KfW Capital Award 2023

Award for “Best Female Investor” und “Best Impact Investor”

This competition is a way for KfW Capital to honour outstanding personalities from the venture capital ecosystem. The KfW Capital Award for “Best Female Investor” recognises female venture capital (VC) investors who invest successfully in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany, among other things. The KfW Capital Award for “Best Impact Investor” focuses on investors – both male and female – and their funds who have defined impact as an integral part of their investment strategy and invest in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany, among other things. The KfW Capital Award will complement the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award for business founders by again adding the investor perspective, as it did last year. Further information about the KfW Capital Award 2022 and the the winner Dr. Manon Sarah Littek and Extantia Capital can be found here.

The winners of the KfW Capital Awards 2023 have been announced:

Congratulations to our winners this year!

The winner in the category "Best Female Investor" is Itziar Estevez, partner at the VC fund IRIS.

The winner in the category "Best Impact Investor" is Tim Schumacher, managing general partner at the VC fund World Fund.

Find exclusive interviews with Itziar Estevez and Tim Schumacher in the Dossier on KfW Capital in KfW Stories.

Robert Habeck and Stefan Wintels at the ceremony — Robert Habeck (Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) and Stefan Wintels (Chief Executive Officer at KfW Group and Chair of the Supervisory Board of KfW Capital) at the ceremony.

Robert Habeck announces the EMF on stage at the ceremony — During the award ceremony, federal minister Robert Habeck announced a new module of the "Zukunftsfonds" (Future Fund): the "Emerging Manager Facility".

Winner Tim Schumacher on stage — "Best Impact Investor"

Winner: Tim Schumacher

KfW Vorstandsvorsitzender Stefan Wintels auf der Bühne — Stefan Wintels, Chief Executiv Officer of KfW Group and Chair of the Supervisory Board of KfW Capital, on stage with moderator Jana Linke.

Itziar Estevez und Tim Schumacher bei der Preisverleihung des KfW Capital Awards 2023 — This year's winners: Itziar Estevez, Partner at IRIS, and Tim Schumacher, Manging General Partner at World Fund.

Die Trophäe des KfW Capital Awards 2023 — These are the trophies for this year.

Dr. Stefan Peiß, Itziar Estevez and Tim Schumacher at the ceremony — Dr. Stefan Peiß, member of the KfW Group Executive Board, Chief Risk Officer and deputy chair of the Supervisory Board of KfW Capital, together with our winners Itziar Estevez and Tim Schumacher.

Group picture of all the winners — All the winners of the KfW Award Gründen and the KfW Capital Award 2023 at the ceremony in the "Bar jeder Vernunft" in Berlin.

Dr. Jörg Goschin, Itziar Estevez and Theresa Bardubitzki at the ceremony — From left to right: Dr. Jörg Goschin (Co-CEO of KfW Capital), Itziar Estevez ("Best Female Investor" and Partner at IRIS), and Theresa Bardubitzki (Sustainability Manager at KfW Capital).

The CEOs of KfW Capital about the award:

Dr Jörg Goschin: “The VC ecosystem still has some catching up to do around the topics of Female Investing and Impact Investing, so we are again addressing these areas with this year’s KfW Capital Award and its categories. Besides, we want to honour successful male and female investors again for their outstanding achievements”.

Alexander Thees: “Last year we received many very good applications in both categories. We are excited about this year’s applications and are confident they will again make for difficult choices for our jury panel, which will be composed of high-ranking VC experts”.

Eligibility

The KfW Capital Award is aimed at investors in Europe who have a link to Germany as an investment location and who distinguish themselves by special deals, exposure or appearances in the VC ecosystem. The application period began on 1 April and ended on 1 July 2023. Interested parties can find the online application form at: kfw-awards.de

A high-ranking five-member jury chose the winners:

Jury „Best Female Investor“

Alex von Frankenberg, Managing Director of High-Tech Gründerfonds
Ulrike Hinrichs, Managing Director of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, BVK, and Chair of the “Young Digital Economy” Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
Prof. Heike Hölzner, Professor of Entrepreneurship and SME Management at Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Co-Chair of encourageventures e.V
Dr Eva Wimmer, Head of the Financial Markets Department at the Federal Ministry of Finance
KfW Capital: Dr Jörg Goschin, Managing Director of KfW Capital, and Theresa Bardubitzki, Sustainability Manager

Jury „Best Impact Investor“

Dr Sabine Hepperle, Head of the SME Policy Department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action
Anja Mikus, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at KENFO – the German Nuclear Waste Management Fund
Felix Oldenburg, CEO of project bcause and Board Spokesman of gut.org gAG
Dr Andreas Rickert, PHINEO Executive Board, Co-CEO of Nixdorf Kapital, Executive Board of the Federal Impact Investing Initiative
KfW Capital: Alexander Thees, Managing Director of KfW Capital, and Theresa Bardubitzki, Sustainability Manager of KfW Capital

Read here the KfW Capital press release about the Award 2023.