Athos KG

Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann met Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci in the early 2000s and backed their first company, Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, in 2001. When Ganymed was sold to Astellas in 2016, the Strüngmanns committed €150 million in seed capital to the founders' next venture, BioNTech, effectively serving as the company's founding institutional investor. The stake became one of the most valuable single-family office investments in history when BioNTech's market capitalization surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

No. While healthcare and biotechnology are the largest allocation and the family's deepest domain of expertise, Athos KG also invests in real estate, direct private equity, and technology ventures. The real estate portfolio includes the 'Fünf Höfe' commercial complex in Munich and the Villa Kennedy hotel property in Frankfurt. In technology, the office has backed IQM Quantum Computers, a Finnish quantum-computing hardware company.

The Strüngmann twins maintain ultimate authority over capital allocation, but day-to-day investment execution is led by a small team of senior executives. Helmut Jeggle, General Manager of Athos Service GmbH, serves as the primary interface with portfolio companies, chairing BioNTech's supervisory board and sitting on IQM's board. Wolfgang Essler represents the family on the supervisory board of Vanguard AG and handles select direct investments.

The Strüngmanns' sourcing advantage is rooted in their multi-decade operating history in German healthcare. Their relationship with BioNTech's founders created a gravitational pull for early-stage German and European biotech founders. The office often co-invests alongside specialist life sciences funds including MIG Capital, Redmile Group, Atlas Venture, and Forbion. The family foundation's relationship with the Max Planck Society further embeds them in Germany's academic research ecosystem.

Athos KG is exclusively a single-family office. It does not manage external capital or operate as a multi-family office. All invested assets belong to Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann and their immediate families.

The family's philanthropic activities are housed in separate foundations — primarily the Ernst Strüngmann Foundation and the Andreas and Susan Struengmann Foundation — that are legally distinct from Athos KG. The Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Frankfurt is financed by the foundation and cooperates with the Max Planck Society, but its endowment is not part of the family office's investment portfolio.

Athos KG invests across the entire company lifecycle, from seed-stage biotechnology platforms through growth equity to buyouts of established medical-technology and pharmaceutical businesses. The firm held BioNTech from seed formation through IPO and beyond. In WS Audiology, it participated in a buyout alongside EQT. This stage-agnostic posture is enabled by permanent, patient family capital with no external redemption pressure.