Vanagon Ventures raises €20M to back Europe’s earliest deep tech bets
Vanagon Ventures, a Munich-based venture capital firm, has announced the final close of its €20 million Fund I, aiming to address a persistent gap in Europe’s innovation financing: pre-seed and seed funding for deep tech companies building complex, capital-intensive technologies.
While a significant share of European venture money continues to flow into SaaS and consumer software, founders working on advanced systems in AI, quantum computing, robotics, and industrial automation often struggle to secure “first-cheque” investors. Vanagon Ventures says its new fund is designed to take that early risk, investing up to €500,000 per company and supporting teams tackling large-scale industrial and technological challenges.
Focus: industrial-grade innovation at pre-seed and seed
The firm expects Fund I to back around 30 startups, concentrating on technologies that can reshape legacy industries and strengthen Europe’s technological independence. Target areas include sustainable manufacturing, next-generation materials, and automated systems—sectors where product development cycles are longer and technical validation can be more demanding than in typical software-first startups.
According to the firm, the fund has already invested in several early-stage companies, including Holy Technologies, which applies AI to component manufacturing; ExoMatter, a materials discovery platform spun out of the German Aerospace Centre; and The Landbanking Group, which helps organisations measure and monetise natural capital.
Conviction-led early investing—before traction is obvious
Sandro Stark, General Partner at Vanagon Ventures, said the firm prioritises founders with deep domain expertise and a clear view of how technology can reshape markets—often before metrics and narratives are fully formed.
“For every investment, we look for top-tier professionals with a farsighted technological vision,” Stark said. “Especially founders with deep domain expertise and a clear intuition for how technology will reshape their market, and the ability to continuously balance what is technically possible with what the market truly needs.”
He added that the firm often invests “before the story is neat” and before “numbers look comforting,” emphasising traits such as founder obsession with a problem, resilience, and long-term compounding potential.
Partners with operator backgrounds
Vanagon Ventures positions itself as an operator-led fund built around hands-on involvement at the earliest stages. The firm is led by three general partners with backgrounds spanning entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, and venture building.
Axel Roitzsch is described as a serial entrepreneur who has taken companies through full growth cycles. Sandro Stark previously worked as a strategist at Microsoft and co-founded a parametric climate insurance startup. Susanne Fromm, an INSEAD MBA, spent more than 15 years in corporate innovation and technology investing before co-founding the firm.
The fund’s approach includes leading pre-seed rounds, helping founders access follow-on capital, and providing operational support rather than acting as a passive capital provider. In a market where many investors advertise early-stage focus but wait for traction, the firm argues that deep tech requires earlier conviction and more practical support.
Positioning within Europe’s deep tech VC landscape
Europe has a growing set of deep tech investors, including firms such as Vsquared Ventures, Earlybird, and Lakestar, which have backed science- and engineering-driven ventures. Vanagon Ventures is seeking to differentiate by focusing on first-round investments in industrial and AI-heavy startups that can be overlooked when funds prioritise faster-scaling software models.
The firm’s thesis is that the next generation of European technology leaders will be built by founders who understand the industrial systems they aim to rebuild—combining technical depth with market realism.
Diversity and founder profiles
Asked about diversity, Stark argued that investor pattern-matching can narrow who receives funding, while the firm’s non-traditional venture backgrounds broaden its perspective on talent and risk.
“Many VCs fund what feels familiar,” he said, adding that the partners’ experience building companies and driving innovation inside corporates shapes a “broader perspective on talent and risk.” He said this has contributed to a founder portfolio that is diverse across origin, education, experience, gender, and life stage.
Stark also pointed to backing founders managing significant personal responsibilities—such as parents building companies—suggesting these circumstances can signal prioritisation and long-term orientation when paired with strong execution.
What comes next: building a network for follow-on capital
With Fund I now closed, Vanagon Ventures plans to continue deploying capital into pre-seed and seed rounds and supporting portfolio companies through a network it calls the Deepdrive Network. The firm says the network includes founders, technology executives, and corporate relationships developed through prior roles at organisations such as Microsoft, Allianz, Roland Berger, and INSEAD.
Stark said the goal is to help founders “raise more, faster and sharper,” positioning the fund as both an early backer and a connector to later-stage capital.
As Europe debates how to strengthen strategic autonomy in critical technologies, funds targeting the earliest stages of deep tech could play an outsized role—particularly for startups whose innovations require patient capital, specialised expertise, and early belief before commercial traction is visible.
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