Prediction Capital wants to invest 30 million euros in fintech startups. They focus on ESG criteria but do not see themselves as an impact fund. The market environment is challenging; less capital flows into startups, and startups are declining. Nevertheless, co-founder Kilian Graulich is confident: now is the time to launch a new early-stage fund. Together with Robin Lauber and Christopher Chuffart, he founded Prediction Capital.
They plan to distribute 30 million euros to young companies in the coming months and years, focusing on Germany, Austria and Switzerland. “The big-tech layoff wave will bring promising future founders into the market,” Graulich says. He says the companies launching in the current climate are not just the celebrated startups, which leads to a good portfolio mix.
The fund touts the famous ESG label. It pays attention to environmental, social, and governance factors in its investments in the business plan, Graulich says. But it doesn’t want to be measured afterwards to avoid greenwashing accusations. There need to be more resources to regularly check with the portfolio companies after the investment whether the startups also comply with ESG criteria. “We are not an impact fund like World fund, for example,” he says. Still, the benchmark would be the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, known as Sustainable Development Goals.
The just-closed fund comprises a variety of backers, including business angels and other family offices. The new VC plans to get deals through existing contacts in the industry and works with universities such as WHU, Technische Universität München and St. Gallen. “Also, the three of us know people from our studies who are now with established VCs and want to fill their rounds with smaller VCs,” says Graulich.
The first investments are the Berlin fintech startup Erblotse, which supports heirs in the inheritance process with browser-based software, and the restaurant operating system Foodetective.
