Heartfelt Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Heartfelt Capital (styled HEARTFELT_) positions itself as "Europe's First Cheque Fund" — the first institutional check into exceptional founders building transformative companies across Europe and the US, frequently investing before a formal angel round has closed. The firm is the direct successor to APX, the earliest-stage venture platform built as a joint venture between Axel Springer and Porsche, and it now manages the legacy APX portfolio alongside deployment from its own new fund. Its stated mission is to help founders go from 0 to 1 and reach product-market fit, backed by a team of investment professionals with early-stage venture backgrounds from around the world.
Sector Focus
Heartfelt is an explicit generalist. Its public portfolio page is organized into more than 20 category buckets: Consumer Internet & Consumer Products, Cybersecurity & Fraud Detection, Defence, DevOps & Data/Infrastructure, Education, Energy/Climate/Sustainability, Finance & Insurance, Food & Beverage, Gaming & eSports, Healthcare, Human Resources, Heavy Industry & Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Logistics & Supply Chain, Marketing, Media & Publishing, Productivity, Public Sector & Government, Real Estate & Property Management, Sales, Space & Aviation, and Transport & Mobility. AI/ML is a horizontal theme across nearly every category (AI copilots, AI agents, AI-native vertical software), with a recurring cluster of tokenization/crypto bets (Xelio, Iqana, Trusset, Kenomic) and deep-tech/hardware bets (Snap Fusion's chip-based nuclear fusion, Floxmind's warehouse robots, Taisan's solid-state EV batteries).
Stage Focus
Heartfelt invests at the earliest institutional stage — pre-seed, seed, seed-extension, and selectively into Series A follow-ons as portfolio companies gain momentum and raise outside capital. The firm explicitly aims to be a founder's first institutional check, often investing before a formal angel round.
Check Size
Initial checks range from €100K to €400K. The firm both writes solo checks and invests alongside other early backers, then reserves capital to participate in follow-on rounds as companies mature.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. Heartfelt describes investing "either solo or alongside other early backers." Recent 2026 activity shows the firm mostly taking participant tickets in syndicated seed rounds led by others (Cato's €6M seed led by Keen Venture Partners; Graftcode's €2.1M seed led by Hard2beat; Cendra's $1M seed led by Revo Capital; Zelara's $3.3M pre-seed led by NAP), while historically (as APX) it was frequently the first, solo check into a company.
Recent Activity
Heartfelt closed the first close of a new €80M early-stage fund in June 2023 (later reported at ~€88M), with anchor investors Axel Springer and Porsche returning to back the vehicle as it succeeded APX's Berlin unit. The firm remains active into 2026: it participated in Zelara's $3.3M pre-seed (June 2026), Graftcode's €2.1M seed (April 2026), Cendra's $1M seed (February 2026), and Cato's €6M seed (September 2026), consistent with a firm that is actively deploying.
Portfolio Highlights
Over the past decade (as APX and now Heartfelt), the firm has made initial investments in 300+ startups, of which its current public portfolio page lists over 150 active companies. Flagship / scaled outcomes referenced on its own site include N26 (challenger bank), DeepL (AI translation), Colossyan (AI video), Charles, Greenlyte (Direct Air Capture), getquin (investment tracking app), and Qualifyze (life-sciences supply-chain audits). Portfolio companies have gone on to raise from Insight Partners, Index, Benchmark, Bessemer, Left Lane, IVP, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Balderton, and Google Ventures, among others — evidence of a strong pass-the-baton reputation with top-tier follow-on investors.
Team
- Dr. Henric Hungerhoff — Co-CEO / General Partner (Managing Director). Long-tenured leader of the APX/Heartfelt platform.
- Jörg Rheinboldt — Co-CEO / General Partner. Also a Managing Director at APX and Axel Springer Plug and Play; entrepreneur and investor.
- Daniela Machado — Partner, focused on early-stage investments.
- Axel Roselius — Investment team.
- Gregor A. Erkel — Investment team.
- Marcus Willand — Investment team.
- Manuel Späder — Investment & Finance Associate.
The firm publicly describes itself as having 9-11 full-time investment professionals.
Decision Process
With two co-CEOs / General Partners plus a Partner and a broader investment team, decisions run through a partnership model rather than a single solo GP.
Founder Preferences
Heartfelt looks for exceptional, often first-time or early-career founders building transformative, high-growth companies from Europe (or European-origin founders operating abroad, including in the US). Its value-add centers on 0-to-1 support: help reaching product-market fit, warm introductions to its dense European corporate and follow-on-investor network (built via anchor relationships with Axel Springer and Porsche), and hands-on early support rather than late-stage capital.
Geographic Focus
Primarily Europe, headquartered in Berlin, Germany (Zimmerstraße 50, 10888 Berlin), with an explicit secondary focus on the US and on European-origin founders building companies abroad.