges from year to year. In 2024 alone we welcomed some 30 new staff members to our team. We attach great importance to diversity because for us it forms the basis of a strong team, around half of whose members are women, including in leadership roles”, commented co-CEO Alexander Thees about the growth of the workforce, which will continue in 2025. Incidentally, KfW Capital is ensuring continuity: The contracts for both Senior Managing Directors were renewed early for a further five years in December.
Interested applicants can find our job advertisements at Career (in German) and our team here: The team of KfW Capital.
The Federal Government, KfW, important institutions of Germany’s finance industry and actors from the start-up ecosystem issued a joint statement in September in which they agreed on joint measures to strengthen growth and innovation finance in Germany. By the year 2030, EUR 12 billion is to be invested in the further strengthening of the VC ecosystem. As a subsidiary of KfW, we are an important generator of ideas and catalyst for the WIN Project and, in addition to the topic of venture education (see below), are committed to the following topics:
More on WIN: WIN-Initiative - Wachstums- und Innovationskapital für Deutschland (in German)
There is news from the WIN (Wachstums- und Innovationskapital für Deutschland) Initiative of the government and private sector in the area of venture education. In the first phase, KfW Capital will work with two renowned business schools – the ESMT Berlin and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. The aim of this collaboration is to develop targeted education programmes on venture capital aimed specifically at potential investors. Dr Jörg Goschin, Co-CEO of KfW Capital: “Venture education is an important prerequisite for further groups of investors to commit to investing in the asset class of venture capital. Qualification programmes, particularly the ones we initiate jointly with the ESMT and the Frankfurt School in the field of venture capital, provide crucial added value for the VC market. We are pleased to have found such strong partners with the two business schools.”
This year, colleagues of KfW Capital attended around 50 VC events and conferences in Germany and abroad, often as speakers or panellists. Their aim was always to share knowledge and expand our network – with a view to both potential investment opportunities and winning over investors from the private sector. Among others, we attended the SuperReturn and SuperVenture in Berlin, SuperReturn Asia, the Startup Germany Summit, the IPEM in France and the AIM Summit in London as speakers, and participated in important VC conferences such as the Web Summit in Lisbon, the Slush in Helsinki and Noah in London.
On a more personal note: Are you following us on LinkedIn? We were pleased to welcome the 10,000th follower in December. There we share the newest developments at KfW Capital as text, images and video. Here you can find KfW Capital on LinkedIn.
Sonja Höpfner, Spokeswoman and Senior Communications Manager
Katja Homburg, Communications Manager
Sarah Ullmann, Communications Manager
Anna-Lena Peucker, Working Student Communications
