Iris Capital: Thorben Rothe becomes new Principal in Berlin

Berlin — Iris Capi­tal expands its team in Berlin: Thor­ben Rothe (photo) beco­mes the new Prin­ci­pal. Iris Capi­tal, one of the leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal firms, enga­ges Thor­ben Rothe as Prin­ci­pal. Effec­tive imme­dia­tely, he joins the team in Berlin and is respon­si­ble for early-stage invest­ments in Germany.

Thor­ben Rothe has more than seven years of venture capi­tal expe­ri­ence. Most recently, the 34-year-old was a prin­ci­pal at Capna­mic Ventures, one of the leading early-stage venture capi­tal firms in Germany. Iris Capi­tal has made seve­ral early-stage co-inves­t­­ments with Capna­mic Ventures over the past five years. Rothe was respon­si­ble for the manage­ment of twelve port­fo­lio compa­nies and the deve­lo­p­ment of the Berlin office. Previously, he worked at DuMont Venture, a corpo­rate venture capi­tal firm focu­sed on digi­tal media and IT, and gained opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence at various startups

The hiring of Thor­ben Rothe is an important part of Iris Capital’s expan­sion stra­tegy for Germany. This is also accom­pa­nied by a stra­te­gic expan­sion of the Berlin loca­tion, where the startup scene is parti­cu­larly active. Iris Capital’s port­fo­lio alre­ady includes well-known Berlin-based compa­nies such as the leading re-commerce retailer reBuy, the equally leading solu­tion provi­der for app analy­tics and attri­bu­tion Adjust, and the specia­list for search and content stra­te­gies Searchme­trics. Further new hires are plan­ned for the Berlin office, which is led by Erkan Kili­cas­lan, Mana­ging Part­ner at Iris Capital.

“We have been active in Germany since 1993, our first invest­ment was E‑Plus,” says Erkan Kili­cas­lan, Mana­ging Part­ner at Iris Capi­tal. “Since then, we have been successfully inves­t­ing in talen­ted foun­ders in Germany and beyond. Through Thor­ben Rothe, we will further deve­lop our Berlin loca­tion and expand our alre­ady estab­lished network.”

About Iris Capital
Iris Capi­tal is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in the digi­tal economy. Iris Capi­tal invests in compa­nies at various stages of growth, from start­ups to late-stage and growth play­ers. Due to its parti­cu­lar specia­liza­tion in indi­vi­dual indus­tries and over 30 years of expe­ri­ence, as well as the support of its corpo­rate spon­sors, Iris Capi­tal actively accom­pa­nies the compa­nies in its own port­fo­lio. Iris Capi­tal has offices in Paris, Berlin, San Fran­cisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Dubai. Its holdings include Adjust, Careem, Kyriba, Marco Vasco, Mister Auto, Mopub, Netatmo, ReBuy, Searchme­trics, Scality, Shift Tech­no­logy and Talend.

Iris­Next is a fund of Iris Capi­tal, backed as inves­tors by leading compa­nies such as Orange, Publi­cis, Valeo, Bpifrance, BRED Banque Popu­laire and other finan­cial institutions.