24 VC Firms Launch Push to Unlock EUR 15 Billion a Year for German Start-ups

Twenty-four leading venture capital firms have joined forces to channel roughly EUR 15 billion in additional private capital into German venture and growth funds every year. The German Venture & Growth Forum, established in spring 2026, wants to unlock the country's vast but underused pools of institutional money for start-up financing.

The scale of the problem is easy to quantify. Institutional investors in Germany — insurance companies and pension funds — manage around EUR 2.8 trillion. Only about EUR 400 million a year of that money reaches European venture and growth funds. The forum's backers call that gap the binding constraint on German start-ups trying to raise large rounds.

The case of Proxima Fusion illustrates the demand. The Munich-based start-up is developing a nuclear fusion demonstrator intended to pave the way for commercially generated fusion electricity. It has already raised more than EUR 411 million, including backing from the public-private VC platform HTGF. But the company is expected to need significant additional capital as the project advances — and closing rounds of that size remains harder for start-ups in Germany than elsewhere. That difficulty motivated the forum's creation.

HTGF anchors the initiative alongside 23 private venture capital firms from Germany and across Europe: Acton, Aenu, Atlantic, B2venture, Capnamic, Cherry, DTCP, Earlybird, Greenfield, Headline, HV Capital, Join Capital, Lakestar, Project A, Row Capital, Simon Capital, Speedinvest, TVM Capital, Redstone, Vorwerk Ventures, Vsquared, Xdeck Ventures and UVC Partners. Their target sectors are those with high scaling potential: AI, deep tech, energy and robotics.

The arithmetic behind the EUR 15 billion goal is straightforward. "Even a minimal increase in German pension funds' allocation to venture capital has a significant multiplier effect," says Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, General Partner at Speedinvest. "We want to make it easier for institutional investors to enter the VC market by showing them what a structured entry can look like in practice."

The forum's main instrument is the German Venture & Growth Playbook, a practical guide designed to lower the barriers to entry for large institutional players. Rather than lobbying for regulatory change, the members are betting that demonstrated structures and worked examples will bring insurers and pension funds off the sidelines.

Jannis Gilde of the German Startup Association calls the initiative a milestone in the development of the German VC landscape. "The targeted opening of large private capital sources to venture and growth financing will have noticeable effects in the coming years," he says. Those effects, in his view, include larger financing rounds with meaningful participation from European investors, reduced dependence on individual US backers, and a greater probability that companies founded in Germany grow into genuine market leaders.

Schwarzenbrunner argues Germany's industrial base gives the initiative a credible pitch to international investors. "Germany is an attractive market for international investors due to its industrial know-how and high degree of vertical integration," he says. Additional growth capital strengthens that foundation and creates "extremely great opportunities" for investments in rapidly growing companies.

Early numbers suggest momentum. In July 2026 alone, German start-ups took in EUR 3.4 billion in VC funding, and 2026 is shaping up to be a record-equaling, perhaps record-breaking year, according to Germany Trade & Invest.

For international start-ups weighing Germany as a base for European expansion, the funding landscape is already shifting in their favor — and if even a fraction of the EUR 2.8 trillion institutional pool moves, the shift has room to run.