German Startups Group

CEO and founder Christoph Gerlinger sets the strategic direction and leads the investment committee. CIO Nikolas Samios manages deal execution and portfolio oversight. The team operates from Frankfurt and Berlin, with a lean structure that prioritizes direct principal involvement in every allocation.

Gerlinger's two decades as a German tech founder and his position in the Berlin startup ecosystem anchor the firm's deal flow. The firm participates in primary funding rounds through direct relationships with local founders, acquires secondary shares from early employees and angel investors seeking liquidity, and occasionally accesses deals through its listed-entity structure.

It operates as neither. German Startups Group was founded as a publicly traded venture holding company, not a family office or a traditional fund. This structure required the firm to publish net asset values and portfolio composition with the transparency of a listed company. In September 2024, the firm began converting to a private fund model under the name SGT German Private Equity.

The firm has historically focused on direct equity positions in German-language startups rather than acting as a limited partner in third-party funds. Its model relied on acquiring direct stakes through primary rounds, secondary transactions, and occasionally issuing its own publicly traded shares as deal currency.

The firm pursues a multi-stage mandate from early-stage seed rounds through growth and late-stage positions. Portfolio companies span the full lifecycle from newly formed startups to maturing private companies approaching exit or IPO, reflecting a buy-and-hold approach that the public listing was designed to accommodate.

The firm concentrates on German technology and digital businesses and has not disclosed exclusions by sector. Its portfolio emphasizes software, fintech, AI, and digital health. Capital-intensive industries like deep biotech, hardware manufacturing, and heavy infrastructure have not been visible in its publicly recorded positions.

Because the firm operates as a holding company rather than a fund, co-investment alongside external general partners has not been a primary feature of its model. The firm invests directly and typically avoids club-deal structures common among family offices and fund-of-funds.