Gloria Baeuerlein (Glorious Capital) at the DLD Munich Conference 2023, Europes big innovation conference, January 12-14, 2023. Free press image © Picture Alliance for DLD / Hubert Burda Media
Picture Alliance for DLD / Hubert Burda Media
Gloria Bäuerlein has succeeded in what both startups and funds are struggling with: successful fundraining. Within just a few months, she managed to collect the capital for her own fund, Puzzle Ventures: it came to a total of 21.5 million euros, more than she originally wanted. And this at a time when raising money is anything but easy.
Puzzle Ventures is a so-called solo VC. This is what a fund is called that is only managed by a single partner. The person is also completely responsible for the investment decisions. There are already some successful solo VCs in the US; Oren Zeev, for example, who invested the remarkable sum of 683 million dollars (equivalent to around 627 million euros) with his Zeev Ventures 2021 fund. In Germany, these funds are still the exception – Bäuerleins Puzzle Ventures is only the third solo fund to be launched in Germany.
The 36-year-old, who is also involved in the start-up association, is considered to be very well connected. Not only in Germany, but throughout Europe: She worked for a while at the large VC fund Index in London and then switched back to the startup side: At the Swedish health unicorn Kry, she took care of the global strategy, after which she was COO at the HR company Back.