# Lakestar

Lakestar is a Private Equity based in Zurich, Switzerland.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Private Equity
- **Headquarters:** Zurich, Switzerland
- **Region:** Europe
- **Address:** Zurich, Switzerland
- **Founded:** 2012
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** lakestar.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/lakestar-vc

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Lakestar is a venture capital firm founded in 2012 in Zurich, Switzerland. It invests in technology-driven businesses across sectors such as Deep Tech, Healthcare, Fintech, and Digitalisation. Lakestar provides investment from seed to growth stages, offering assistance in marketing, recruitment, technology, product development, and regulatory matters.

## Sectors

- Enterprise Software
- FinTech
- Digital Health
- AI/ML
- Mobility & Transportation
- Media & Entertainment
- PropTech
- InsurTech

## Offices

- London, United Kingdom
- Berlin, Germany
- Hong Kong

## People

- Klaus Hommels — Founder and CEO
- Daniel S. Wenzel — Partner
- Mathias Schilling — Partner
- Mika Salmi — Partner

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Lakestar?

Klaus Hommels, the founder and CEO, exercises final authority over investment committee decisions. The partnership group — including Daniel Wenzel, Mathias Schilling, and Mika Salmi — manages sector and geographic verticals, but Hommels's singular vote on large allocations mimics a hedge fund manager's concentrated governance structure rather than a distributed partnership typical of European venture firms.

### What is Lakestar's track record with the 2015 vintage fund?

Lakestar's 2015 vintage fund returned $6.8 billion to limited partners, a multiple that ranks among the top-performing European venture funds of the past decade (per Institutional Investor). The fund held concentrated positions in Revolut, Spotify, and Blockchain.com — all of which achieved valuations materially above their entry prices during the fund's life. The firm has not publicly disclosed subsequent fund-level performance data.

### Does Lakestar invest only in Europe or does it have a global mandate?

Lakestar maintains offices in Zurich, London, Berlin, and Hong Kong, and invests globally with a primary emphasis on European-headquartered companies. The firm has backed US-domiciled businesses including Opendoor, and uses the Hong Kong office to facilitate Asian market entry and strategic co-investment relationships for portfolio companies. This differentiates Lakestar from European VCs that only invest within the single market.

### Which sectors does Lakestar explicitly avoid?

Lakestar has not published a formal exclusion list, but its portfolio reveals consistent avoidance of deep-tech hardware, semiconductor manufacturing, defense technology, and therapeutics. The firm concentrates on software-enabled business models — enterprise SaaS, fintech infrastructure, digital health platforms, and consumer internet — and has passed on capital-intensive industrial and life-science ventures where the path to liquidity and the firm's network advantages are less applicable.

## Related profiles

- [Lakeshore Capital](https://altss.com/profile/lakeshore-capital)
- [Lake Street Capital](https://altss.com/profile/lake-street-capital)

---

Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/lakestar

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology