Cavalry Ventures

Quick read

Cavalry Ventures is a Berlin-based pre-seed and seed VC, founded in 2016, backing European enterprise and consumer software startups. The fund was created by founders-turned-investors with operating experience at companies like Delivery Hero, Tradeshift, and Plista. It has backed over 50 companies across multiple funds and runs a dedicated Platform Team connecting portfolio founders to its network of 300+ LPs, 50+ software partners, and 30+ advisors.

Key facts

Founded

2016

Employees

19

Sectors

enterprise, saas, ai

Website

cavalry.vc

Investment thesis

Cavalry backs European enterprise and consumer software startups at pre-seed and seed, typically leading rounds and combining capital with a hands-on Platform Team that connects founders to LPs, engineers, executives, and industry experts.

Recent activity

• 2024leadership
  Rouven Dresselhaus stepped down as General Partner upon completion of Fund III's fundraising phase. The remaining five co-founding partners — Stefan Walter, Marcel Hollerbach, Markus Fuhrmann, Dominik Matyka, and Claude Ritter — continue leading the firm. Dresselhaus remains connected to Cavalry as a supporter and investor. de.linkedin.com
• 2024leadership
  Clara Köster was promoted to Head of Platform. She has managed Cavalry's network of 300+ LPs, 50+ software partners, and 30+ advisors since joining in August 2022. linkedin.com
• 2023fundraise
  Cavalry Fund III held a final close and made its first investments, including Dublin-based Oblivious, which uses confidential computing to allow ML processing on external data without exposing it. linkedin.com
• 2023leadership
  Won Yi joined Cavalry as an Investment Associate, coming from Boston Consulting Group where he spent nearly two years after an earlier internship at Picus Capital. linkedin.com
• 2023investment
  VOY advised Cavalry Ventures on the merger between portfolio company Usercentrics and Cookiebot, creating a European market leader in consent management. Financial terms were not disclosed. voy.law
• 2023investment
  Cavalry led a €6 million ($6.35M) seed round in Empion, a Berlin-based HR management software company, with participation from Redstone VC and VR Ventures. leadiq.com
• 2023investment
  Cavalry invested in Xaver, a fintech founded by Max Bachem, Ole Breulmann, and Bjoern Holste, citing strong product-market fit and the team's financial industry track record. linkedin.com
• ~mid-2024leadership
  Founding Partner Rouven Dresselhaus stepped down as General Partner upon completion of the Cavalry Fund III fundraising phase. He will remain connected to the firm as a supporter and investor. The remaining five co-founding partners continue to lead the firm. de.linkedin.com
• unknowninvestment
  Cavalry Ventures led a USD 7M seed round in Patronus, a Berlin-based emergency software startup focused on elderly care. UVC Partners and DN Capital co-invested. voy.law
• unknowninvestment
  Cavalry Ventures led a EUR 6M seed round in Empion, a Berlin-based AI-driven headhunting platform. Business angels from Kienbaum, Personio, and others co-invested alongside existing backers VR Ventures and Redstone VC. voy.law
• unknowninvestment
  Cavalry Ventures led a EUR 5M seed round in Lhotse, a Berlin-based procurement automation startup. Existing investor Paua Ventures and several angel investors also participated. voy.law
• unknownproduct
  Cavalry adopted Vestlane's digital KYC/AML onboarding platform ahead of its Fund III close, replacing manual PDF and spreadsheet-based investor onboarding processes. vestlane.com

Notable investments

• AMPECOSeries B2024tracxn.com
• ObliviousSeed2023linkedin.com
• EmpionSeed2023leadiq.com
• XaverSeed2023linkedin.com
• UsercentricsSeed2022voy.law
• PatronusSeedunknownvoy.law
• LhotseSeedunknownvoy.law
• UsercentricsSeries BDec 2020unicornalert.io
• Aleph AlphaUnknownUnknownlinkedin.com
• FlipUnknownUnknownlinkedin.com
• FortoUnknownUnknownlinkedin.com
• PlanRadarUnknownUnknownlinkedin.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Claude Ritter · Managing Partner
• Rouven Dresselhaus · Managing Partner
• Martin Janicki · Team Member
• Simon Lohmann · Team Member
• Won Yi · Investment Associate
• Clara Köster · Head of Platform
• Leonie Klimpke · Director of Finance and Compliance

Sources

• Cavalry Ventures – Official Website
• Cavalry Ventures | EU-Startups
• Cavalry Ventures Information – RocketReach
• Cavalry Ventures – ZoomInfo
• Cavalry Ventures | Investor Profile – OpenVC
• Cavalry Ventures on LinkedIn – Won Yi & Clara Köster announcements
• Cavalry Ventures on LinkedIn – Charm portfolio mention
• https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/cavalry-ventures
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/cavalry-ventures/
• https://de.linkedin.com/company/cavalry-ventures
• https://voy.law/news-articles/voy-advises-cavalry-ventures-on-patronus-seed-round
• https://voy.law/news-articles/cavalry-lead-investment-in-empion-with-support-from-voy
• https://voy.law/news-articles/voy-advises-cavalry-ventures-on-investment-in-lhotse
• https://vestlane.com/success-stories/cavalry-ventures/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bjoern-loose_cavalry-ventures-launches-new-fund-for-early-stage-activity-7006515710835183616-eroX?trk=public_profile_like_view
• https://voy.law/news-articles/voy-advises-cavalry-ventures-on-usercentrics-merger
• https://leadiq.com/c/cavalry-ventures/5a1d7dd524000024005744aa

Other VCs in Germany

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• Project A Ventures · Early-stage VC, Berlin·
• Cherry Ventures · Early-stage VC, Berlin·
• Point Nine Capital · SaaS-only VC, Berlin·
• High-Tech Gründerfonds · Seed VC, Bonn·
• HV Capital · Multi-stage VC, Munich (ex-Holtzbrinck Ventures)

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