Presenting the Club.

Beyond its investment activities, the ERIC Opportunity Club is a network of like-minded innovative entrepreneurs and offers a platform for intensive exchange at exclusive events.

„As my home market is Denmark, getting access to top technology deals from abroad is not so easy without the right network there. I have known ERIC for a while now – according to my verdict, there is no better source for quality deals in German-speaking PropTech.“

— Tomas Jandorf, Founder @ Tetriis A/S

CLUB REPRESENTATIVES

Anja Rath
Managing Partner

Nikolas Samios
Managing Partner

Jannik De Winter
Strategy & Business Development

Lennart Schlegel Investor Relations

GROUP Governance board

Klaus Freiberg
Chairman

Christopher Douglas
Board Member

Birgit Rahn-Werner
Deputy Chairwoman

Christian Vollmann
Board Member

Aygül Özkan
Board Member

Andreas von Blottnitz
Board Member

Join the team

Visiting Venture Capital Analyst for our Berlin HQ

If you are interested in becoming a member of the club, please contact us at club@eric.group.

BERLIN
PropTech.House
Oranienstrasse 10/11
10997 Berlin

The information in connection with the ERIC Opportunity Club is directed exclusively at qualified investors in accordance with German AIF and/or EuVECA regulation. 

Investment decisions should be made solely on the basis of the legally binding documents of the respective fund and the risks described therein. Any investment may result in a partial or total loss of the invested assets.

Louise Richnau

Venture Partner

Louise Richnau has worked in the real estate sector for the last 30 years, covering investments, transactions, financing, the establishment of new businesses and sustainability issues. As a veteran real estate professional with a passion for people, business, ESG and constant improvement, she has gained previous experience from AP-fonderna (1-3), operating in a listed environment (Drott Riks AB) and from the partner-owned financial advisor Nordanö.

Louise Richnau has also been responsible for the establishment of Brunswick Real Estate Capital, the first Nordic institutional real estate credit fund (today Niam Credit). Apart from being a Venture Partner at PT1, today she manages her own investments, often in a story capacity or on board assignments. She is a board member of STING’s (Stockholm Innovation & Growth) funds and Sunna Group as well as an advisor for Selma.

Louise Richnau holds a master in Engineering with a degree in construction and real estate economics from the Royal Institute of Technology, is a certified financial analyst (CEFA) from the Stockholm School of Economics and a certified ESG analyst (CESGA) from the EFFAS Academy.

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Klaus Freiberg

Venture Partner &
Member of the Investment Committee Panel

Klaus Freiberg until May 2019 was Member of the Board & COO and played a significant role in the success of the DAX-listed real estate company Vonovia SE, which is today the largest non-state owned residential real estate owner in Europe, growing the total number of employees to around 10,000 during his tenure. After

the resignation at his personal request, he remains true to his entrepreneurial spirit as business angel and founder & CEO of the company builder 1648 factory as well as as Non-executive Chairman at ecoworks. Before his approximately 10 years at Vonovia, Klaus Freiberg was Managing Director of the Arvato Group, where he took over and optimised service centres of, for example, Deutsche Post or Deutsche Telekom.

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Nikolas Samios

Managing Director

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Nikolas Samios is a serial entrepreneur, long-time expert for transformational startups and venture capital and early sustainability advocate.

He founded his first company around 25 years ago in parallel to doing A-Levels in Munich, Germany, and was quickly sucked into the grand new thing called „the Internet“, mainly helping traditional industries like print publishers, TV stations, retail chains or banks to digitise their businesses.

Around 15 years ago, he increasingly focused on the transactional aspects, financing, buying and selling startups. He set up a special family office for like-minded Internet entrepreneurs and venture capital investors that, for example, built up and managed the personal investment holdings of MP3 inventor Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg and AOL Europe founder Jan Henric Buettner.

After many years, participating in more than 100 venture capital transactions and co-authoring the German reference book on venture capital methodology DEALTERMS.VC, he co-founded PT1 – PropTech1 Ventures, one of the first PropTech/ConstructionTech venture capital funds in Europe and most likely the first ESG SFDR article 8 fund in this segment. PT1 is a fully independent early-stage venture capital platform that fuels #Futurebuilders on their mission to apply transformative real estate technologies, generating double returns for its investors and society.

He was also appointed “Co-Chairman” of the PropTech platform of leading German real estate association ZIA as well as Deputy Chairman of the Young Digital Economy Advisory Board to German federal minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck. Furthermore, Nikolas is part of the committees of multiple leading industry awards and events (e.g. QUO VADIS, ZIA TDI – Tag der Immobilienwirtschaft). He was recently awarded “Head of the Year 2023” by Immobilienmanager magazine.

Nikolas is living with his wife and two kids in Berlin, is privately supporting many NGOs around sustainable transformation and is a member of Leaders for Climate Action. In his rare spare time, he is an enthusiastic musician and music producer.

Anja Rath

Managing Director

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As early as 1998, Anja joined her first startup immediately after finishing her A-Levels (Abitur), initially as an intern in the finance department. This startup was one of the first companies co-founded by Nikolas Samios in Munich. She quickly assumed more responsibility in the growing company and soon replaced the previous COO/CFO in all his duties.

 

Parallel to her work in financial management, organizational development, and general management, Anja studied part-time at the British OU University in Milton Keynes and received both a Master’s in International Finance and an MBA.

After many years of first-hand experience in corporate management, Anja increasingly specialized in supporting other founders and their shareholders in growth and turnaround situations and structured numerous financing rounds, mergers, and exits, often taking on interim CFO mandates. Together with Nikolas Samios, she also set up Brandenburg Ventures GmbH, the VC investment entity of MP3 inventor Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg and advised numerous listed companies on corporate venture capital programs, portfolio, and M&A aspects.

Together with Nikolas, Anja is co-author of the venture capital standard reference book DEALTERMS.VC. She is furthermore a member of the Extended Board of Directors of the Startup-Verband (German Startup Association).

Klara Ritter

Associate Partner

After successfully completing her Bachelor’s degree in business administration at Vienna University of Economics and Business, she gained first professional experience in the FMCG industry, both in a startup and in the corporate environment, as well as in innovation management of a tech group. As a venture capital analyst at SIGNA Innovations she was able to combine her passion for technology and innovation and gained deep insights into the PropTech world. After a short detour back to university, she graduated with a M.Sc. in strategic management at the Rotterdam School of Management and is since 2020 part of the investment team of PT1.

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Kingma Ma

Managing Director UK

Kingma is based in London and joined the PropTech1 team in 2021 to focus on generating and analysing UK proptech investment targets. Prior to joining PropTech1, Kingma worked as both a PropTech-focused venture capital investor at Round Hill Capital as well as a company founder in the social work industry. He is passionate in growing an active network of both investors and operators in the UK startup community. Kingma comes from a family of high-quality cashmere producers that supplies some of the top luxury brands of the world.

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Fabian König

Investment Manager

As Investment Manager at PT1, Fabian explores startups developing transformative real estate and construction technologies. Building on his background in finance, data science and human-centered design, he gained operational startup experience as CFO of one of the first VC funded crypto startups in Germany. Having researched ML models in the VC space, he is particularly interested in applying data science to the VC deal flow. Accordingly, besides investment management he is also responsible for advancing the fund’s tech stack.

 
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Burhan Pisavadi

Investment Manager

Burhan was the first employee at Gridizen, a UK PropTech, and was responsible for their technology and product. At Gridizen, Burhan designed, architected and launched the UK’s first ESG reporting tool for the social housing sector. In addition to this, Burhan was the co-founder and CTO of Mentyoo, an EdTech startup that brings mentoring to underrepresented communities. Burhan holds a first-class master’s degree in theoretical physics with a focus in climate modeling from Imperial College London. Since 2022, he has been a member of the investment team of PT1. Here, Burhan focuses on companies which are decarbonising buildings and infrastructure, planning adaptations for climate change and those which are deep-tech.

In his spare time, Burhan is a climber, cook (currently cooking his way through the Noma Guide to Fermentation), tabletop gamer (Pathfinder) and an active blogger (bp.simple.ink).

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Sebastian Rehbein

Portfolio Manager

Sebastian has already worked in various startups in business development positions, e.g. at the PropTech company Weissmaler, NKF Media, the publisher of the startup magazine Berlin Valley, or the Rocket Internet FinTech Innolend. In addition to a professional training as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant, Sebastian holds a BA in entrepreneurship from the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Since 2018 he has been a member of the transaction team of Cooperativa – the predecessor to ERIC, the fund manager of PT1 – and is now responsible for portfolio management, syndication and M&A/exits at PT1.

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Theo Bonick

Corporate Communications Lead

Theo Bonick holds an interdisciplinary BA from the Free University of Berlin and the University of Colorado and worked for several years in various startups in editorial, online and content marketing. He joined the team of Cooperativa – the predecessor to ERIC, the fund manager of PT1 – in the context of an IPO project and has been fully responsible for public relations as well as marketing at PT1 since the launch of the fund.

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Tzvete Doncheva

Investor Relations Lead

After working as one of the youngest international correspondents for Bulgarian privately-owned TV media group BTV, Tzvete Doncheva used her background as a journalist to transition to tech business development. She entered the tech sector as a first employee for an alternative co-working PropTech startup, where she headed BD and operations. Following this, she did a short stint at Bosch’s urban mobility co-creation hub in London, helping to create a ‘mobility innovation ecosystem’, bringing together entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, investors and public sector executives.

Her interest in the financing side of tech startups lead her to explore a career in venture capital. She has been working in PropTech (VC) ever since 2019, when she joined the London-based VC spinout of multinational real estate investment manager Round Hill Capital / Ventures. Tzvete is with PT1 since 2021, where she leads the firm’s IR efforts, supporting the Managing Partners in fundraising, and market expansion.

Tzvete’s varied experience across different areas of the finance industry helped her to understand the challenges innovators face when accessing early stage capital – an awareness that fueled her drive and efforts to bring more diversity in PropTech and venture capital.

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Uta Wasserberg

Fund Administration

Uta Wasserberg holds a degree in Business Administration (Technical University of Berlin) with a major in taxation. After years of experience in leading positions in controlling, reporting, as well as tax and liquidity planning, she now supports our team in commercial and administrative areas.

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Tanja Takides

Fund Administration

 

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Nicole Kemmel

Back Office

Nicole Kemmel is a trained legal and notary assistant and has been working in team of Cooperativa – the predecessor to ERIC, the fund manager of PT1 – for many years in the administrative and commercial handling of various investment transactions as well as portfolio management. Under the direction of Anja Rath, she also acts as the interface to all external service partners. With her many years of experience in the efficient handling of administrative and accounting tasks, she now supports the fund administration of PT1.

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Jan Henric Buettner

Senior Advisor &
Member of the Investment Committee Panel

Jan Henric Buettner’s career has been focused on new technologies from the beginning. As early as 1988, he was involved in Axel Springer’s efforts to acquire the D2 mobile communications license, which at the time represented the start of private mobile communications in Germany. In 1994, he became Managing Director of AOL Germany, which resulted in the sale of Bertelsmann’s shares to the American AOL parent company for a total of approximately $10 billion. Finally, as one of the German venture capital pioneers, he founded his first own VC fund, BV Capital, in 1997, which later changed its name to e.ventures (today Headline), with offices in San Francisco, Hamburg, Berlin, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Beijing. Subsequently, Jan Henric Buettner bought the Weissenhaus estate at the Baltic Sea, completely restored it for almost €100 million and converted it into a luxury resort.

Kristofer Fichtner

Venture Partner

Kristofer Fichtner has supported energy companies as a management consultant for many years and then turned into a serial entrepreneur. He set up two own startups in the mobile sector before he co-founded Thermondo, a leading German provider of heating solutions (partial exit).

As an active PropTech Angel, he is also deeply rooted in the startup scene and the first point of contact for all construction and energy-related topics.

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Ibrahim Imam

Venture Partner

After studying Economics and Computer Science at the Vienna University of Technology, alongside Sander Van de Rijdt, Ibrahim launched 5 IT companies with operations in Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and Central Asia, leveraging his 15+ years of experience in marketing & sales and his network to drive these companies from concept to growth.

Afterwards, he co-founded PlanRadar where he was responsible corporate and growth strategy as well as all the go-to-market teams – the departments of marketing, business development, sales, channel management and customer success report to him. In 2022, PlanRadar won the EY Scale-up award where Ibrahim was also a winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

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Jannik De Winter

Strategy & Business Development

After completing his M.Sc. finance degree at the International School of Management and the INSEEC with a research focus on ESG considerations in the VC Industry, Jannik worked as a Strategy & Innovation Manager at the leading sustainable finance CRE bank Berlin Hyp. There he gained vast experience in the PropTech environment and worked on the development of green loan products. Following his work at Berlin Hyp, he worked as a startup financing specialist at IBB Capital, distributing public equity funding (provided by the federal state of Berlin and KfW) to Berlin-based startups during the Corona crisis.

At PT1, he is now responsible for developing and scaling new products / fund concepts (e.g. club deals) as well as for creating strategic ideas on the general business development. Besides his activities at PT1, Jannik is also lecturing basics of ESG and climate risks to banking students at Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR).

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Timo Tschammler

Venture Partner

Until recently, Timo Tschammler was CEO of JLL Germany, where he held executive responsibility for more than 1,000 employees. His core responsibilities at the leading provider of real estate services included the expansion of the German digitization strategy, which included the development of proprietary business models such as JLL’s own online commercial real estate portal. During his eight-year tenure at JLL Germany, annual revenue grew rapidly to several hundred million euros.

In September 2020, Timo Tschammler left the company to focus on the activities of his consulting company TwainTowers and his private investment activities, which are expressed, among others, in his involvement with PT1. Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, Timo Tschammler was CEO of the real estate consultancy DTZ Germany, which subsequently merged with Cushman & Wakefield.

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Sally Jones

Venture Partner

Sally Jones is an experienced real estate professional, having been Head of Strategy, Digital and Technology and member of the Executive Committee of British Land, one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1856 in London, British Land owns or manages a portfolio of high quality UK commercial properties valued at £14.1bn, making it one of Europe’s largest listed real estate investment companies. Sally Jones is also Non-Executive Director at the tenant experience platform Equiem after having been Member of the Advisory Board at WiredScore, the global certification for technology in the built world.

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David Wortmann

Venture Partner

David Wortmann is founder and Managing Director of DWR eco, a leading strategy, communications and policy consultancy in the field of CleanTech, sustainability and future technologies, based in Berlin with field offices in Brussels, the U.S., South America and Australia, among others. David has now been promoting the introduction and dissemination of new business models and technologies for a green economy at the interfaces between industry, politics and the public for around 20 years.

David is also the initiator of the Eco Innovation Alliance, a B2B network of the most important CleanTech startups from the German-speaking region.

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Andreas Wende

Venture Partner

Andreas was from 1996 Commercial Director North (CFO) of Deutsche Telekom AG for five and a half years, with a clear focus on real estate. For about eight years Andreas Wende then worked for STRABAG PFS (at that time DeTeImmobilien) as Branch Manager North, responsible for the nationwide sales of property management and facility management services as well as a board member at STRABAG Hungary for two years. Following the successful sale of DeTeImmobilien to STRABAG in 2009, Andreas assumed responsibility for the Northern Germany area of Jones Lang LaSalle.

The GreenLease working group, co-initiated by Andreas, won the Real Estate Manager Award in the sustainability category in 2013. From 2013 to 2016, Andreas was COO and Head of Investment of Savills Immobilien Beratungs GmbH. Andreas has been founder and CEO of the Arena Group since 2016 and since 2017 COO and Managing Partner of NAI Apollo, one of the leading real estate consulting firms.

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Andreas von Blottnitz

Senior Advisor &
Member of the Limited Partner Advisory Committee

Andreas von Blottnitz, together with his business partner Jan Henric Buettner, built up BV Capital / e.ventures (rebranded to Headline) to an internationally renowned venture capital investor after founding AOL Europe and becoming Managing Director of AOL Germany in 1997 (exit for a total of approx. $10 billion). As a serial entrepreneur he continued to celebrate successes such as serving as President and CEO of Expertcity (exit to Citrix Systems for $225 million). Since 2007, he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the software company AppFolio, which under his aegis made the move to NASDAQ. Andreas von Blottnitz is also a long-standing venture capital investor with board and advisory board positions in numerous technology startups such as Sonos and Speakeasy.

Christian Vollmann

Venture Partner &
Member of the Investment Committee Panel

Christian Vollmann, as founder and business angel, is one of the most prominent players in the German startup ecosystem. After starting in the Samwer startups Alando and Jamba, he founded the dating portal iLove in 2003 and the video platform MyVideo in 2006. Since 2011, he has been working for eDarling as a participating Managing Director.

His investments as a business angel include ResearchGate, Trivago, Moneybookers (Skrill), studiVZ, and Friendsurance. As the founder of his current project nebenan.de, he establishes a social network for

 eighborly living. Christian Vollmann was elected „Business Angel of the Year 2017“ and personally holds over 40 active startup investments. He is currently founder and CEO of the carbon capture startup Carbon One.

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Sander van de Rijdt

Venture Partner

After studying at the Vienna University of Technology and Vienna University of Economics, Sander worked for an international consulting group. From 2006, he launched several IT companies with operations in Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and Central Asia and guided them from idea to growth company, leveraging his international experience as a business consultant.

Afterwards, he co-founded PlanRadar where he was responsible for the corporate and growth strategy as well as the finance, HR, legal and administration departments. In 2022, PlanRadar won the EY Scale-up award, where Sander was also a winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

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Dr. Peter Staub

Venture Partner

Peter Staub is CEO and founder of pom+, the leading Swiss consulting firm that advises real estate companies on digitization strategy and technology deployment. Peter Staub is regarded as one of the most active experts in the Swiss PropTech segment and organizes the annual Digital Real Estate Conference, holds the „Digital Real Estate“ Chair at the Zurich University of Economics (HWZ), is responsible for the LAB100 innovation laboratory and is an active business angel with PropTech focus.

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Michael Lowak

Venture Partner

After studying mechanical engineering, Michael initially worked at Braun AG as a product manager. From 1999 to 2009, he was responsible for building up the energy services business at MVV Energie, becoming the Managing Director from 2003 onwards. From 2010 to 2013, Michael was a member of the Executive Board at Kofler Energies AG and in November 2010, he became the Chairman of the Executive Board. In 2013, Michael moved to GETEC WÄRME & EFFIZIENZ as a member of the Executive Board and has been Chairman of the Executive Board since 2015. Since January 2022, Michael is the CEO of GETEC Germany.

Michael is part of the ZIA – German Property Federation and also sits as Vice Chairman on the Committee for Energy and Technology Business Council and the Committee for Real Estate and Smart Cities.

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Jakob Soravia

Venture Partner

Jakob spent his childhood in Vienna, Austria, as a son of a Family with a background of 140 years in the construction and real estate industry that has built up the SORAVIA Group with a project volume of €7 billion. Jakob moved to the United Kingdom during his teenage years, finishing both school and university in England. Throughout his business management degree at King’s College London, Jakob complimented the theoretical learnings with a range of practical experience. This includes working at Corestate Capital and Strabag, providing valuable insights into the workings of the real estate industry. While supporting the private investor network at btov Partners, Jakob gained valuable venture capital experience. He then spent time as an Investment Manager at PT1 before moving on to Sector7 Investors to further broaden his horizon. Due to the trusting collaboration, Jakob remains associated to PT1 as Venture Partner.

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Dr. Beat Schwab

Venture Partner

Beat Schwab was Head of Global Real Estate in the Asset Management division of Credit Suisse, one of the world’s largest real estate asset managers with over €50 billion in assets under management. Prior to that, he was CEO of Wincasa, Switzerland’s leading property manager. His current positions include Chairman of

the Board of Zug Estates, a real estate company listed on the Swiss stock exchange, and Member of the Board of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft. In addition, he has been active as a business angel in the PropTech environment for several years. In the role of Venture Partner, he contributes comprehensive expertise in asset and property management as well as his network from decades of career in the real estate sector.

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Birgit Rahn-Werner

Venture Partner

Birgit Werner MRICS is one of the leading Swiss real estate managers and Honorary Chair Switzerland as well as Global Trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). With her Indevise Group AG, she is responsible for various active investments, developments, and advisories with concerning digitalization and future trends. This includes REALCUBE, the partner ecosystem for digital asset management.

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Robert Oettl

Venture Partner

Robert Oettl has been working in the field of planning, construction and management of complex buildings for more than 20 years. The cgmunich GmbH, which he founded with two partners in 2002, quickly established itself as a consultancy for the optimization of real estate management.

From 2014 to 2021, the engineer for production and automation technology worked for the TÜV SÜD Group in various companies related to the real estate life cycle for strategic product and corporate development. Among other positions, he was Managing Director and CEO of TÜV SÜD Advimo GmbH from 2016 to 2021. TÜV SÜD Advimo is a consultant and manager lifecycle partner for professional real estate users, owners and operators. TÜV SÜD Advimo is among the TOP3 Property Managers (Bell Report 2016-2020) and TOP3 Lift Managers in Germany.

Robert Oettl is also active as a business angel, senior advisor and advisory board / supervisory board member in the startup environment.

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Nicholas Neerpasch

Venture Partner

Nicholas Neerpasch is a Diploma Architect and holds a Bachelor’s degree. He began his career in 2001 as an employee in the renowned architectural firm of Zaha Hadid Architects in London. He then worked for six years as a consultant at the management consultancy Ernst & Young in Berlin, further developing his expertise in the real estate sector. With the necessary specialist knowledge, he immediately succeeded in taking the first step into self-employment in 2007 when he founded his first own company, acht+ Baumanagement und Immobilienberatung GmbH, in 2010. He left the successful company in 2012 to join the GFP Group as Managing Partner (successful exit). In 2014, he founded the now million-funded PropTech startup Doozer, a marketplace for modernization management.

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Marius Marschall
von Bieberstein

Venture Partner

Marius Marschall von Bieberstein began his career after studying European Business with a management trainee program at Mercedes Benz Bank AG in Stuttgart. He then held positions in various Daimler Group companies in the areas of sales and business development at national and European levels.

In 2006, Benjamin Otto (from the Hamburg UHNWI family) and Marius Marschall founded their first joint venture. In the following years, further construction and technology-oriented business areas were established and purchased. Since 2009 Marius developed many real estate projects with his main company evoreal. He is also a co-founder and key shareholder in FORTIS Group (around 50 RE privatization projects).

Even before it was common practice to summarize startups from the real estate sector under the term „PropTech“, he began to make investments in this sector with his investment vehicle ImmoTech Ventures.

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Kosta Matsoukas

Associate Partner

Kosta combines sound theoretical knowledge with practical know-how. After successfully completing his bachelor’s degree in business administration and his master’s degree in strategy and innovation, Kosta gained diverse experience on both sides of the negotiating table, for example at the startups Learnity.com and Infarm as well as at the investors Rheingau Founders and Wayra. He has been an active member of the PropTech1 investment team since 2020.

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