EXPLORE OUR COMPANIES


Our investment team has more than 20 years of experience in founding, managing and investing in over 60 startups.

STS Ventures invests in start-ups in the DACH region. We are stage- and industry agnostic, but typically seek for pre-seed and seed-stage investments. We fill the gap between business angels and traditional venture capital firms. Sure, like most VCs, we welcome unicorn start-ups with hockey stick growth. But, we really love start-ups that achieve capital-efficient, sustainable growth. With Stephan, you will gain a partner with experience in building firms with a clear path to profitability.

ACTIVE PORTFOLIO


TalentSpace

Talentspace is the first all-in-one live online recruiting event platform that allows clients to host recruiting events online and lets talents and employers connect and interact digitally.

Website: talentspace.io

Founded in: 2017

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Board member

Berlin

Headquartered in

JustWatch

JustWatch collects user profiles of millions of cinema goers and learns their individual movie taste. JustWatch uses this data to run highly efficient trailer campaigns for movie studios, distributors and VOD services.

Website: justwatch.com

Founded in: 2014

Initial Investment in: 2018

Role: Largest Investor

Berlin

Headquartered in

November

November provides end of life services, e.g. funeral and death care services in an online/offline business model. They cater to the wishes of clients before and at the time of need.

Website: november.de

Founded in: 2016

Initial Investment in: 2017

Role: Seed Investor

Berlin

Headquartered in

Mailo

mailo is an insurance company offering all kinds of insurance products targeted at SMEs.

Website: mailo.de

Founded in: 2017

Initial Investment in: 2018

Role: Largest Investor, Board Member

Cologne

Headquartered in

UpsellGuru

UpsellGuru is a room up-selling system that allows hotels to offer their guests upgrades through a bidding system.

Website: UpsellGuru.com

Founded in: 2016

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Largest Investor

Dortmund

Headquartered in

ottonova

ottonova is Germany's first digital private health insurance and has won awards like "Testsieger" Stiftung Warentest and Wirtschaftswoche.

Website: ottonova.de

Founded in: 2015

Initial Investment in: 2017

Role: Angel

Munich

Headquartered in

talent360

Talent360 is a solution driven platform that helps high volume recruiters run successful recruitment campaigns. The software posts job advertisements to the right platforms in a data and budget-optimized way while providing continuous support throughout the recruitment process.

Website: talent360.io

Founded in: 2019

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Largest Investor

Berlin

Headquartered in

Sourc-e

Sourc-e is a cloud-based procurement tool that digitizes the procurement process for printed products.

Website: sourc-e.com

Founded in: 2016

Initial Investment in: 2018

Role: Largest Investor

Cologne

Headquartered in

Baqend

With its software tool "Speed Kit", Baqend significantly accelerates existing websites without the need to deploy additional hardware or infrastructure.

Website: baqend.com

Founded in: 2014

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Largest Investor

Hamburg

Headquartered in

B2X

B2X is a leading provider of customer care solutions for electronic devices to manufacturers, insurance providers, mobile network operators and retailers globally.

Website: b2x.com

Founded in: 2007

Initial Investment in: 2015

Role: Angel

Munich

Headquartered in

Deutsche Fensterbau

Deutsche Fensterbau is a lead-generation platform in the window industry.

Website: deutsche-fensterbau.de

Founded in: 2014

Initial Investment in: 2015

Role: Angel

Berlin

Headquartered in

Ampido

Ampido is the first german c2c parking lot finder, where owners of driveways, garages or parking spaces can rent their parking lot on a short-term (instant booking) or long-term basis. Many drive-ways, garages and private parking spaces are empty and unused over 80% of the day. These resourcen can now be rented on ampido. Car drivers can use the ampido App to find the next parking lot and book as well as pay via their smartphones.

Website: ampido.com

Founded in: 2012

Initial Investment in: 2016

Role: Angel

Cologne

Headquartered in

Purefood

Purefood sells healthy, natural and organic food.

Website: purefood.de

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Business Angel

Elmshorn

Headquartered in

Air B’n’B

Air B'n'B is the World’s leading online platform for private rental.

Website: airbnb.de

Founded in: 2008

Initial Investment in: 2018

JoinMyTrip

JoinMyTrip is a travel platform that enables group travels by connecting TripMasters and TripMates. TripMasters plan, organize, and guide individual vacation trips, while TripMates pay for and take part in the trip.

Website: joinmytrip.de

Founded in: 2017

Initial Investment in: 2018

Role: Angel

Hamburg

Headquartered in

Retail.me

Retail.me connects manufacturers, retailers, and store managers in the German food retail industry through a digital platform. By providing direct contact to the decision makers online, Retail.me helps manufacturers reduce field sales costs.

Website: retail.me

Founded in: 2016

Initial Investment in: 2018

Role: Seed Investor

Hamburg

Headquartered in

Swaarm

Swaarm is a performance based marketing platform that provides an innovative martech tracking solution for agencies, advertisers and networks to manage, track, analyze and optimize their marketing campaigns at scale across mobile devices.

Website: swaarm.com

Founded in: 2020

Initial Investment in: 2021

Role: Seed Investor

Berlin

Headquartered in

Acorns

Acorns is a US FinTech that makes retirement savings a daily routine. Acorns gives users multiple saving options, ranging from saving spare change to earning extra money from gigs and educating users to spend smarter at the same time. Acorns uses a subscription model instead of an exclusively provision based approach. For our fund Acorns is an opportunity investment.

Website: acorns.com

Founded in: 2012

Initial Investment in: 2021

Role: Investor

Irvine, California

Headquartered in

X-Bionic

X-Bionic is a Swiss technology sports brand, which has been boosting athletes' performance for more than 20 years. The brand, which has won several innovation awards, is known for its functional clothing that helps athletes maintain an optimal body temperature through reliable thermal regulation.

Website: x-bionic.com

Founded in: 1998

Initial Investment in: 2021

Role: Investor

Wollerau, Switzerland

Headquartered in

Erste Hausverwaltung

Erste Hausverwaltung is a newly founded private property management holding platform with a buy-and-build approach in the German small cap market segment. The company acquires small businesses and benefits from instant profitable cash flows and multiple arbitrage. It leverages proptech software to centralize, digitize, and automate back office processes.

Website: erste-hausverwaltung.de

Founded in: 2021

Initial Investment in: 2021

Role: Pre-Seed Investor

Cologne

Headquartered in

TCG Vault

Founded in mid-2021, the company smartly catapults trading card games such as 'Magic: The Gathering' or 'Pokémon' into the digital age. The platform unifies reliable card valuation, trading opportunities and deck building for passionate trading card gamers on a global scale.

Website: TCG Vault

Founded in: 2019

Initial Investment in: 2022

Role: Largest Investor

Replique

Replique offers OEMs a digital platform to order 3D-printed spare parts for their B2B and B2C clients on demand, without obeying to minimum order quantities or long lead times. The IP of the OEMs remains protected through encryption on Replique’s platform and Replique’s direct access to the 3D printers of the connected external print farms all around the world. This allows customers to “digitize” their warehousing while improving availability of their respective spare parts and drastically reducing working capital.

Website: replique.io

Founded in: 2023

Initial Investment in: 2023

Role: Lead Investor

SUSHI BIKES

SUSHI BIKES designs, produces and sells affordable e-bikes centered around appealing bike designs. SUSHI BIKES leverages cost efficiencies wherever feasible to lower sales prices. For example, they sell direct to consumer (D2C), eliminating the price mark ups of intermediate retailers, and source the e-bikes near shore in Portugal (instead of Asia) to combine good quality with less supply chain cost.

Website: sushi-bikes.com

Founded in: 2019

Initial Invetsment in: 2023

Role: Investor

TRITOLO

Tritolo offers builder’s merchants a software solution to handle those requests-for-quotations much faster. The artificial intelligence of Tritolo scans the construction plan and provides a list of the required materials within seconds. In an upcoming iteration of the software, it will be able to automatically provide a price calculation for the sales offer to the construction company combined with proposals for alternative and/or cheaper materials.

Website: tritolo.com

Founded in: 2021

Initial Investment in: 2023

Role: Lead Investor

ALUMNI


Audibene

Audibene advises millions of people with hearing loss in choosing the right hearing aid. Audibene uses an internet-based and data-driven approach for making it easier than ever before finding the right hearing aid. The company operates in many countries worldwide.

Website: audibene.de

Founded in: 2012

Initial investment in: 2012

Role: Largest angel, board member

Exit: Sold to EQT in 2015

2015

Exited in

MediDate

As a virtual clinic operator for plastic aesthetic procedures, Medidate brings patients, specialists and premium clinics together.

Website: medidate.de

Founded in: 2015

Initial Investment in: 2017

Role: Largest Angel, Board member

2020

Insolvency in

shoeboxed

Shoeboxed is a receipt and e-receipt organizing company which offers a fast and easy way to turn a pile of receipts into organized digital data.

Website: shoeboxed.com

Founded in: 2008

Initial Investment in: 2009

Role: Angel

Exit: Sold to PE in 2018

2018

Exited in

kaufDA

kaufDA inspires millions of shoppers each month by connecting them with their favorite brands & retailers. kaufDA was named startup of the year by Gründerszene in 2009 and became the most downloaded application in German app stores by 2010. kaufDA has expanded its network to more than 5,000 retailers and brands, and has inspired more than 120 million consumers worldwide.

Website: kaufda.de

Founded in: 2008

Initial investment in: 2009

Role: Seed investor, Board Member

Exit: Sold to Axel Spring in 2011

2011

Exited in

Emma – The Sleep Company

Emma is the largest Direct to Consumer company for mattresses outside the US. The company sells its products in more than 25 countries.

Website: team.emma-sleep.com

Founded in: 2013

Initial investment in: 2015

Role: Largest investor, board member

Exit: Sold to Haniel in 2020

2020

Exited in

TEATOX

Teatox is a lifestyle brand that offers organic wellness teas.

Website: teatox.de

Founded in: 2013

Initial Investment in: 2015

Role: Largest Angel, Board member

Exit: Sold to Purefood in 2019

2019

Exited in

Onvista

Onvista is the leading stock market online portal in Germany. In 2007 the company in addition became a significant discount broker for the German market.

Website: onvista.de

Founded in: 1998

Role: Founder

Exit: Sold to Société Générale in 2007. Today belongs to Commerzbank

2007

Exited in

Finanzen 100

Finanzen100 is a leading mobile financial information portal in German speaking countries.

Website: finanzen100.de

Founded in:: 2008

Role: Founder

Exit: Sold to Burda in 2010

2010

Exited in

Weissmaler

Weissmaler aimed to pioneer the digitalization of the painters and floor layers industry.

Website: weissmaler.de

Founded in: 2015

Initial Investment in: 2016

Role: Largest Angel

2018

Insolvency in

Reputami

Reputami offers online reputation management tools to the hospitality industry.

Website: reputami.com

Founded in: 2012

Initial Investment in: 2013

Role: Largest Angel

Exit: Sold to eKomi in 2015

2015

Exited in

AbeBooks

AbeBooks is an online marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books from thousands of sellers.

Website: abebooks.de

Founded in: 1999

Initial investment in: 1999

Role: Largest Angel

Exit: Sold to Amazon in 2008

2008

Exited in

carsale 24

Carsale24 is the unique online platform where individuals can sell their car free of charge.

Website: carsale24.com

Founded in: 2010

Initial investment in: 2011

Role: Largest Angel, Board member

Exit: Sold to Kroschke in 2013

2013

Exited in

netmoms

netmoms is a community portal for all topics related to young moms.

Website: netmoms.de

Founded in: 2007

Initial investment in: 2007

Role: Largest shareholder, board member

Exit: Sold to Burda in 2012

2012

Exited in

IS. Teledata

IS. Teledata is the largest European software company for internet based customized financial market information systems.

Website: isteledata.de

Founded in: 1999

Role: Founder

Exit: Sold to Interactive Data in 2005. Today belongs to Factset

2005

Exited in

lingoda

Lingoda is an online language school.

Website: lingoda.com

Founded in: 2013

Initial Investment in: 2013

Role: Largest Angel

Exit: Sold to VC in 2013

2013

Exited in

Pixsy

Pixsy is a platform that supports photographers in the fight against image theft.

Website: pixsy.com

Founded in: 2014

Initial Investment in: 2015

Role: Largest Investor

Exit: Sold to PE in 2018

2018

Exited in

Zooplus

Zooplus is the leading pet food ecommerce company in Euope with more than 1 billion EUR in revenue.

Website: zooplus.de

Founded in : 1999

Initial Investment: 2009 via several off-market transactions

Role: Investor

Exit: Sold to stock market

Ligatus

Ligatus is Europe’s largest lead generation platform. The company partners with all large websites by posting links and sharing revenue.

Website: ligatus.de

Founded in: 2004

Role: Founder

Exit: Sold to Gruner & Jahr in 2007. Today belongs to Outbrain

2007

Exited in

Locarta

Locarta offers an app that provides actionable mobile insights for the physical world.

Initial Investment in: 2015

Role: Largest Angel

2019

Insolvency in

Spotify

Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming platform.

Website: spotify.com

Founded in: 2006

Initial Investment in: 2017

Exit : Sold to stock market

Klima.metrix

Klima.metrix builds the easiest and quickest footprint calculation software for companies according to common global calculation standards.

Website: klimametrix.global

Founded in: 2019

Initial Investment in: 2020

Role: Largest Investor

Exit: Sold to private investors in 2021

Berlin

Headquartered in

Snapbus

Snapbus offers reliable instant pricing and comparison of tour operators and brings together travelers and bus companies for a unique chartered-bus experience on a platform. In 2021, Snapbus was acquired by Deutsche Bahn.

Website: snapbus.de

Founded in: 2017

Initial Investment in: 2018

Role: Angel

Exit: Sold to Deutsche Bahn in 2021

DB Regio

Exited to

autengo

autengo offers a management software solution to used car dealers which digitizes and streamlines the sales process, inventory management, and customer communication. The software tool saves the car dealer hours of work every week and ensures greater customer satisfaction.

Website: autengo.com

Founded in: 2016

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Largest Investor

Exit: Sold to SAITOW AG

Frankfurt

Headquartered in

Vantik

Vantik is the provider of the first flexible pension plan in Europe. The retirement plan can be completed and managed entirely via smartphone.

Website: vantik.com

Founded in: 2017

Initial Investment in: 2019

Role: Seed Investor, Board member

Berlin

Headquartered in

Movinga

Movinga is a vertically integrated platform for moving services.

Website: movinga.com

Founded in: 2015

Initial Investment in: 2016

Role: Angel

Berlin

Headquartered in