In our new article series, we introduce the most exciting venture capital firms that are open for LP investments to our family office network. The article belongs to our exclusive single family office guidebook, where we give guidance on the most relevant topics for newly established and already existing family investment vehicles.
In this article, we talked to Yabeo, a Grünwald-based venture capital fund. We decided to get in touch with Yabeo due to their exciting flexible evergreen investment approach which offers opportunities for fund investors as well as the investment target.
Familyofficehub.io (FO): Briefly describe your focus: in which kind of startups are you investing, where is your geographical focus, what’s your average ticket size?
Yabeo: Investment focus industries: Fin & InsurTech, HealthTech, CleanTech, Food & AgriTech, EdTech;
Investment Geography: Eurozone with focus on DACH, UK and selectively North America;
Stage: Initial entry (Pre) Series A, Series A, with follow on investments up to the exit (IPO, Trade Sale);
Ticket size: Starting from 0.3 Mio. up to 5.0. For most promising companies it can go above 5 Mio (partially via SPVs),
Investment strategy: We have an open-end (evergreen) fund structure, which grants both to us and to our investors maximum flexibility, and represents the basis of our long term investment strategy:
- We invest when we find the right opportunity and not with committed capital
- We exit when we believe it is the right timing, as opposed to when end of fund lifetime is due or track record for next fundraising is needed
- We focus on trustful and longstanding investors with stable investment approach, also in times of crisis
- We actively support our portfolio companies with our Experience, Know-How and Network, as well as our investors’
- We actively manage synergies between our portfolio companies
- We actively manage Cap Table
- We invest over the startup’s life cycle into our leading assets, irrespective of „fund duration” or stage, as we want to use our leading-edge due to longstanding relationships to founders, shareholders and other stakeholders for the selective portfolio companies. In this way, we are able to overweight good performing assets over time and participate in attractive secondary and convertible opportunities.
FO: What was your most successful investment so far?
Yabeo: Our current portfolio company CeraCare is a good example of a very successful investment. We first invested back in 2018, as part of Series A financing round. Cera Care is a healthtech company that provides tech-enabled care in the UK. The care market is highly fragmented and lags significantly behind in digitization. We invested regularly since 2018 and increased our share via financing rounds and financially attractive secondaries. Yabeo team is in very close contact with Cera’s management and other leading investors, actively advising and supporting company’s development. Cera’s valuation nearly doubled each year, and we look forward to further support and invest in Cera in the coming years. The next challenge and big opportunity is the upcoming internationalization, where yabeo is actively involved.
FO: Why should a family office invest in Yabeo as LP?
Yabeo: As a result of our active investment strategy, family offices and small institutional investors suit best for us. We understand the needs and rationals of family offices and very much welcome their support for our portfolio companies with their network and knowledge. We grant full access to our pipeline and existing portfolio companies, and also give our investors the additional benefit of overweighting a single portfolio company via our SPV structures.
FO: Thanks for your time!
Headquarter: Grünwald, Germany
Website: yabeo.de
