SpeedInvest

Speedinvest Research Investment Thesis Speedinvest is a globally active European venture capital firm headquartered in Vienna with more than EUR 1.2 billion in assets under management and six offices across EMEA. Its public positioning is "many move more": it believes category-defining technology companies are built with sector expertise, operational support, capital access, customer introductions, talent help, and global follow-on networks from day one. The firm is organized around specialist investment teams rather than a generalist-only model. Current teams cover AI & Infra, Climate Tech & Industrial Tech, Deep Tech, Fintech & DeFi, Health & Bio, Marketplaces & Consumer, Growth, and Middle East, Africa & Beyond. This makes Speedinvest a strong fit for technical and globally ambitious founders who map clearly to one of those specialist teams. The firm's thesis is also explicitly Europe and EMEA-centered but not provincial. Speedinvest uses its European base and local ecosystem depth to help founders expand across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. Recent strategic activity reinforces that thesis: a March 2026 joint venture with SBI Ventures Europe is designed to connect Japanese capital with European technology companies, while EIB Global's March 2026 commitment to Speedinvest's first Africa-focused vehicle is meant to support technology companies across major African innovation hubs. Those moves show Speedinvest is building cross-border capital and market access around its core early-stage platform. Stage Focus Speedinvest invests from inception to seed and also selectively at growth stage. Its official how-we-work page lists early investments from inception to seed and growth investments from Series B to pre-IPO. The firm says its specialist investment teams each back only four to six new companies per year, which implies a high-conviction process and a preference for meaningful ownership and active support rather than many small passive bets. The portfolio page shows more than 400 investments, including both young companies and mature scaleups. Recent portfolio entries include 2025 investments such as Abwab.ai, Anda, ARX Robotics, aerska, and Fuse, while older portfolio examples include Bitpanda, GoStudent, Tide, Wayflyer, Prewave, Moove, Upvest, Gigs, Sona, cylib, and planqc. Check Size Speedinvest publishes unusually clear check-size bands. For inception-to-seed opportunities, it lists EUR 250K to EUR 5M. For growth-stage opportunities from Series B to pre-IPO, it lists EUR 5M to EUR 30M. The structured range stores 250,000 to 30,000,000 because the F4 firm fields are currency-neutral, but founders should interpret the upper end as growth-stage capacity, not the normal seed check. A seed-stage founder should expect the practical core range to be materially smaller than the growth maximum. Lead Tendency Speedinvest is lead-oriented. Its homepage and how-we-work page say it leads 85% of initial investments and completes more than 100 follow-on rounds each year. That lead rate, together with the four-to-six-new-companies-per-team annual pacing, points to a concentrated, partnership-heavy model. The firm can participate in later rounds and syndicates, as seen in Nofence's 2025 Series B and other growth activity, but its strongest stated behavior is leading or co-leading high-conviction initial rounds. Recent Activity Speedinvest appears actively deploying and expanding its capital platform in 2025 and 2026. On March 25, 2026, Speedinvest and SBI Ventures Europe announced a joint venture to deepen long-term capital flows between Japan and Europe's innovation economy. On March 16, 2026, EIB Global announced a EUR 40 million commitment to Speedinvest's first dedicated Africa-focused investment vehicle, with target markets including Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, DRC, Tunisia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Recent investment activity includes Speedinvest's investment in mimic's USD 16 million seed round for frontier physical AI in November 2025, its lead role in DJUST's EUR 7 million financing in October 2025, participation in Nofence's more than USD 35 million Series B in September 2025, and its July 2025 investment in ARX Robotics. Portfolio Highlights Speedinvest reports 400+ investments. The official portfolio spotlights include Bitpanda, planqc, ARX Robotics, Upvest, Prewave, Moove, Gigs, Sona, GoStudent, Tide, Wayflyer, and cylib. These examples show breadth across fintech and financial infrastructure, AI and infrastructure, climate and industrial technology, deep tech, robotics, defense, health, marketplaces, and emerging-market platforms. Portfolio examples include Bitpanda in regulated investing and crypto infrastructure, Upvest in investment infrastructure, Prewave in supply-chain risk, Moove in African mobility fintech, Gigs in embedded telecom, GoStudent in tutoring, Tide in SME banking, Wayflyer in ecommerce financing, cylib in battery recycling, planqc in quantum computing, ARX Robotics in autonomous defense systems, mimic in physical AI robotics, DJUST in B2B commerce software, and Nofence in agtech virtual fencing. The portfolio page also marks exits such as Amodo, Actiondesk, Cobee, Curve, Colorful, Complori, and consola.finance. Team Speedinvest has a large team across Vienna, Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Abu Dhabi. The public team page lists Oliver Holle as CEO and Managing Partner; Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, Markus Lang, and Andreas Schwarzenbrunner as General Partners; Nora Frizberg as COO; Deepali Nangia, Rana Abdel Latif, Florian Obst, Frederik Hagenauer, Andrea Zitna, Sameer Singh, Jeroen Arts, Tom Filip Lesche, Will Wells, and Stefan Klestil as partners or general partners across sector teams; Werner Zahnt as Founding Partner for Corporate Development; and Young Sohn as Chairman. Founder outreach should be routed by sector and geography where possible because the investment organization is explicitly team-based. Decision Process Speedinvest does not publish a fixed decision timeline. The available evidence points to a sector-team-led partnership process, with specialist teams making a small number of new investments each year and the firm often leading initial rounds. The public connect path means a warm introduction is not strictly required, but a targeted approach to the relevant sector investor is likely to matter. Because the firm often leads, diligence likely centers on founder-market fit, category ambition, defensible technology or business model, international scale potential, and whether the relevant Speedinvest team can add operational help through customers, hiring, fundraising, corporate access, or expansion support. Founder Preferences The best fit is a relentless, globally ambitious technology founder building in a category where Speedinvest has deep sector expertise. The firm says it supports founders building lasting technology companies that solve major societal and economic challenges. The strongest matches are companies with venture-scale ambition, technical or market defensibility, an EMEA or global expansion path, and a desire for active investor support. Speedinvest is a weaker fit for non-digital companies, local service businesses without venture-scale upside, companies outside the firm's sector teams, or founders looking for a passive investor. Geographic Focus Speedinvest is headquartered in Vienna and lists offices in Vienna, Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Abu Dhabi. The firm's footprint is Europe and beyond, with explicit emphasis on Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and international capital connections. The SBI joint venture adds a Japan-Europe bridge, while the EIB-backed Africa vehicle deepens focus on African technology ecosystems. Practically, Speedinvest is most relevant for European and EMEA-connected startups that can use a sector-specialist investor and global follow-on network.