• Best Female VC Investor: Zoé Fabian-Frey
• VC Game Changer: Dr Hendrik Brandis
• VC Exit Excellence: Project A
• Special prize VC Legacy Award: Dr Andreas Rodin
• Awards ceremony held in Berlin with some 150 guests

The winners of the 5th KfW Capital Awards 2026 have been selected: Zoé Fabian-Frey, General Partner at Noteus Partners, is “Best Female VC Investor 2026”, Dr Hendrik Brandis, founder of the VC fund Earlybird, is “VC Game Changer 2026”. The Berlin-based VC fund “Project A” was the winner of the prize for the category “VC Exit Excellence”, which was awarded for the first time. The award presentation ceremony took place at the event location “Bar Jeder Vernunft” in Berlin yesterday. KfW Capital presented this year’s awards in front of around 150 guests, again complementing them with the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award, which has honoured successful business founders for almost three decades, representing the perspective of investors.

Tomorrow’s innovations always emerge where people take bold steps today – and these include investors who accompany start-ups with foresight. Our awards honour outstanding dedication, thereby explicitly bringing role models into focus – this year in the areas of female investing, game changer and exits,

said Dr Jörg Goschin, CEO of KfW Capital. KfW Capital also honoured Dr Andreas Rodin, a pioneer of the VC ecosystem.

As a legal expert, Dr Andreas Rodin, attorney and founding partner of the law firm Poellath + Partners, has set the standards that made the development of the past decades towards a professional venture capital market possible in the first place,

said Goschin. Ulrike Hinrichs, Executive Board Member at the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK), delivered the eulogy for Dr Rodin’s lifetime achievement (KfW Capital Legacy Award).

This year’s recipient of the VC Game Changer award exhibits two outstanding traits: decades of successful investments combined with a dedication to the broad German and European VC market. Our award recipient Dr Hendrik Brandis has been investing very successfully in European venture capital since Earlybird was founded in 1997 and, as a long-standing board member of the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA), gives important impetus to the VC market,

said Alexander Thees, Senior Managing Director at KfW Capital, who on Wednesday presented the prize together with Prof. Dr Heike Hölzner, Professor at Berlin University of Applied Sciences (HTW) and co-founder of encourageventures e.V..

Not enough women in the VC market and, therefore, not enough diversity in the VC market – this description of the situation prompted us to present the VC Female Investor Award for the first time five years ago. Much has changed since then; we are gradually seeing more women at all levels of the VC market – even if there is still much room for improvement. Zoé Fabian-Frey is a successful investor and market developer, which makes her a worthy recipient and role model”,

said Theresa Bardubitzki, KfW Capital’s Senior Sustainability Manager, who presented the award jointly with Dr Eva Wimmer, Head of the Directorate-General for Financial Market Policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance.

This year’s special KfW Capital Award “VC Exit Excellence” was presented to Project A for its partial exit from Trade Republic.

A strong VC ecosystem needs capital investors, but also exits. For example, we have seen few IPOs in recent years, which is why it was so important for us to issue an award for the topic and to literally ’shine a spotlight’ on it on the stage to honour the equally innovative and successful partial exit of Project A,”,

said Dr Jörg Goschin.

The award recipient was selected from KfW Capital’s portfolio. Nominees for the other KfW Capital Awards could either self-nominate or be nominated. The jury of venture capital experts (see names below) had selected the winners from all applications in a multi-stage selection procedure. The awards carry a prize money of 5,000 euros each (except the “Legacy Award”).

Overview of the jury:

Dr Tanja Emmerling (Partner HTGF), Ulrike Hinrichs (member of the Executive Board of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK), Prof Dr Heike Hölzner (Professor at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin and co-founder of encourageventures e.V.), Dr Janina Jänsch (Head of Division for SMEs, Future Technologies and Startups at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy), Verena Kempe (Head of Investment Management at KENFO – German Nuclear Waste Management Fund), represented on the jury by Dr Alexander Witkowski (Investment Management, Illiquid Investments, KENFO) and Dr Eva Wimmer (Head of the Directorate-General for Financial Market Policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance), represented on the jury by Ilka Schantz (Head of Subdivision International Financial Market Policy, KfW, Guarantees and Consumer Protection at the Federal Ministry of Finance). Dr Jörg Goschin, Chief Executive Officer of KfW Capital, and Theresa Bardubitzki, Senior Sustainability Manager at KfW Capital, were on the jury on behalf of KfW Capital.

Note: Details on how the jury justified their selections and further information on the KfW Capital Award 2026 can be found at www.kfw-capital.de/KfWCapitalAward2026.