“It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than to buy a fair company at a wonderful price.”
Warren Buffet
Despite his young age, Rene Marius Köhler has already had the opportunity to gain experience in the private equity industry. In 2008, the Samwer brothers were the first investors in INTERNETSTORES, with the European Founders Fund. After a large number of transactions, Rene Marius Köhler is now Industry Advisor to EQT and a member of the Partners Group’s Entrepreneurs Circle; he also invests in the funds offered by these two providers.
In addition, investments are evaluated through a personal network consisting of Lakestar, CherryVentures and Project A, for example, whose co-founder Dr Florian Heinemann was a long-standing member of the board of INTERNETSTORES.
Kleiner Perkins is one of the world’s most successful and most exclusive venture capital investors. The company has been investing in outstanding founders for fifty years, helping them to establish market-leading firms. Thanks to early-stage investments in today’s global market leaders, Kleiner Perkins has time and again identified and offered early-stage financing to companies that have revolutionised or redefined markets, including firms such as DocuSign, Airbnb, Amazon, Stripe, Slack, Google, Spotify etc. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in the Kleiner Perkins Select Fund II in 2022.
Tiger Global Management is an investment firm headquartered in New York. Its investments focus on the fields of the Internet, corporate software and financial technologies in its core markets: the United States, China and India. Tiger Global has invested in several hundred companies across more than 30 countries since 2001. Tiger Global has had holdings in the likes of Stripe, Snowflake, LinkedIn, JD.com, ByteDance, etc. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in Tiger Global PIP XV in 2021.
The Founders Fund, based in Silicon Valley, was established in 2005 by Peter Thiel. Peter is the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and was the first external investor in Facebook. His funds have invested in companies like Airbnb, SpaceX, Lyft, and Spotify. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in the Founders Fund Growth in 2019 and the Founders Fund Growth II in 2022, which focus on rapidly growing technology companies.
DST Global is a growth equity firm specialising in late-stage investments in internet companies in the USA and China. The firm was founded in 2009 by star investor Yuri Milner and has invested USD 9.3 billion in 6 funds to date. KOEHLER GROUP invested in DST Global VII in 2019 and in DST Global VIII in 2021, which have a fund sizes of USD 1.5 billion.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The firm invests in seed to venture to late-stage technology companies. a16z invested very early and successfully in such companies as Skype, Facebook and Twitter. Since its Series B investment in Coinbase in 2013 and further significant investments in promising blockchain companies, a16z has become the most prominent equity investor in the industry. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in Andreessen Horowitz CNK Fund IV & CNK Seed Fund I in 2022.
Key Partners Capital is one of the leading European investment companies for family offices. Among its other activities, the company manages the Blockchain Fund of Fund KPC Delta I, whose focus is on investments in highly reputable, global blockchain funds in the early and growth segment. Direct investments of the fund are also made in suitable blockchain companies. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in KPC Delta I in 2022.
Picus Capital is an early-stage investor with a long-term investment philosophy and was founded by Alexander Samwer. Its focus is on technology companies in the real estate, finance and insurance, HR, renewable energies, mobility, e-commerce and healthcare sectors. The company has already invested in companies from over 15 countries based on a global investment approach. These include companies such as Personio, Enpal, Casavo, zencargo, Avi Medical etc.The KOEHLER GROUP invested in Picus Co-Investment & Growth Fund in 2022 and Rene Marius Köhler became a board member of the fund.
468 Capital is an early-stage deep tech fund. It was founded by Alexander Kudlich and Ludwig Ensthaler, who previously held senior positions at Rocket Internet, and Florian Leibert, who founded the cloud software company Mesosphere (today: D2iQ) in Silicon Valley. The intention is for the fund to invest primarily in start-ups operating in the segments of machine learning, open source and automation. The KOEHLER.GROUP invested in 468 Capital I in 2020 and in 468 Capital II & 468 Global Opportunities in 2021.
The globally active venture capital and private equity company invests in fast-growing technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Insight Partners was founded in 1995 and has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide. More than 30 billion US dollars in capital pledges were made by investors across all funds.
Bond Capital is a private equity firm that specialises in growth investments in technology companies. Under the leadership of star Internet analyst Mary Meeker, the Bond team has built up three growth funds with a total volume of USD 2.7 billion since 2010. With Bond, a new fund has now been set up with a volume of USD 1.25 billion. Previously, investments have been made in companies such as Uber, airbnb and Spotify. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in the Bond Capital Fund in 2019, in BOND II in 2021 and in BOND III in 2022.
EQT is a leading company in the alternative investment sector and has raised more than EUR 71 billion in capital across 27 established funds. EQT Funds manages portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the USA. To date, Rene Marius Köhler has invested in the EQT 7, EQT Midmarket and EQT Ventures funds.
Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital company which was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. The company has assets totalling more than $5 billion under management. The investments are made in many different sectors such as financial services, healthcare, big data and sustainable energy. KOEHLER GROUP invested in Khosla Ventures VII and Opportunity I in 2021.
Summit Partners was founded in 1984 and since then has invested in more than 500 companies in the technology, healthcare, life sciences and other growth sectors. Among these companies, more than 170 have been listed on the stock exchange and more than 200 have been the subject of strategic mergers and sales. Summit currently manages 31 billion US dollars in capital. The KOEHLER GROUP has invested in Summit Partners Growth Equity XI in 2021.
The Partners Group is one of the largest global managers of private market investments. The company invests in the financing and development of companies and real estate, along with the necessary infrastructure. Its objective is to create added value for the investments through active, long-term and responsible equity stakes. Rene Marius Köhler has invested in the Partners Group Direct Fund.
Kaszek Ventures was founded by the founders of MercadoLibre, Hernan Kazah and Nicolas Szekasy, in 2011. The company is headquartered in Argentina and is one of the leading technology and venture capital funds in Latin America. Previous investments have been made, for instance, in companies such as the world’s largest neobank, Nubank and Kavak, the first unicorn from Mexico. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in Kaszek Ventures V & Opportunity II in 2021.
Project A is a Berlin-based early-stage investor and operational venture capital fund focusing on e-commerce & marketplaces, data-based infrastructure solutions and software as a service. The fund helps founders to build up companies that will be able to enjoy sustainable success. Rene Marius Köhler invested in Project A II in 2015 and in Project A III in 2018. Furthermore, the KOEHLER GROUP 2021 has invested in Project A Ventures IV and Project A Buy-Out Co-Invest I, and Rene Marius Köhler has become a fund board member.
Cherry Ventures is a Berlin-based venture capital fund that invests in promising ideas and teams throughout Europe, at an early a stage as possible. As a platform for the transfer of capital and know-how, Cherry Ventures supports companies and offers founders access to a network of successful start-ups. Rene Marius Köhler invested in Cherry Ventures II in 2016 and in Cherry Ventures III in 2019.
TCV is a US private equity and venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. Founded by Richard H. Kimball and Jay Hoag, TCV has raised more than USD 19 billion across eleven growth funds since 1995 and invested over USD 16 billion in leading technology companies. These include companies such as Airbnb, Expedia, Facebook, GoDaddy, Netflix, Silver Peak, Splunk, Spotify and Webroot. TCV has floated 79 companies on the stock market, and M&A exits include 69 strategic sales. The KOEHLER.GROUP invested in the TCV XII in 2022.
Cinven is an international private equity firm with 40 years of experience. The areas in which Cinven invests range from the healthcare sector to the service sector and industry. Cinven manages the capital of more than 200 investors worldwide. That is more than 130 investments at an amount of USD 37 billion. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in the Cinven 7 fund in 2019 via the private equity platform Moonfare.
Lakestar is a venture capital firm that invests globally in companies during their early-stage and growth phases that were founded by outstanding digital entrepreneurs. Lakestar has invested in companies such as Facebook, Spotify, Skype, Opendoor, Omio, Glovo and Revolut. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in Lakestar Growth I in 2018 & in Lakestar Growth II and Lakestar Early IV in 2022.
Lerer Hippeau is a venture capital investor based in New York. The company helps the founders of technology companies build up leading companies in their sector by making early stage investments and supporting the team. The fund has been involved in establishing successful companies such as GIPHY, Casper and BuzzFeed. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in the Lerer Hippeau Select Fund III in 2020 via the private equity platform Moonfare.
Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the leading late-stage venture capital and growth equity companies based in Silicon Valley. The company manages 7 billion US dollars and has an IRR of 43.1% over 39 years. IVP was founded in 1980 and has already invested in over 400 companies 116 of which have gone public. The KOEHLER GROUP invested in IVP XVII in 2021.
Top private equity investments
Robinhood, an online stockbroker, operates an app that can be used by the man in the street to access financial markets. Users can buy and sell listed US shares and exchange traded funds without paying any commission. The app is intended to make it easier to manage money and trade shares.
Instacart, an on-demand eCommerce grocery service in the US and Canada, allows users to have groceries delivered to their home from a wide range of shops. Drivers collect groceries from the supermarket and deliver them to customers. Founded in 2012, the company is one of North America’s largest online grocery suppliers.
As one of the frontrunners in the US challenger banking segment, chime helps its members to avoid bank charges and save money, while giving them the opportunity to have full control of their finances, by adopting a mobile approach. The company is based in San Francisco and is one of the most popular financial management apps in the app store.
Flink delivers groceries to consumers’ doors within ten minutes – at supermarket prices. This is possible thanks to a decentralised warehouse system. Flink is currently the biggest competitor of the grocery supplier, Gorillas, and continues to enjoy rapid growth in Germany and Europe.
GetYourGuide is a travel experience booking platform that enables unique international tours and activities to be effortlessly booked online. The company was founded in 2008 in Berlin and is one of the few unicorns from German-speaking countries.
The sporting goods manufacturer, On, is now represented in over 50 countries around the world and listed as the fastest growing global sporting goods company. Its product range includes shoes, clothing and accessories for men and women.
Canva allows anyone to become a graphic designer and produce professional graphical content. This is possible thanks to a user-friendly interface, without any of the unnecessary applications of other graphic design tools, as well as more intuitive drag-and-drop functions. The content produced can be exported to the Internet or social media.
Hedvig is becoming the first customer-focused, fully digital property and accident insurer in the Nordic countries. The company has set itself the goal of handling insurance matters using a fair and transparent business model and of improving the customer experience.
The taxi app InDriver follows an impressive, innovative, peer-to-peer-based RTD (Real Time Deals) model. Customers enter their destination and proposed fare into the app, and drivers in the vicinity can then accept or reject the job, or submit a counter-quote. InDriver is one of the world’s most downloaded taxi apps.
The Berlin-based Agtech start-up facilitates urban agriculture. The company produces and operates modular systems for the vertical cultivation of herbs and vegetables in strategic consumer centres such as supermarkets, restaurants and hotels. This is possible thanks to smart greenhouses located at these sites.
This Swedish micro-mobility start-up provides a network of eScooters in urban areas throughout Europe. Its aim is to create an affordable, sustainable and exciting way of reducing commuting distances. Consumers can therefore minimise their CO2 footprint, while cities gain a more sustainable transport network.
This German company is creating a new type of online customer journey for “high-consideration” purchases. It provides a retail platform with flexible communication channels. The aim is to combine the ease of online shopping with the quality of advice and individuality of offline purchasing.