News & Podcast

Women are still significantly underrepresented in the field of business angel investing. Yet they invest more frequently in female founder teams, provide important impetus for the startup scene, and strengthen the ecosystem with their visibility. How do you get started?

You are a startup that has a business angel on board who not only provided capital but also gives your young company important impulses through expertise and know-how, network contacts and, above all, time? Then take the opportunity and nominate your business angel or angel investor now for the “Business Angel of the Year 2025” award and secure them a place in the “BAND Heaven of Fame”. Nominations are possible until July 1, 2025.

Baystartup CEO Carsten Rudolph has been elected to the board of Business Angels Deutschland e.V. (BAND). This is intended to bring even more practice-oriented expertise into the strategic direction of the federal association going forward. Additionally, Munich-based angel investor Katja Ruhnke will also join the board as chair.

The Female Investors Network (FIN) offers the FIN-Academy, an online training program for women who want to start as business angels. In a 7-week program, participants gain basic knowledge about investing in startups. The next training cohort starts on October 7.

After her career at various corporations, Conny Marx has started several companies herself. Now the “Woman in Tech” is also active as a business angel and looking for investments. She focuses on innovations with impact. An interview.

Katja Ruhnke has been working as a business angel since 2019. Together with her sister Conny Hörl, she invests in startups that make the world sustainably better. Health, environment, and sustainable technologies are her focus areas. They have invested in Munich startups including Blackwave, Hey Circle, and XO Life.

Our founding ecosystem is unbalanced. At least when it comes to the proportion of female founders, but also female angels and investors. So we need more female business angels. But what do potential investors need in return? A study aims to help find out, says Svenja Lassen, managing director Germany at Gateway Ventures and founder of the Female Investors Network (FIN). Interested parties can still participate for a few more days.

A new VC recently enriched the Munich startup scene. Behind it are Alexander Brand, Florian Gottschaller and Franzi Majer. All three are experienced founders – Brand founded, among other things, Windeln.de, Gottschaller is co-founder of Spendit, Majer founded, among other things, Catchys. Independently of each other, the three had already invested multiple times through their personal networks in startups. After several people asked if they could invest, the three angel investors started their own “microfund” with their private money. In early 2023, Superangels was founded. Now Superangels is officially registered with the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). Three investments have already been made, including in FarmAct, a software platform for the agricultural industry.

According to the “Business Angel Report 2023” by AddedVal.io and Google for Startups, 24 percent of all German business angels live in Bavaria. In a city comparison, Munich ranks second behind Berlin.

The Invest funding program provides subsidies for venture investments by business angels in startups. Since January 1st, applications are temporarily no longer possible: a funding directive is lacking.

The online service Addedval.io has compiled a list of Germany’s most active angel investors. At the top: Flixbus founders Jochen Engert, Daniel Krauss and André Schwämmlein. We’ve compiled some of their Munich investments.