2024 End Year Review

Dear Founders, Investors, and Friends of the Venture Community,

As the festive season draws near and we prepare to recharge, we take this moment to reflect on the path we have traveled together in 2024, appreciating the milestones along the way.

2024 has been another defining year for the venture ecosystem. One where the global landscape regained momentum, with increased activity across key sectors, renewed investor confidence, and a wave of innovation driving progress despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges.

This year marks yet another chapter of transformation for us. Following the merger of FinLab AG and Heliad Equity Partners in 2023—a milestone that established Heliad AG as one of Europe’s leading publicly traded venture capital investors—our efforts in 2024 have reaffirmed our mission: giving more people access to venture capital and supporting the next generation of transformational companies.

While we are confident in the developments we initiated, we also observed a positive trend in the NAV per share—a metric that tracks the economic development of our portfolio. Since the beginning of 2024, the NAV per share has increased by approximately 10%, reaching EUR 19.90 in Q3 2024. Both our public and private portfolios contributed meaningfully to this growth, adding EUR +15.2m and EUR +8.3m to the absolute NAV growth, respectively. Driven by our stake in one of Europe’s leading online brokers, flatexDEGIRO, the momentum in our public portfolio has continued to drive its absolute NAV growth to EUR +27.8m as of December 18th.

Keep reading to discover more highlights and milestones of 2024.

Heliad Growth: Scaling Sector Leadership

Since setting our sails in 2021 to chart a course toward investing in tomorrow’s sector-leading and market-defining companies, several of our portfolio companies have made significant waves, and we saw growing evidence in 2024 that our journey is headed in the right direction. Some of the highlights of these companies that capture market attention include:

• FINN raises a Series C to expand across Europe to solidify its position as a leader in subscription-based mobility and topping it off with being named 4th fastest growing in company in Europe by revenue (697% CAGR!). Read more here.
• Raisin continues to shine while winning the German FinTech of the Year Award in the category later stage/growth and getting recognized as one of few IPO candidates for 2025. Read more here.
• Razor Group secures further financing in a Series D and acquires competitor Perch to announce global e-commerce aggregator leadership, showcasing the potential of tech-driven roll-up strategies. Read more here.
• Enpal continues its growth journey, evolving into a comprehensive end-to-end renewable energy solution. Equipped with fresh EUR 1.1bn debt commitments to power Germany’s solar and heat pump adoption while building Europe’s largest virtual power plant. Read more here.
• ChefCoco achieves cash breakeven just months after our lead investment. The Berlin based FoodTech is scaling rapidly to meet surging demand and recently started moving into a bigger warehouse. Read more here.
• MODIFI secures a strategic Series C investment by SMBC Asia Rising Fund, demonstrating resilience in a tough funding climate for FinTech and eyeing rapid growth to strengthen its position in cross-border B2B payments and trade finance across Asia. Read more here.
• BURNHARD earned its well-deserved recognition as Germany’s 2nd fastest-growing e-commerce brand by revenue by Financial Times and Statista. Read more here.

Early-Stage Strategy: Laying the Groundwork for Expansion

The integration of Collective Ventures is progressing smoothly as we are actively supporting portfolio companies, also thanks to the unique network we tap into. In 2024, we screened hundreds of companies, conducted countless meetings, and alongside a number of follow-on investments have ultimately invested in three companies with one being lemon.markets and the other two yet to be announced. A few more highlights of the existing portfolio include:

• Bunch successfully expands into the UK as one of the most significant VC/PE markets in Europe after raising its highly anticipated Series A led by US-based FinTech Specialist FinTech Collective. Read more here and here.
• Nelly progesses very well to become the operational and soon-to-be financial backbone of healthcare practices in Germany, at last securing EUR 100m in debt to launch its factoring product. Read more here.
• Alaiko merges with Zenfulfillment to create Europe’s leading tech-driven D2C fulfillment player. Read more here.

Thematic Strategies

In addition to our direct and co-investment activities in both growth and early stage companies, we have been developing and refining our thematic strategies:

Heliad Crypto Partners came out of stealth mid-year to empower access to crypto, web3 and blockchain-based investment strategies. The team led by Christopher Garlich just announced another exciting milestone to close out the year with a banger: The launch of Heliad Blockchain Traction Index and the corresponding exchange traded product in cooperation with our portfolio company Deutsche Digital Assets under the name DDA Heliad Dynamic Blockchain ETP (ISIN: DE000A4AHWT9 / Ticker: HELI). Visit the website here.

The dedicated Heliad GovTech team has been actively following diverse channels to voice the rising importance of innovative technology in the public sector. Our Head of GovTech, Ibrahim Köran, has represented the team at global conferences including an invitation to Brussels organized by the European Commission and closing partnerships with one of Germany’s most relevant AI powerhouses including the Technical University Munich (Campus Heilbronn). While refining the dedicated investment strategy and ramping up a promising pipeline of target companies, the broader venture sector demonstrates increasing appetite and finds increased conviction towards the growth and opportunities the field may bring. Watch out for more news soon.

We have also made it a priority to strengthen our community and share our vision:

• Attending selected industry events such as Bits & Pretzels in Munich and the TechCrunch #Disrupt Conference in San Francisco allowed us to expand our global footprint and gain significant traction on international deal flow with top-tier investors. See more here and here.
• Strengthening our community and sharing our vision remained a top priority. Highlights include hosting our second CV Breakfast and partnering with b2venture at major industry gatherings like Slush 2024, bringing together founders, investors, and thought leaders. See more here and here.
• We also had the opportunity to present our business model and vision as part of a guest article in Forbes and outlined the importance of dedicated angel networks in the online magazine deutsche-startups. Read more here and here.
• Representation at relevant capital markets conferences showcased Heliad on panels and in presentations. Read more here.
• Insights from our journey were shared live on air with Finance Forward followed by guest features on other social media outlets. Listen in here and here.

As we wrap up an impactful year, we remain energized by the positive momentum we have achieved and stay committed to supporting ambitious founders along the entire venture value chain—from the very early days to IPO.

Looking ahead to 2025, we are eager to deepen our partnerships with founders, investors, and collaborators, continuing to foster a vibrant venture community. Together.

We would like to thank you for your ongoing trust and support—it is your partnership that enables us to drive forward this shared vision.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season and a great start to the new year!

Warm regards,
The Heliad Team

‍