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DN Capital opens Berlin office

European venture capital managers DN Capital has expanded its presence in the German tech ecosystem with the opening of a new office in Berlin. 

Founded by venture capital industry veterans Nenad Marovac and Steve Schlenker in 2000 the Venture Capital firm has been one of the most active investors in the DACH region over the last two decades. DN Capital has been amongst the leading early investors in outstanding German tech successes like Auto1, GoStudent, HomeToGo, MisterSpex and Quandoo. This year the firm took three of its German portfolio companies public on the Frankfurt stock exchange (Auto1, Mister Spex, and Hometogo). With the goal of further expanding its presence in the most vibrant global ecosystem for tech and start-up companies, DN Capital is announcing its new offices in Berlin, coinciding with the successful closing of DN Capital’s fifth fund in June 2021, with total commitments of USD350 million and a dedicated pocket for the German speaking region.
 
Known internationally for backing global leaders such as Shazam, Remitly and OLX, DN Capital’s success story in Berlin spans 20 years and it has played an important role in building Berlin’s thriving Venture Capital and Startup ecosystem to what it is now.
 
Among DN Capital’s first investments in Germany was the online optician Mister Spex where DN Capital led the Series A in 2010 and successfully accompanied the company’s path to IPO in July 2021 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. DN Capital’s most prominent investment in Germany is Auto1, where DN led the Series A in 2013. The company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in February 2021 representing the largest tech IPO in Germany to date. The IPO resulted in a valuation at over 150x of DN’s entry price per share. Moreover, holiday rental marketplace HomeToGo, where DN Capital first invested in 2010, completed its IPO in Germany in September 2021.
 
Nenad Marovac, Founding Partner of DN Capital, says: “The DACH market is very important to us at DN Capital, this year alone we took three of our German portfolio companies public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.  We think that the size of the market and the quality of the entrepreneurs is extremely impressive and now we see this in the results that German companies are achieving in the market today. Companies like Auto1, Flixbus, Personio, Zalando and others are world class and setting examples for the new and upcoming entrepreneurs in German and greater Europe. We are very excited by this development of the market and that is why we are reinforcing our efforts by having our offices on the ground in Berlin.“
 
Philipp Magin, founder of Quandoo, says: “DN Capital is one of the most diligent investors that I have ever worked with. Their support was instrumental in internationalizing Quandoo, and their experience was of great help when it came to our exit.”
 
Felix Ohswald, founder of GoStudent, adds: “Expanding into 18 markets in just over two years is never easy but with DN Capital on our side we knew we could do it and in forging the connection with our next investors – DST, Softbank and Tencent – they helped us to take that next big leap.”
 
Initially the Berlin office will be staffed by DN Capital team members Ragnar Jongen, Marius Oesterschlink and Lucas Schaubel with DN Partner oversight from Nenad Marovac and Thomas Rubens who have led most of DN’s German based investments. DN Capital is actively recruiting and looking to expand its team in Germany.

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