Vsquared Ventures

General Partners Dr. Herbert Mangesius and Lise Rechsteiner lead the investment committee. Mangesius focuses on quantum, AI, and new computing architectures, while Rechsteiner covers space, energy, and advanced materials. The firm has not publicly disclosed other investment committee members as of mid-2025, keeping decision-making concentrated between the two founding GPs.

Vsquared is a direct investor, writing checks into pre-seed and seed-stage companies rather than committing capital to other venture funds. The firm reserves significant follow-on reserves to maintain or increase ownership in portfolio companies through Series A and B rounds. It does not operate a fund-of-funds program or participate as a limited partner in external vehicles.

The firm targets pre-seed and seed rounds almost exclusively. Initial investments typically fall between €500,000 and €5 million, with the firm willing to lead or co-lead rounds. Vsquared reserves substantial capital for follow-on investments, often participating in Series A and B rounds for portfolio companies that meet technical and commercial milestones.

Vsquared does not invest in consumer internet, enterprise SaaS, fintech, or ad-tech platforms. The firm's limited partner agreements and public statements restrict its mandate to deeptech and frontier technology categories — space, quantum, robotics, energy transition, synthetic biology, and advanced materials. Software-only companies without a hardware or scientific-research component fall outside the thesis.

The firm sources heavily through European technical universities and research institutes — including institutions in the Munich ecosystem like the Technical University of Munich and Max Planck Institutes. Mangesius and Rechsteiner also maintain an advisory network of practicing engineers and scientists who flag emerging technologies before they produce formal fundraising materials. This technical-diligence layer gives Vsquared early visibility into labs and spinouts that generalist venture firms reach only after commercial validation is established.

Vsquared is a conventional venture capital firm with a General Partner / Limited Partner structure, but its internal operating model differs from most European early-stage funds. The firm relies on a network of operator-advisors with deep technical expertise — physicists, rocket engineers, and materials scientists — who participate in deal evaluation. This functions as an extended diligence capability that substitutes for the large in-house teams maintained by US deeptech peers like Lux Capital.

Fund II closed at €214 million in early 2025, more than doubling the €100 million Fund I from 2020. The second fund attracted NATO's Innovation Fund as an anchor LP alongside the European Investment Fund, signaling institutional appetite for European deeptech and dual-use technologies. The larger fund size allows Vsquared to write larger initial checks and compete for allocations in rounds that would have exceeded Fund I's capacity.