10x Founders Research
Investment Thesis
10x Founders is a Munich-based, network-powered early-stage venture firm built by former operators, CEOs, and serial entrepreneurs rather than traditional finance professionals. The firm's core belief is that European and DACH-region founders are well positioned to build category-leading global companies, and that the best way to back them is to pair capital with an exclusive network of 300+ entrepreneurs, VCs, and angels who have themselves built and sold companies. The team's own track record, spanning 16+ years of angel and operator experience, includes early backing of unicorns such as Adyen, EquipmentShare, and Luminar, more than 40 exits, and 8 IPOs. That super-angel pattern-matching is the foundation of the firm's strategy: get in early, add real operational help, and lean on the network for follow-on capital and customer introductions.
Sector Focus
10x Founders is sector-agnostic within technology, with the heaviest concentration in AI, Data & Infrastructure, B2B SaaS, FinTech, Robotics/Industry & Automation, Climate Tech & Sustainability, Consumer, HR, Cybersecurity, Health, and Marketing. Recent portfolio activity skews toward applied AI infrastructure (Hydra Host, Arlequin, Blobr, Floy, Flank), fintech/insurtech (Augustus, Harper, Credit Dharma, Accountable), and robotics/industrial automation (Cerrion, Filics, Fernride, Formlogic, Freeform).
Stage Focus
The fund specializes in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A, with an explicit preference to be among the first institutional checks into a company. Portfolio data shows Pre-Seed through Series A rounds dated 2021-2025, with occasional Pre-Series A structures for consumer companies.
Check Size
Per the firm's own site, typical checks range from €250K to €2.5M across Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A.
Lead Tendency
Mixed signal: the founding partners' angel track record emphasizes being the first backer, but check sizes at the low end of Seed/Series A suggest 10x frequently invests alongside a lead as part of a syndicate built from its network, particularly on larger US and international rounds (e.g., the $100M Hydra Host Series A led by Kindred Ventures, and the $180M Augustus Series B led by Tiger Global). Classified as 'both' pending more granular deal-by-deal confirmation.
Recent Activity
The fund closed its first vehicle at €160M in 2022 (per YPOG's press release on the fund's legal structuring) and has continued deploying into 2026, per Tracxn (6 new investments in the trailing 12 months as of mid-2026). Notable recent milestones:
- Augustus (fintech/global dollar banking) raised a $180M Series B led by Tiger Global at a $1B valuation, reaching unicorn status (July 2026).
- Hydra Host (AI/GPU server marketplace) raised a $100M Series A led by Kindred Ventures, with NVIDIA and ARK Invest participating (June 2026).
- Harper (AI-native commercial insurance brokerage) raised $47M in combined Seed and Series A led by Emergence Capital (February 2026).
- Filics (robotic intralogistics) raised a €13.5M Series A with 10x Founders participating alongside Redalpine and Alven (July 2025).
- Fernride (autonomous trucking, later pivoted to defense) was acquired by Quantum Systems (December 2025) — one of the fund's portfolio exits.
Portfolio Highlights
70+ companies invested since inception (per Tracxn), with notable names including Augustus (unicorn, fintech), Hydra Host (AI infrastructure), Simpleclub (EdTech, flagship 'portfolio champion'), Fernride (exit to Quantum Systems), Accountable and Charma (both acquired), and Cylib (battery recycling / climate tech). Earlier-era angel investments by the founding partners include Adyen, EquipmentShare, and Luminar.
Team
- Jan Reichelt — Investment Team. Founder of Mendeley (acquired by Elsevier) and Kopernio (acquired by Clarivate); former Managing Director, Web of Science at Clarivate.
- Felix Haas — Investment Team. Host & Chairman of Bits & Pretzels; co-founder & Executive Chairman of IDnow; former founder/CEO of Amiando (sold to XING).
- Jessica Lieber — Partner, Investment Team. Former member of the founding team at Next47 (Siemens' corporate VC arm), with prior investments including Sennder, Cargo.one, and Wandelbots; focus on DeepTech and SaaS.
- Rupert Schäfer — Venture Partner, Investment Team. Co-founder of consultancy The Nunatak Group (exited 2021); former LP and angel investor via buildery.vc, with a portfolio including IDnow and Animoca Brands.
- Julian Wachtel — Investment Team. Previously an early-stage investor at iAngels in Tel Aviv; focuses on bridging European, US, and Israeli tech ecosystems.
- Jan Becker — Investment Team. Co-founder of Ada Health and Enmacc; former CEO of FriendScout24 (Scout24).
The team also includes additional Investment Team members (Nico Schoenenberger, Andreas Etten, Robert Wuttke) and an Operations/Finance bench (Stella Xu, Christian Dengler, Virginia Rodrigo, Lisa Girard, Reshma Raghavan, Chiara Bagaini) per the firm's team page.
Decision Process
Multi-partner investment team structure (partnership-style decision process) rather than a solo-GP model; deals appear to be sourced and championed by individual partners and then run through the broader investment team.
Founder Preferences
The firm explicitly favors technical and repeat founders 'utilizing technology to solve the world's biggest problems,' with a stated bias toward ambitious European and DACH-region teams, though the portfolio includes a meaningful share of US, Indian, and other international companies.
Geographic Focus
Primary focus is Europe, with an explicit DACH-region tilt (roughly half the visible portfolio is Germany/Austria/Switzerland). The remainder is spread across the US, UK, France, India, Spain, Norway, Belgium, and other geographies, reflecting the firm's international angel network.