Blue Forest Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Blue Forest Ventures is a Berlin-based deep tech venture capital firm founded in 2023 by four co-founders: Max Narr, Moises Gene, Julian Rosenberger von Papstein, and Nicolas König. The firm's stated purpose is to back "visionary founders driving transformative technologies that ensure a better, sustainable future for all." Blue Forest's thesis centers on deep tech as the category most capable of solving humanity's hardest problems, drawing parallels to historically transformative deep tech inventions such as the steam engine, vaccinations, and the internet. The firm explicitly positions itself as more than a capital provider: because early-stage deep tech founders are typically highly technical and already embedded in strong technical networks, Blue Forest's value-add is commercial rather than technical — helping founders build compelling equity stories, shape go-to-market strategy, and develop growth strategy. The firm also markets a differentiated, technology-driven sourcing and evaluation process, using automation and AI to increase deal-flow processing efficiency and enable more systematic investment evaluation.
Sector Focus
Blue Forest's mandate is broad "deep tech" — technological solutions to complex scientific and engineering problems — rather than a single vertical. Publicly, the firm has explicitly excluded heavily regulated fields like drug development from its scope (per General Partner Max Narr in a 2024 podcast interview). The one confirmed public investment to date is in diagnostics/healthcare deep tech: En Carta Diagnostics, a Paris-based startup building at-home molecular tests (starting with Lyme disease and STIs).
Stage Focus
Blue Forest invests exclusively at pre-seed and seed stage. The firm has stated it wants to be an early, often first institutional check into technical founding teams.
Check Size
The firm's website states ticket sizes ranging from €150,000 to €2,000,000 at pre-seed and seed. A 2024 podcast interview with GP Max Narr described typical initial tickets in the €500,000–€1,000,000 range, so the wider website range likely reflects the full range across pre-seed through seed follow-on within a single round rather than a single fixed check.
Lead Tendency
Blue Forest led the July 2026 seed round for En Carta Diagnostics (€5M total, ~$3.43M reported by CB Insights), with participation from Ring Capital, CentraleSupélec Venture, 50 Partners Health, MH Innov, and undisclosed angel investors — its only confirmed deal to date, and it led.
Recent Activity
The firm launched publicly in early 2024 (reported via German startup press "StartupTicker" on April 9, 2024) and was, as of that reporting, still raising its first fund with a stated target of €60M; a first close was expected "soon." As of this research (September 2026), the firm's only publicly tracked completed investment is the En Carta Diagnostics seed round, closed and announced in July 2026. Given the fund only recently reached its first disclosed deployment over two years after forming, fund status should be read as early/actively fundraising-and-deploying rather than a mature, high-cadence deployer.
Portfolio Highlights
- En Carta Diagnostics (encarta.bio) — Paris-based deep tech startup developing next-generation at-home molecular diagnostic tests, starting with Lyme disease and STIs. Raised a €5M seed round in July 2026 led by Blue Forest Ventures.
Public data sources (Crunchbase, PitchBook, CB Insights) each show only this single tracked investment for the firm, consistent with a young, still-fundraising fund.
Team
- Max Narr — Co-Founder & General Partner. Trained lawyer; led IBU-tec's IPO and its largest acquisition. Co-founded Endosane Pharmaceuticals and served as Chief Investment Officer at Sanity Group. INSEAD GEMBA 2024. At Blue Forest, focuses on equity-story development and the firm's evaluation process.
- Moises Gene — Co-Founder & General Partner. 15+ years as founder/CEO/board member/investor in finance; founded a financial institution in 2009 providing venture debt to 2,000+ startups and SMEs. INSEAD GEMBA 2024. Leads financial matters and predictive modeling at Blue Forest.
- Julian Rosenberger von Papstein — Co-Founder & Partner. Background in M&A/corporate finance; co-founded SageWealth as Chief Strategy Officer; previously in venture capital at JOIN Capital; angel investor in IndustrialTech. London School of Economics graduate (with distinction). Leads European dealflow network.
- Nicolas König — Co-Founder. University of Manchester graduate (first-class); first employee at Blue Forest; focuses on origination, partnerships, and investment management.
- Boris Guennewig — Chief Data Officer. ETH Zurich PhD; 15+ years in bioinformatics; also Founder & CEO of Pacific Analytics and CTO/co-founder of smrtr. Leads Blue Forest's proprietary automation and predictive analytics for deal evaluation.
Decision Process
Four co-founding partners (Narr, Gene, von Papstein, König) with a functional data/analytics lead (Guennewig) — consistent with a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo GP or formal investment committee.
Founder Preferences
Blue Forest explicitly targets highly technical founding teams tackling complex scientific/engineering problems, and frames itself as a "founder-first" partner that provides transparency and support "whether we invest or not." The firm avoids heavily regulated categories like drug development.
Geographic Focus
Primarily Europe, with selective investments across South-East Asia and North America. The firm is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Its one confirmed portfolio company (En Carta Diagnostics) is based in Paris, France.