Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Earlybird Venture Capital
Germany's longest-running independent early-stage VC. Founded in 1997 at the height of the first internet wave, it survived the dot-com bust and became a multi-strategy European platform (Digital West, Digital East, Health, Growth). Its Digital East fund made one of the best seed bets in European history: it led UiPath's $1.6m seed in 2015. By 2026 it managed ~€2.5bn, held by its active partners under a "perpetual ownership" model.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1997, Germany (described as Berlin's first VC firm; early offices also in Hamburg and Munich, verify)
- Founders
- Hendrik Brandis, Christian Nagel and Roland Manger
- Headquarters
- Berlin; offices in Munich and London (Cologne also cited); Istanbul and Bucharest belonged to the Digital East team until its 2024 spin-out
- Ownership / structure
- Independent, partner-owned GmbH & Co. KG manager (Earlybird GmbH & Co. KG is an SEC-registered exempt adviser). Adopted a "perpetual ownership" model in April 2026: the firm is always owned entirely by its active partners, and outside ownership, sale to a strategic buyer and listing are ruled out
- Leadership (2026)
- Co-founders Hendrik Brandis and Christian Nagel (partners); Dr Andre Retterath (partner, AI and infrastructure); further partners incl. Jason Whitmire and Fabian Heilemann (verify current titles); Earlybird Health team led by Dr Thom Rasche (verify); CFO Jochen Küst made Operating Partner (2026)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~€2.5bn across all strategies (2026, reported); latest flagship Fund VIII €360m (closed April 2026)
- Stage focus
- Pre-seed to Series A in the core funds, with first checks typically ~€1–10m (verify range); growth follow-ons through Growth Opportunities vehicles; separate life-sciences funds (Earlybird Health)
- Signature investments
- UiPath (Digital East seed lead, 2015), Peak Games (sold to Zynga for $1.8bn, 2020), N26 (seed 2014), Aiven (Series A lead, 2019), OneFootball, Isar Aerospace (Series A lead, 2019), Aleph Alpha (Series A lead, 2021), Interhyp (IPO 2005), Tipp24 (IPO), element 5 (sold to Digital River); instructive cases: Aleph Alpha's retreat from frontier models, Isar's failed first launch (2025), many dot-com-era write-offs
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.
2000
Interhyp
Early-Stage Venture
2011
Peak Games
Series A
2014
N26
Seed
2015
UiPath
Seed
2019
Aiven
Series A
2019
Isar Aerospace
Series A
2021
Aleph Alpha
Series A
2021
Marvel Fusion
Series A