Speedinvest is a leading manager of pre-seed and seed capital funds investing in tech companies located in the DACH area. Established in Vienna in 2011, it expanded its activity to Germany and later on to London and Paris. With roughly Euro 1 bn under management, it is about to complete the fundraising phase of its fourth and largest fund, Speedinvest IV, whose hard cap is set at 350 million euro. A noteworthy result considering that the collection of this big amount of money started no sooner than Spring 2022, when the rate tempest on money markets exploded, complicating private equity fund managers’ fundraising significantly. A robust hand to Speedinvest in scoring this success was given by Italian investors, including private one (like Hnwis and family offices), who subscribed around 50 million of the fund. Those investors’ role will be the main topic of Daniel Keiper-Knorr‘s speech at the 2023 edition of the 0100 Mediterranean Conference, for the first time held in Rome, scheduled for October 18. Beside being Speedinvest’s founding partner, Keiper is indeed the head of fundraising, He explained to BeBeez International , the Conference’s media partner, how Italy turned out to be one of the key markets to raise funds for the Austrian venture capital manager.
BeBeez International: First of all, why that name, Speedinvest?
Keiper-Knorr: Because our mission is to speed a company’s growth up from the pre-seed stage to the scaleup phase, with a hands-on investment style and a constant presence in the company’s daily life.
BeBeez International: Did you achieve that goal?
Keiper-Knorr: Upon the experience of 350 investments over the last 12 years, it took between one and 3 years to pull a company out of the startup phase, which means overcoming all the hurdles and risks implied by building, testing, engineering and bringing to the market a product or a service. At that point the company is ready for Series B and subsequent rounds. After investing between 500 thousands and 3 mn euros in the earliest stage, we invest up to the series B one, and always on a follow on basis, i.e. companies that are already in ur portfolio.
BeBeez International: What has been the financial outcome of this strategy thus far?
Keiper-Knorr: Over the last three funds the average IRR was 25%.
BeBeez International: Speedinvest focuses on the DACH area, so why are you now interested in the Mediterranean basin and Italy in particular?
Keiper-Knorr: Italy is one of the friendliest capital markets for us to raise funds. It is our second most important source of funds after Austria and ahead of the European Investment Funds, which invests public resources, though. Our of the roughly Eur 345 million thus far raised for Speedinvest IV, 50 million came form Italian investors, of which the majority are institutions, but a large minority is made of private individuals and family offices.
BeBeez International: How Italy turned out to be so important for your fundraising?
Keiper-Knorr: In 2015 we happened to co-invest with the Rancilio family in a cybersecurity company. That was the opportunity to establish a long lasting relationship, further confirmed by their investment in Speedinvest Four), that enabled us to step in the Italian market and spread our name in the country’s financial milieu, both at the private and institutional level. Thereafter we had other opportunities to team up with Rancilio cube on a handful of other investments, and recently they rank among the underwriters of Speedinvest Four.
BeBeez International: Why have private investors become so important for alternative asset managers like venture capital funds?
Keiper-Knorr: While they have a fairly high propensity to risk, they are also unregulated, so they do not suffer from the so-called “denominator effect”, i.e. the breakage of the limits to private capital’s weight on the overall portfolio, that institutional investors must respect in order to comply with rules issued by monetary authorities.
BeBeez International: What about Italy as a place to invest?
Keiper-Knorr: If Italy is a good place to raise money, the same does not hold true for investments, at least from a venture capitalist’s stanpoint.
BeBeez International: Why?
Keiper-Knorr: Because the dealflow is very limited compared to other European countries. Every year we process between 8,000 and 10,000 investment proposals. This year, no more than 123 came from Italy while 350 came from Spain, whose economy is significantly smaller than Italy’s. We would like to receive more of them from your country.
BeBeez International: What’s the reason for that in your opinion?
Keiper-Knorr: I do not think it is a matter of lack of ideas. Rather, in my opinion Italian startups should search for international investors more actively.
