Angel Invest Research
Investment Thesis
Angel Invest is Europe's most active super angel fund, founded in 2018 and headquartered in Berlin. The firm's thesis is to be the fastest, most founder-friendly first check available to European founders: small, non-dilutive-feeling initial investments (roughly EUR 125,000) paired with at least a full year of hands-on, bi-weekly coaching. Every one of its founding and managing partners has previously built and exited a startup, which the firm leans on heavily in its pitch to founders - it markets itself less as a source of capital and more as an operating partner for the earliest, highest-uncertainty phase of a company's life. The firm explicitly writes checks "before a market or product category is established," positioning itself as one of the first institutional investors many European founders will ever take money from.
Stage Focus
Angel Invest invests exclusively at the earliest stages: angel, pre-seed, and seed. It does not typically play at Series A and beyond, though individual partners (notably John von Berenberg-Consbruch) maintain relationships into later-stage rounds of existing portfolio companies for follow-on and exit guidance rather than as new capital deployment.
Check Size
The firm's headline check size is approximately EUR 125,000 per company, deployed as a first check. Given the volume of investments (roughly 75 new companies per year, over 110 from Fund III alone as of its June 2026 close), the model favors breadth and coaching intensity over concentrated conviction bets typical of traditional seed funds.
Lead Tendency
Angel Invest positions itself as being among the first money into a company, frequently ahead of a defined market or product category, which functions as a de facto lead role on the earliest round even though check sizes are modest relative to traditional lead investors. Decision-making is fast and does not require a formal pitch deck or investment committee process - partners can commit personally.
Recent Activity
Angel Invest closed an oversubscribed Fund III at EUR 40 million in June 2026, exceeding its target, with capital already deployed into more than 110 companies from that vehicle. The firm also announced in mid-2025 that it had secured EUR 160 million in aggregate capital to back over 250 European startups, investing at a pace of more than one startup per week. Recent dealflow highlighted at the Fund III close skews heavily toward AI-native companies, alongside continued activity in fintech, infrastructure, and deep tech. Portfolio companies highlighted at the Fund III close include Peec AI, Fonio, INXM, Sapiom, Huzzle, Seapoint, Originator, Mav9, Daisytuner, and AskVinny.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio spans 240+ active companies (250+ across all funds) with a combined market cap north of EUR 4 billion and more than EUR 2 billion in follow-on funding raised. Roughly 60% of portfolio companies go on to graduate to a Series A. Notable exits include Surfboard, a UK-based workforce management SaaS company, which was acquired by Dialpad in October 2024. Well-known portfolio names include Rasa (open-source conversational AI), MindsDB (open-source AutoML), Usercentrics (European consent management leader), CoachHub (European coaching platform), Spacelift (CI/CD for infrastructure-as-code), Everphone (smartphone-as-a-service), and Certifaction (privacy-first eSigning). Follow-on investors into the portfolio include Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Index Ventures, Tiger Global, and Valar Ventures.
Team
- Jens Lapinski, Founding Partner - Former Managing Director of Techstars' Germany fund (40 companies, EUR 250M+ raised, including unicorns Arweave and Preply); co-founded Forward Labs/Forward Partners, which IPO'd on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 and was acquired by Molten Ventures in 2023.
- Oliver Clasen, Founding Partner - Two decades in global asset management, banking, and private equity; CEO of HVC Management (Clasen family office); former C-level roles at Allianz Global Investors.
- Jag Singh, Managing Partner - Serial founder with two exits in adtech and big data; conducts 500+ founder coaching calls annually; prior decade in US/UK politics.
- Karl Joseph Seilern, Partner - 15+ years operating and scaling technology companies; former Managing Director at Rocket Internet and Groupon; leadership roles at Sezzle (NASDAQ: SEZL); founder of LocaFox.
- Nazanin Daneshvar, Partner - Joined from EQT Ventures; built and scaled one of Iran's largest female-led tech companies to IPO; named to Sifted's Europe Top 100 Women in Tech 2025.
- John von Berenberg-Consbruch, Partner - Focuses on later-stage portfolio relationships; background in investment banking and founding/exiting an early-stage fintech company.
Decision-making runs through the partnership without a formal investment committee; partners can commit to a deal personally.
Decision Process
No formal pitch deck or IC process is required. Partners evaluate founders directly, emphasizing "proof over promises" - learning speed, clean testing, and rapid iteration over polished narratives.
Founder Preferences
Angel Invest favors founders who demonstrate fast iteration and evidence-based decision-making rather than pitch polish, and is comfortable being the first institutional check before a market or product category is fully defined.
Geographic Focus
Primarily Europe, with Berlin as headquarters and deal flow across Germany, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Poland, plus a smaller number of US-based technology investments.