KfW Capital Award 2023: Prizes for Best Female Investor and Best Impact Investor presented in Berlin yesterday

• Outstanding contributions to the VC ecosystem

• “Best Female Investor”: Itziar Estevez (“Iris Capital”)

• “Best Impact Investor”: Tim Schumacher (“World Fund”)

The KfW Capital Award 2023 has been presented. Itziar Estevez, partner at Capital, is “Best Female Investor 2023”, and Tim Schumacher, partner at World Fund, is “Best Impact Investor 2023”. On behalf of the panels of judges, both were presented with the KfW Capital Award in their respective categories by Dr Sabine Hepperle, Head of the SME Policy department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Dr Eva Wimmer, Head of the Directorate-General for Financial Market Policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance, and the Managing Directors of KfW Capital, Dr Jörg Goschin and Alexander Thees. The award presentation ceremony was held in Berlin yesterday. Both awards carry a prize money of 5,000 euros. KfW Capital presented the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award for outstanding start-ups for the second time this year and, as last year, added the two categories of the investor perspective. The award recipients were selected in a multi-stage procedure.

‘“Female Investing” and “Impact Investing” are both key themes with great potential for strengthening the VC ecosystem on a sustained basis. The aim of the KfW Capital Award is to recognise outstanding personalities while directing attention to the relevance of “more diversity” and “more impact”‘,

said Dr Jörg Goschin.

‘We had many very good applications again this year, making it difficult for the judges to come to a verdict. The finalists in the category of Best Female Investor included, for example, Juliane Hahn (Signature Ventures) and Dörte Hirschberg (Climentum Capital), and Dr Christin ter Braak-Forstinger (Chi Impact Capital) in the category of Best Impact Investor. We extend our warm congratulations to them, too’,

said Alexander Thees.

What the jury for Best Female Investor (see members below) said about Itziar Estevez:

“Her mechanical engineering degree and career start at a BMW production plant allowed Itziar Estevez to gain profound technical expertise which surely forms the basis on which she has been able to build a successful track record in the venture capital market over the past years. After managing due diligence projects at Boston Consulting Group in London and many years at Siemens Venture Capital, she is now based in Munich, with the IRIS Capital fund investing in important technologies of the future such as climate tech, industry 4.0, deeptech, cybersecurity, supply chains and logistics in start-ups in Europe and Germany. Itziar Estevez also holds unsalaried positions, among others at the BMW Foundation’s Respond Accelerator.”

What the jury for Best Impact Investor (see members below) said about Tim Schumacher:

“Tim Schumacher started his career as a successful digital entrepreneur and used the money from his exit to start investing himself. From the outset, he focused on ‘impactful’ businesses such as Ecosia, Zolar and GridX. Lately he and his team successfully completed funding for the ‘World Fund’, a climate tech fund that finances start-ups with a ‘climate impact’ in Europe. Tim Schumacher has a deep network within the climate tech ecosystem and is active as a mentor in different start-up programmes.”

The category “Best Female Investor” recognises VC investors who successfully invest in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany, among other things, while the category “Best Impact Investor” focuses on investors and their funds which have defined impact as an integral part of their investment strategies and invest in, among others, start-ups and innovative technology companies in Germany.

Note:

The panel of judges for Best Female Investor:

Dr 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 Climate Action, Prof. Heike Hölzner, Professor for Entrepreneurship and SME Management at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin and Co-Chair of encourageventures e.V., Dr Eva Wimmer, Head of the Directorate-General for Financial Market Policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance), and for KfW Capital Dr Jörg Goschin, Managing Director of KfW Capital and Theresa Bardubitzki, Sustainability Manager.

The panel of judges for Best Impact Investor:

Dr Sabine Hepperle, Head of the SME Policy Department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Verena Kempe, Head of Investment Management at KENFO – German Nuclear Waste Management Fund, Felix Oldenburg, CEO of project bcause and Board Spokesman of gut.org gAG, Dr Andreas Rickert, Chief Executive Officer of PHINEO, Co-CEO of Nixdorf Kapital and Chair of the Federal Initiative on Impact Investing, and for KfW Capital Alexander Thees, Managing Director and Theresa Bardubitzki, Sustainability Manager.

For interviews with Itziar Estevez and Tim Schumacher go to:­ Dossier KfW Capital. Go to­ IRIS for more about Itziar Estevez and to­ World Fund for more about Tim Schumacher.

Information on the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award and the KfW Capital Award can be found at­ KfW Award Gründen (available in German only).