rethink Ventures

General Partners Jens Philipp Klein and Matthias Schanze lead all investment decisions. The firm's compact team includes four Venture Partners — Artur Hasselbach, Sven von Loh, Heiko Huber, and Aaron Gaba — who contribute deal sourcing and sector expertise, but final investment authority rests with the General Partners. The firm operates a flat decision-making structure with no investment committee beyond the GP level.

rethink's main sourcing channel is its network of corporate partners in logistics and mobility. Portfolio companies get pilot opportunities with established carriers, creating a deal-flow loop: the corporates flag operational gaps and promising technologies, and the firm funds startups that can test solutions inside real-world fleet environments. This makes its pipeline significantly referral-driven rather than competitive auction-based, particularly in German-speaking Europe.

rethink Ventures is a classic venture capital manager raising committed funds from institutional limited partners, not a single-family office or evergreen vehicle. The form of capital is discretionary fund capital deployed by General Partners. The firm does not disclose fund size, but its repeat co-investor group — including Vireo, b2ventures, and Lea Partners — points to a standard closed-end fund structure.

rethink exclusively makes direct investments into early-stage European mobility, logistics, and supply-chain companies. There is no fund-of-funds or LP commitment strategy. It co-invests alongside other venture firms and occasionally leads rounds, as with Delta Charge's $4.3 million seed or the Nautica $4.0 million round co-led with b2ventures.

The firm invests primarily in pre-seed and seed stage, occasionally participating in follow-on rounds such as the Rail-Flow Series A. It is a first-check writer and prefers to enter at the earliest institutional round, before a company reaches significant revenue. The firm's portfolio is concentrated in companies under three years old at time of first investment, based on disclosed funding dates.

The firm connects startups with unnamed logistics and mobility operators in its partner network to run pilots, test technology, and validate products inside operational fleets. For example, Logistikbude — a portfolio company — deployed its reusable-packaging management software at all 130 Nagel-Group locations. The partner model functions as a built-in deployment channel, reducing the time from seed funding to first commercial proof-of-concept for enterprise-facing mobility software companies.

rethink Ventures invests exclusively in companies headquartered in Europe, explicitly including the UK. Most of its portfolio is concentrated in Germany, the Nordics, and Western Europe. The firm does not invest in North American or Asian startups, and its contact page for founders makes the Europe-only mandate explicit. There are no non-European offices or investment staff posted outside Germany.