It's all about trust - especially in a trustless architecture
Wolfgang Männel
Managing Partner
Wolfgang worked in consulting, PE/VC, and startups in industries ranging from telco, construction, retail, and consumer goods in functions like IT, supply chain, sales & marketing, and strategy across Europe, the US, China, and India. Having witnessed many economic and technological hype cycles in his 35-year career, he has a good grasp on the sometimes long path to mass adoption and the critical triggers required to get there. He has made the experience that women and migrants often make the toughest founders.
Ben Horvath
Partner
Ben, a lifelong gamer and sci-fi enthusiast, knows what it's like to be founder. His former startup, matching people based on their character, may not have achieved unicorn status. Still, it taught him valuable psychometrics skills that we use to support and benefit our founder teams every day. He is committed to both grand innovation and constantly improving the small details of our work with startups on a daily basis. He is also building lots of AI into our tech stack to become even better at deal sourcing and evaluating.
Sagar Barvaliya
Partner
Sagar is one of those people that make new friends every day. Deeply passionate about the potential of blockchain technology, he is our master networker creating valuable allies, helpful introductions for our portfolio companies, and strong connections within the web3 community. In addition, his multinational upbringing and engineering background make him feel at ease in almost any environment.
Dr. Burkhard Bonsels
Venture Partner
Burkhard is an esteemed investor, board member, and trusted advisor renowned for his exceptional contributions to innovative companies, private equity funds, and family offices - the result of a remarkable career as managing partner of Quadriga and principal at BCG. He has an insatiable curiosity for understanding the societal impact of technology and supporting ambitious founders spearheading transformative change.
Peter Cullom
Venture Partner
Peter is a veteran venture capital investor with thirty years of experience as a GP manager, angel, and LP investor. He has invested directly and indirectly in over 500 start-ups through four significant business cycles of growth and recession. Peter is a trusted advisor for many venture capital funds, and we are very fortunate to call him an esteemed advisor and a close friend.
Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner
Venture Partner
By creating the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center in 2017 and contributing to the Web3 community through many conferences, round-tables, podcasts, and educational programs, Philipp has defined the German center of gravity for all things blockchain. Being in contact with the next generation of business leaders daily, he is convinced that Web3 technologies will eventually be everywhere.
Alex Höptner
Advisor
Ever since entering the crypto space in 2013, Alex has been a strong advocate of the potential of tokenization for financial markets. With his experience at Deutsche Börse, as CEO at Börse Stuttgart and later at BitMEX, he played a pivotal role in launching the BISON app, which served as a gateway to Bitcoin for many newcomers. Alex's visionary mindset has always driven him to think big to explore the vast possibilities of crypto.
Pranav Sharma
Advisor
Wolfgang Männel
Managing Partner
Wolfgang worked in consulting, PE/VC, and startups in industries ranging from telco, construction, retail, and consumer goods in functions like IT, supply chain, sales & marketing, and strategy across Europe, the US, China, and India. Having witnessed many economic and technological hype cycles in his 35-year career, he has a good grasp on the sometimes long path to mass adoption and the critical triggers required to get there. He has made the experience that women and migrants often make the toughest founders.
Ben Horvath
Partner
Ben, a lifelong gamer and sci-fi enthusiast, knows what it's like to be founder. His former startup, matching people based on their character, may not have achieved unicorn status. Still, it taught him valuable psychometrics skills that we use to support and benefit our founder teams every day. He is committed to both grand innovation and constantly improving the small details of our work with startups on a daily basis. He is also building lots of AI into our tech stack to become even better at deal sourcing and evaluating.
Sagar Barvaliya
Partner
Sagar is one of those people that make new friends every day. Deeply passionate about the potential of blockchain technology, he is our master networker creating valuable allies, helpful introductions for our portfolio companies, and strong connections within the web3 community. In addition, his multinational upbringing and engineering background make him feel at ease in almost any environment.
Dr. Burkhard Bonsels
Venture Partner
Burkhard is an esteemed investor, board member, and trusted advisor renowned for his exceptional contributions to innovative companies, private equity funds, and family offices - the result of a remarkable career as managing partner of Quadriga and principal at BCG. He has an insatiable curiosity for understanding the societal impact of technology and supporting ambitious founders spearheading transformative change.
Peter Cullom
Venture Partner
Peter is a veteran venture capital investor with thirty years of experience as a GP manager, angel, and LP investor. He has invested directly and indirectly in over 500 start-ups through four significant business cycles of growth and recession. Peter is a trusted advisor for many venture capital funds, and we are very fortunate to call him an esteemed advisor and a close friend.
Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner
Venture Partner
By creating the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center in 2017 and contributing to the Web3 community through many conferences, round-tables, podcasts, and educational programs, Philipp has defined the German center of gravity for all things blockchain. Being in contact with the next generation of business leaders daily, he is convinced that Web3 technologies will eventually be everywhere.
Alex Höptner
Advisor
Ever since entering the crypto space in 2013, Alex has been a strong advocate of the potential of tokenization for financial markets. With his experience at Deutsche Börse, as CEO at Börse Stuttgart and later at BitMEX, he played a pivotal role in launching the BISON app, which served as a gateway to Bitcoin for many newcomers. Alex's visionary mindset has always driven him to think big to explore the vast possibilities of crypto.
Pranav Sharma
Advisor
It is rare to meet a more thoughtful person than Pranav, the founding partner of Woodstock, a multi-asset investment fund focusing on early and growth-stage Distributed Ledger Technology startups. Pranav studied mechanical engineering at Pune University (India), the Asian Institute of Management (Philippines) and earned his MBA at HEC (Paris). His professional trajectory has traversed a wide spectrum, from engaging in strategic initiatives at Aditya Birla Group—an Indian multinational conglomerate—to immersing himself in the intricacies of Web3 protocols in his current capacity as an investor.
No founders were harmed in the making of this statement