Earlybird (Germany)

Earlybird Venture Capital is a Berlin-based pan-European venture capital firm founded in 1997 by Hendrik Brandis, Christian Nagel, Roland Manger, and Rolf Mathies, making it one of the longest-running and most consistently high-performing early-stage venture capital firms on the European continent, with a track record spanning multiple technology cycles. The firm manages approximately EUR 2.5 billion in assets under management and operates three distinct fund families: Earlybird Digital West, focused on Western European technology companies across enterprise software, fintech, and sustainability; Earlybird Digital East, which covers Turkey, Central and Eastern Europe from Istanbul and produced the UiPath investment from Romania; and Earlybird Health, a dedicated European digital health and biotech fund. Earlybird closed its eighth Digital West fund at EUR 360 million in 2025, the largest in the firm's history. N26, the German digital bank, received backing from Earlybird at a very early stage. UiPath, the Romanian robotic process automation company that completed a New York Stock Exchange IPO in 2021, was backed by Earlybird Digital East. Peak Games, the Turkish mobile gaming company, was acquired by Zynga for $1.8 billion in 2020. Beyond its original investments in N26, UiPath, Peak Games, and Marley Spoon, the broader portfolio includes Taxfix, Snyk, Aleph Alpha, and Isar Aerospace.