European venture capitalist Atomico has opened its first German office in Berlin. Launched in 2006 by Skype founder Niklas Zennström, the venture capital firm finances technology startups across Europe with the aim of supporting founders and startups in their global growth.
The investor has worked and continues to work with over 120 startups across the continent, including big names like Klarna, Stripe and MessageBird. Atomico has also been active in the DACH region for some time: a total of ten percent of Atomico's investments have gone into local startups. Recent collaborations include Cologne-based companies DeepL or Vaayu and Y42 (both Berlin-based).
To do justice to the pan-European approach, Atomico's partners are not tied to any single region. Rather, they can invest in ambitious startups in Germany and across the continent. In the past, Atomico's partner Luca Eisensteck has focused particularly on the DACH region. Throughout the opening of the Berlin office, he will continue to play a leading role in the venture capitalist's DACH investments.
Data from the annual report The State of European Tech, published by Atomico, underscores the future potential of Europe's tech ecosystem: Europe's pipeline of early-stage startups is now on par with that of the United States. Thirty-one percent of global early-stage financing rounds of less than US$5 million go to European companies; in the United States it is 33%. And in both regions, 1.9% of seed-funded startups convert to unicorns.
“Germany and the DACH region are among the successful engines of the European technology ecosystem; many of the most ambitious founders of the past decade are from the region. With initial success, there is an opportunity for talent to expand their expertise into large scale-ups and then bring their knowledge to a new generation of promising technology companies. For this reason, the local market is all the more important for realizing Europe's global potential”, emphasizes Luca Eisensteck, partner at Atomico.