HV Holtzbrinck Ventures has announced a new €535 million fund to support promising startups in Germany and the rest of Europe. The latest fund brings assets under management to over €1.7 billion.

With Fund VIII the firm, which has invested in unicorns such as Zalando and HelloFresh, will broaden its scope, investing in later rounds (such as Series B or Series C) in new companies. The broader focus is accompanied by a shift in brand: after twenty years in the game, the firm will now operate under the name HV Capital. 

That said, the German firm’s primary strategy will remain the same: to lead early rounds, typically Seed or Series A, and maintain long-term partnerships with follow-on investments up to €50 million per startup. Growth investments in Series B and C rounds will range from €7 to 25 million, says the firm’s general partner, Dr. Christian Saller. 

The new name is meant to highlight both this widened strategy as well as the firm’s autonomy. Founded in 2000 by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group as a corporate VC, the company has been operating independently since 2010 from its bases in Berlin and Munich.

In a press release, HV Capital says the companies it has financed over the past twenty years are now worth a total of about €75 billion, and the value of its investment portfolio is three times higher than the capital invested. More than ten of those portfolio companies are now unicorns, including Flixbus, Cabify and SumUp. The VC has repaid more than €1.1 billion to investors – a return of around 36 percent annually.

Photo: Dr. Christian Saller, general partner and head of the firm’s new growth investment team