The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Dec 2025

Founded in 2022 by Dr. Hans Lennartz and Leopold von Schultzendorff, Potsdam-based Doctorflix delivers certified continuing-education content for healthcare professionals via an on-demand platform. The service already claims the highest content density of certified medical training videos in Germany and has secured content partnerships with leading hospitals such as Charité and the Median-Kliniken. Delivered through video, podcast and micro-learning formats, the content is designed to fit the time-pressed schedules of doctors and, soon, nurses and medical assistants. Doctorflix’s goal is to evolve into the world’s largest repository for medical learning resources, removing geographic, linguistic and economic barriers for clinicians. With the fresh capital the company will add new professional disciplines like nursing and accelerate international expansion. Since launch, Doctorflix has raised a total of €4.1 million in seed financing, backed by both corporate and financial investors.

Led · Seed · Sep 2024

Become.1 is a Heidelberg, Germany–based HR tech startup that provides an all-in-one platform for employee benefits. Its software aims to reduce administrative effort for employers and provide maximum flexibility for employees, allowing benefits to be securely managed and integrated into existing HRM and payroll systems. The platform targets German companies and also offers solutions for employees in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and Luxembourg. Led by co‑founders and CEOs Friedrich Villhauer and David Wambsganss, Become.1 currently has nearly 30 employees and has already won around one hundred SMEs and startups as customers, including Hypoport, Stadler Rail, Knuspr, Diconium, and Eurofins Genomics. The company intends to use the funds to further expand its all-in-one platform for employee benefits. The product and go-to-market remain focused on increasing accessibility and usability of employee benefits across employer payroll and HR systems.

Led · Seed · Jul 2024

DYNO offers a digital platform aimed at employees and companies to simplify and improve occupational pension provision. Its software reduces manual administrative processes by 91% and uses commission-free contracts that the article says can yield employees up to €60,000 more in pension. The platform supports ETF investments and trading and is marketed to both private individuals and corporate clients. Since its founding the company has won customers including Europa-Park, Freeletics and Herrenknecht. DYNO has positioned itself to address Germany’s looming pension-gap challenge and plans to expand its customer base. The company recently extended its pre-seed financing to support scaling and further product deployment. Dyno, founded in 2021, provides an independent all‑in‑one platform to handle companies' occupational pension administration, eliminating broker commissions. The product is offered as a SaaS with a monthly per‑employee fee that the company says is typically cost‑neutral for employers once administrative savings are considered. Dyno emphasizes increased take‑up of workplace pensions and claims employees can end up with as much as €60,000 more pension in the future by avoiding commissions. The team is currently about 10 people based in Offenburg, with close ties to local universities for recruiting. Management declined a large insurer's offer that did not align with their mission and plans to scale headcount to roughly 30 employees while expanding commercial efforts in sales, marketing, and customer success. Over the next 12 months they target generating roughly €250 million in additional pension income for employees of their customers.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2021

ai-omatic has developed a digital maintenance assistant that uses AI to recognise anomalies in machine data at an early stage and prevent unplanned downtimes. The product reduces maintenance costs and increases operational efficiency. Its AI-supported solution is already used by customers such as the packaging group Nitto and the energy supplier SEFE. The company plans to invest the new financing in further software development, marketing and sales, and internationalisation. ai-omatic was founded in 2020 and is based in Hamburg. Co-founders are Lena Weirauch, Felix Kraft and Dario Ramming.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2021

Kontist is an all-in-one digital platform combining banking, bookkeeping and tax advisory aimed at freelancers and self-employed professionals. The company offers an app that integrates banking and bookkeeping to give users more financial security and control. Kontist says it targets freelancers who it believes will shape the future of work and provide services tailored to their complex finances. The firm was founded in Berlin in 2016 and employs more than 120 people. Kontist is managed by founder and CEO Christopher Plantener and Co-CEO Benjamin Esser. The company plans to use new capital to further its expansion in Germany. Kontist is a Berlin-based fintech that combines banking for freelancers and the self-employed with tax advisory. Its core product bundles freelancer-focused banking with tax services and offers real-time, AI-supported tax calculation for freelancers. The company announced a €25 million Series B to bolster that tax services business. The round was led by Founders, which incubated Kontist together with CEO Christopher Plantener, and Haufe Group also participated. Haufe Group previously acquired a minority stake in 2018 as part of a Series A investment. Management says the funding supports sustainability and continuity and will help simplify work for the self-employed, particularly amid the coronavirus pandemic. Kontist is a Berlin-based neobank founded in 2016 that targets self-employed customers and small businesses in Germany. The product simplifies tax payments for freelancers by automatically setting aside income tax and VAT each month to avoid surprise bills. The company’s stated goal is to make freelancing as simple and straightforward from an accounting perspective as working as a full-time employee. Kontist has raised an undisclosed Series A led by Haufe Group with participation from Founders. In partnership with Haufe Group, Kontist plans to launch a co-creation lab to build integrations for different financial products to help small businesses grow. The company will introduce deep integration with the Lexoffice accounting software and aims to streamline SMB workflows by integrating services and partners on one platform. Kontist is a Berlin-based developer of a banking app dedicated to freelancers and founders. Co-founded in early 2016 by Christopher Plantener, Alexander Baatz, Sebastian Galonska and Madison Bell, the company aims to create a bank account tailored to freelance businesses. Kontist implements high safety standards: all data is encrypted and sensitive account actions are secured with two-factor authentication, and it states it will never share user information without permission. Deposits are secured by the European deposit fund up to €100k. The company planned to launch early in 2017. It raised €2m to continue developing its app.