Point Nine Capital, a Berlin-based venture capital firm, today announced that it has closed Point Nine Capital II, a €40 million venture capital fund focused exclusively on early-stage internet investments. The new fund marks an important milestone in Point Nine’s path to building a leading independent European early-stage VC.
Point Nine Capital II has already invested in a number of successful internet startups such as Brainly, ePetWorld, Kreditech, Positionly, Shiftplanning and Vend. Previously, Pawel Chudzinski and Christoph Janz were among the first investors in companies like Clio, Delivery Hero, Madvertise, Westwing and Zendesk. While Point Nine Capital has emerged from the Berlin startup scene and has its office in the German capital, the fund invests all across Europe and in some cases even outside of Europe.
“Our goal is to back the best early-stage entrepreneurs as they build industry-changing companies in areas like SaaS, e-commerce, marketplaces and mobile”, said Christoph Janz, whose startup experience goes back as far as 1997, when he co-founded comparison shopping engine DealPilot. He said: “Our tagline has always been ‘The Angel VC’. The new fund allows us to combine our founder-friendly no-nonsense ‘angel investor’ approach with the ability to provide much stronger financial support.”
Investors in Point Nine Capital II include leading private equity fund-of-funds like Horsley Bridge Partners and SAP Ventures, as well as a number of successful entrepreneurs and private funds from Germany and a variety of other European countries. These include, among others, Arend Lars Iven and Ron Hillman of Berlin Venture Partners, Jan Beckers, Michael Ambros and Gunther Schmidt of eKomi, the founders of Cube Investments from Spain and RTA Ventures and Xevin from Poland. Pawel Chudzinski and Christoph Janz, as well as the founders of Team Europe, have made significant investments into the fund, too.
Around 18 months ago, the investment arm of Team Europe, which had been managed by Pawel Chudzinski, was spun off, changed its name to Point Nine Capital and strengthened its leadership team with the addition of serial entrepreneur and angel investor Christoph Janz. Coinciding with the closing of the new fund, Lukasz Gadowski and Kolja Hebenstreit of Team Europe are leaving the fund’s investment committee. They will continue to support Point Nine as advisors.
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