IS427:AY1314T1 Europe (G1) - Organizations: Munich: Earlybird

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About Earlybird

Earlybird is one of the most experienced and successful venture investors in Europe. As a top tier European Venture Capital firm it manages around €650M in assets for an international investor base and is currently in its fourth fund generation, focusing mainly on the technology and health technology sector.

Founders

Hendrik Brandis

• Co-founder and partner of Earlybird; Board member of EVCA and past chairman of the EVCA Venture Capital Platform Council

• More than 17 years experience as investor and entrepreneur; focus on web/cloud-enabled services and telecom

• Most successful exits include element 5 to Digital River (NASDAQ:DRIV); Dianoema (Milan: NOE.MI) and the Interhyp IPO

• Board member of B2X Care Solutions, carpooling.com, nfon, The Football App, Videdressing

• Co-founder of GMM; Partner with McKinsey & Co.; project manager with EADS (Messerschmidt Boelkow-Blohm)

Christian Nagel

• Co-founder and partner of Earlybird, Chair of International Venture Club

• More than 18 years experience as investor and entrepreneur; focus on web-enabled services and gaming

• Most successful exits: Tipp24 (IPO Prime Standard FSE: TIM); Interhyp (IPO Prime Standard FSE: IYP), Trade Sale BridgeCo to SMSC (NASDAQ: SMSC)
• Board member of Auctionata, madvertise, Smava and Versus

• Co-founder and managing partner of SMB Industrieholding Wildau and DH Industrieholding Hohenthurm; consultant for McKinsey & Company

• Dipl.Wi-Ing. (Msc equivalent), Technical University of Hamburg, PhD, University of St. Gallen

Roland Manger

• Co-founder and partner of Earlybird

• More than 15 years experience as investor and entrepreneur; focus on communication and mobile technology

• Most successful exits: abaXX Technology to Cordys; Esmertec (IPO SWX: ESMN), Purple Labs to Myriad (SWX: MYRN), Scoreloop to RIM (NASDAQ: RIM; TSX: RIM)

• Co-founder and marketing director of Cybernet; director of business development of Ditec; principal at Gemini Consulting

• Dipl.Wi-Ing. (Msc equivalent), University of Karlsruhe; MBA, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

Rolf Mathies

• Co-founder and former general partner of Earlybird, active angel investor

• More than 20 years experience as investor and entrepreneur; focus on enterprise technologies and services

• Most successful exits: Wilex (IPO Prime Standard FSE: WL6); amaxa to Lonza (SWX: LONN); Alantos Pharmaceuticals to Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), element 5 to Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV)
• Board member of azeti Networks and Hemoteq; member of the board of directors of enTRUST & TITLE

• Co-founder and managing partner of ConAction; consultant for Bain & Company Germany Dipl.-Kfm. (MBA equivalent) specializing in information science, University of Hamburg

History

Earlybird was founded in 1997 by the investment partners Hendrik Brandis, Christian Nagel, Roland Manger and Rolf Mathies. The Earlybird Venture Capital firm recently moved its headquarters from Hamburg to Berlin[4] in support of the expanding innovative network of start-ups in Germany’s capital city. Parallel to their geographical transition towards Berlin, they have recently closed a €150M fund focused entirely on early-stage investments in disruptive global consumer and enterprise businesses across Europe. Additionally Earlybird has further offices in Munich and Istanbul.

Investment Philosophy

Earlybird's slogan is "We are moved by ideas and the people who believe in them passionately”. Earlybird’s main investment philosophy is to focus on truly disruptive, non-linear companies that disrupt large markets with a strong product DNA/technology at their heart. Earlybird is particularly interested in companies that build engagement or network effects and that reach proof points and scalability with a high degree of capital efficiency. Essentially Earlybird looks for European DNA but global/international ambitions. Although Earlybird focuses on early stage investments, starting at €300.000 – 10.0M, and can accompany developing companies throughout expansionary and growth stages with up to a total of €15M, its investments are much more than purely the money. They are the ideal “sparring partner” for any CEO, offering a vast a pool of advice, contacts and business discipline.

Earlybird Health Tech Fund

The Earlybird Health Tech Fund is orientated towards funding innovative medical technology companies with experienced entrepreneurial teams and products with an existing clinical proof-of-concept and a defined regulatory pathway. The investment focus is on therapeutic medical device companies, diagnostic medical device companies, web-enabled and scalable health services, as well as health IT services.

Current Portfolio

Since its inception in 1997, Earlybird has invested in close to 100 companies and their portfolio currently contains 24 companies. These are:

Tech: 6Wunderkinder, Auctionata, Azeti Networks, B2X Care Solutions, Carpooling, Conject, EyeEm, Light Blue Optics, Madvertise, Moped, Nfon, Oneshield, Peak Games, Simfy, Smava, Socialbakers, The Football App, Traxpay, Ubitricity, VERSUS[disambiguation needed], Videdressing

Health Tech: EBS Technologies, Miracor, Hemoteq

References

Earlybird Website
Earlybird Latest Update
You can download our Earlybird Company Presentation Slides here.