Vanagon Ventures, a Munich-based venture capital firm focused on backing AI-native and DeepTech startups at the pre-seed and seed stage, primarily across the DACH region and wider Europe, has closed its first fund at €20 mn, positioning itself as an early-stage backer of European deep-tech and AI startups operating well outside the comfort zone of mainstream SaaS investment.
The fund targets pre-seed and seed rounds, where technical ambition often outpaces investor appetite.
While capital across Europe continues to concentrate in consumer software and low-friction SaaS models, founders building in AI, quantum technologies, robotics, and advanced materials face a persistent funding gap at inception.
Vanagon was formed to operate precisely at that inflection point. The firm plans to invest up to €500,000 per company in founders tackling industrial-scale challenges spanning sustainable manufacturing, next-generation materials, and automation-heavy systems.
Fund I has already backed several early-stage companies.
These include 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 enables organisations to measure and monetise natural capital.
Sandro Stark, general partner at Vanagon Ventures, said the firm looks for founders with deep technical intuition and market awareness well before metrics appear settled.
He said the firm often invests before narratives stabilise or numbers provide comfort, focusing instead on problem obsession, resilience, and long-term compounding potential.
Vanagon’s strategy rests on the belief that transformative companies emerge from founders who understand the systems they seek to rebuild. Its three general partners bring operating backgrounds rather than traditional venture pedigrees.
- Axel Roitzsch is a serial entrepreneur who has led companies through full growth cycles.
- 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.
Unlike funds that wait for early traction, Vanagon commits at the first institutional round. It leads investments, helps structure follow-on financing, and provides operational support rather than passive capital.
According to Beinsure, this conviction-led approach remains rare in Europe’s deep-tech ecosystem, where technical risk often delays capital deployment.
The firm operates alongside established European deep-tech investors such as Vsquared Ventures, Earlybird, and Lakestar. Vanagon differentiates itself through its focus on first-round investments in underfunded, industrial and AI-intensive startups, where domain expertise outweighs portfolio scale.
On founder diversity, Stark said Vanagon’s non-legacy venture backgrounds shape how it evaluates talent and risk. He said the firm’s portfolio reflects diversity across geography, education, gender, and life stage, including founders balancing company building with significant personal responsibilities.
According to Stark, those circumstances often correlate with prioritisation, trust, and long-term orientation rather than added risk.
Fund I is expected to invest in around 30 startups, with an emphasis on strengthening Europe’s technological autonomy and ecological resilience.
Stark said Vanagon will continue to work closely with founders through its Deepdrive Network, connecting them with experienced founders, technology executives, and corporate partners built through years of operating and advisory roles.
The goal, he said, is to help portfolio companies raise capital more efficiently while moving faster up the growth curve.
