Press Release from 2023-04-03 / KfW Capital

Wanted: Investors for KfW Capital Award “Best Female Investor” and “Best Impact Investor”

  • Deadline for applications begins 1 April 2023
  • Prizes will be awarded to personalities in the categories “Best Female Investor” and “Best Impact Investor”
  • Awards ceremony to be held in Berlin on 19 October 2023

The KfW Capital Award will be presented for the second time this year. Investors will be able to apply in the categories “Best Female Investor” and “Best Impact Investor” from 1 April to 1 July 2023. The KfW Capital Award “Best Female Investor” recognises female venture capital (VC) investors who invest successfully in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany. The “Best Impact Investor” award focuses on investors and/or their VC funds who have defined impact as an integral part of their investment strategy and invest in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany. The prize money in each category is EUR 5,000.

The KfW Capital Award will complement the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award for business founders by again adding the investor perspective, as it did last year. The awards will be presented at an awards ceremony in Berlin on 19 October 2023. The TV channel n-tv will broadcast a special report on the prizewinners.

“The VC ecosystem still has some catching up to do around the topics of Female Investing and Impact Investing, so we are again addressing these areas with this year’s KfW Capital Award and its categories”

, said Dr Jörg Goschin, Senior Managing Director of KfW Capital.

“Besides, we want to honour successful male and female investors again for their outstanding achievements”.
“Last year we received many very good applications in both categories. We are excited about this year’s applications and are confident they will again make for difficult choices for our jury panel, which will be composed of high-ranking VC 25 experts”

, said Alexander Thees, Senior Managing Director of KfW Capital.

A five-member jury will choose the winners from among the entries received. The members of the jury for the KfW Capital Award “Best Female Investor” will be Alex von Frankenberg (Managing Director of High-Tech Gründerfonds), Ulrike Hinrichs (Managing Director of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK), Chair of the “Young Digital Economy” Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy), Prof Heike Hölzner (Professor for Entrepreneurship and SME Management at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin and Co-Chair of encourageventures e.V.) and Dr Eva Wimmer (Head of the Directorate-General for Financial Market Policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance). The jurors for the KfW Capital Award “Best Impact Investor” will be Dr Sabine Hepperle (Head of the SME Policy Department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action), Anja Mikus (Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer at KENFO - German Nuclear Waste Management Fund), Felix Oldenburg (CEO of project bcause and Board Spokesman of gut.org gAG) and Dr Andreas Rickert (Chief Executive Officer of PHINEO, Co-CEO of Nixdorf Kapital and Chairman of the Federal Initiative on Impact Investing).

Each of the two Managing Directors of KfW Capital will be on one jury, with Dr Jörg Goschin for the category of Best Female Investor and Alexander Thees for Best Impact Investor. Theresa Bardubitzki, KfW Capital’s Sustainability Manager, will round off KfW Capital’s membership on the two juries.

Note for applicants:

Investors will find the online application form and details about the application process at www.kfw-capital.de/award. It is also possible to nominate investors for the award. Proposers are invited to send an email about their proposed nominee to info-kfw-capital@kfw.de . At www.kfw-capital.de/award you will find a review of the KfW Capital Award 2022 and the winners, Dr Manon Sarah Littek (“Best Female Investor”) and the VC fund Extantia Capital (“Best Impact Investor”).

About KfW Capital

As a wholly-owned venture capital subsidiary of KfW Group, KfW Capital invests in European venture capital funds with support from the ERP Special Fund and the Future Fund. The aim of KfW Capital is to sustainably bolster the VC fund landscape so as to give innovative technology companies in Germany better access to growth capital. The VC funds for their part commit to investing at least the amount of capital brought in by KfW Capital into German high-growth enterprises. In its investments KfW Capital applies the Sustainability Policy and exclusion list of KfW Capital. The fund investor sets great store by the target funds’ observance of ESG criteria. Further information on KfW Capital, the programmes and KfW Capital’s VC portfolio is available at
www.kfw-capital.de

Contact

Portrait von Sonja Höpfner

Ms.

Sonja Höpfner

Press Office KfW Capital