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- Project A Ventures today announces its UK launch, with its London office to be led by experienced investors Sam Cash, Jack Wang, and Luc de Leyritz. 
- The firm has been investing in the UK since 2012, and investment team members have been on the ground since 2019. UK companies WorldRemit, Electric Gamebox and Unmind are in the firm’s portfolio.
- UK companies in which Project A invests will be able to access the firm’s “Operational Model”. The firm employs the largest platform team in Europe, and offers support from over 100 functional experts. 

__London, 14 July 2021.__ Project A Ventures, the European early-stage venture firm headquartered in Berlin and backers of WorldRemit, Trade Republic, KRY, Unmind, Voi, Spryker, sennder and Catawiki has brought its “Operational VC” model to UK start-ups by opening its first international office in London.

Project A’s London office is headed by an experienced investment team including Principals Sam Cash, Jack Wang, and Associate Luc de Leyritz, supported by Leopold Lerach and Francesca Baillieu from Berlin. 

Project A has been present locally since early 2019 through Sam Cash, who joined the firm from betaworks to lead efforts locally. The team expansion is indicative of their commitment to the UK ecosystem, and demonstrates the firm’s willingness to build on the positive momentum it has in the UK, having invested in WorldRemit, Electric Gamebox, Quix and Unmind. 

The firm will continue to back pan-European founders at seed and Series A with its “Operational Model”. The model enables all of Project A’s portfolio companies to access a wide range of operational support services. This includes more than 100 functional experts across key areas such as software engineering, business intelligence, sales and marketing, recruitment and many more. The fund boasts the largest platform team in European venture capital. 

__Uwe Horstmann__, General Partner at Project A Ventures, “The UK has always been one of the world’s major technology hubs, and commands a significant portion of both capital and talent. We fully expect to see this trend continue, with talented employees coming out of large companies in increasing number, to embark on their own start-ups, supported by an abundance of venture capital in the market.” 

__Sam Cash__, Principal at Project A Ventures, “We’re expanding our presence in London for a few reasons. We want to give founders all the benefits of having a local partner, whilst allowing them to work with our operational team. London has been fertile ground for us in terms of our existing partnerships, the density of tech talent and the opportunity cost is now too great for global firms not to be here.”

__Nick Taylor__, CEO of Unmind, "Project A's operational approach offers something that most VCs cannot provide, a team of 100 functional experts who are able to support companies at a moment’s notice. Since partnering with them, their teams in London and Berlin have been invaluable in helping us manage our growth and scaling internationally.” 

Project A currently has $600 million under management investing across consumer, marketplaces, SaaS, deeptech, fintech / insurtech, mobility and gaming. Furthermore, Project A has already been backing amazing U.K. founders over the past years including WorldRemit, Unmind, Electric Gamebox, Quix, Wonderbly as well as a number of unannounced companies. 

Project A launches in the UK and opens London office

PAV UK Team

Project A launches UK office

__Berlin, 5.7.2021.__ Project A co-invests in Perfect Drive Sports Group (PDSG), Europe’s largest eCommerce company for golf equipment. PDSG consolidates two brands under one roof – Clubhouse Golf in the UK and All4Golf in Germany. Hence the group is the leading online retailer of golf equipment in the UK and the German speaking region. Project A’s involvement in PDSG is a private equity co-investment, made in collaboration with [Bregal Unternehmerkapital](https://www.bregal.de/en/news/article/bregal-unternehmerkapital-acquires-perfect-drive-sports-group), which acquired a majority of PDSG earlier this year. 

__Ben Fischer__, General Partner at Project A, states: “The Perfect Drive Sport Group has shown strong growth in the highly fragmented European market for golf equipment. The Covid-19 pandemic has further changed the purchasing behaviour of golfers from offline to online, a development PDSG is well positioned for. With our operational model, Project A is able to support PDSG’s growth beyond the current markets and help them leverage their tech, data and marketing capabilities.”

The two PDSG brands are the largest distributors of golf equipment in their respective markets, following a direct-to-customer approach with a wide range of products and competent advisory services, from customisations to repairs. PDSG has more than 150 employees across its two locations in Hannover (All4Golf, founded in 1986) and Manchester (Clubhouse Golf, founded 2003).


Project A co-invests in leading golf supplier Perfect Drive Sports Group

PAV Website PDSG

Project A co-invests in Perfect Drive Sports Group

__Berlin, 10.6.2021.__ Project A announces several new seed investments underlining its position as a leading early stage tech investor in Europe. The investments include the workplace collaboration platform __butter__, __Knowunity__ a learning platform for and by students, __priceloop__, a data driven pricing solution, and data streaming analytics platform __Quix__.

“Project A specializes in these pre-seed and seed rounds, investing early on in very promising tech ideas and strong founder teams displayed here by butter, Knowunity, priceloop and Quix. With our operational team, we can additionally support the growth of these companies and bridge any gaps that might arise in the early stage", says __Uwe Horstmann__, General Partner of Project A Ventures.

__About the investments__

__butter__ is an all-in-one workshop tool that allows facilitators to prepare, run and debrief their workshops and trainings all from one place. Equipped with different collaboration tools like Miro and Google Drive and presettable native tools like agenda, polls and breakouts, Butter allows facilitators to put their energy back into having delightful and collaborative sessions with ease. Co-founded by Jakob Knutzen, Christopher-Holm Hansen and Adam Wan, its mission is to make virtual workshops 10x better than live ones. Project A has invested in Butter’s $3.2M seed stage to help enable the Butter team to scale their product, business and user base. [butter.us](https://butter.us)

__Knowunity__ is the learning platform for and by students, enabling them to solve any learning problem in just one app. The Knowunity app includes more than 65,000 pieces of user generated learning content, such as summaries, learning aids or explanations - available free of charge in all topics and subjects. Experienced students can upload their content, help other students and build up a follower base with their knowledge. Knowunity is the fastest growing learning platform in Germany, with 1 million app downloads and ranking top 3 in the educational app charts. Project A leads the seed investment funding round of €2M. [knowunity.de](https://knowunity.de)

__priceloop__ enables eCommerce and retail companies to be more successful by using data-driven pricing decisions. The solution is based on a machine-learning model, which continuously learns and improves. The founders Dr. Richard Schwenke and Dat Tran have created a solution that is data-efficient and transparent from demand function to final price. [priceloop.ai](https://priceloop.ai)

__Quix__ is a real-time streaming analytics platform. Quix changes the way data is handled and processed - from a database centric approach to a stream centric approach, connecting Python developers to real time data streams. The company has an ambitious vision to ensure that any organisation, large or small, can quickly take advantage of and immediately act on their data insights at lower costs with a smaller environmental impact. The £2.3M seed round is led by Project A, with participation from Passion Capital and angel investors. [quix.ai](https://quix.ai)

Read in our [blog](https://insights.project-a.com/too-early-never-c2a1405dde89) why we focus on seed investments.

Project A boosts early stage fundings, investing in butter, Knowunity, priceloop and Quix

new seed investments 1

Project A boosts early stage fundings, investing in  butter, Knowunity, priceloop and Quix

__Berlin, 21.05.2021.__ Germany’s first commission free and mobile broker Trade Republic secures a __$900M Series C__ funding round to enable millions of Europeans to have easy, fast and free access to capital markets. Trade Republic’s valuation rises to __$5bn__ and the company now ranks among the most valuable European Fintech companies.

The investment round is led by Sequoia followed by TCV and Thrive. Existing investors Project A, Creandum, Founders Fund and Accel also invested in this round. Project A is one of Trade Republic’s early investors (Series A in 2019) and supported the company with its operational teams in various areas such as data infrastructure, IT development, recruiting, marketing and customer service.

__Florian Heinemann__, General Partner at Project A, says: “Trade Republic has the perfect product-market fit, opening a formerly exclusive asset class like ETFs to the broader public via mobile based commission-free approach. In the last two years, Trade Republic has become a model company in the German Fintech industry having gained an impressive foothold in further markets across Europe as well.”

Trade Republic has gained more than one million customers in Germany, France and Austria within 24 months. The online broker aims at helping millions of people across Europe close their pension gap by providing them the opportunity to invest money into capital markets with a mobile-first, secure and commission-free offering. The $900M Series C financing round is one of the largest venture funding rounds in financial services in Europe.

Trade Republic secures one of the largest European FinTech funding rounds

Trade Republic Website

__Berlin, 12.5.2021.__ Unmind, the digital mental health platform, raises a $47M Series B funding round led by EQT, with Project A, Sapphire Ventures and Felix Capital also participating. Unmind offers a digital workplace mental health platform that empowers employees to proactively measure and manage their mental health through scientifically-backed assessments, tools and trainings. Unmind has already partnered with some of the world’s top employers enabling organizations to make informed decisions about their wider mental health strategy. Unmind is built on the vision to create a world where mental health is universally understood, nurtured and celebrated. 

__Thies Sander__, General Partner at Project A, says: "Unmind has clearly hit the nerve of growing macro trends towards mental health solutions. The platform has seen phenomenal growth since we first invested in their Series A and the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for mental wellbeing at the workplace. We are happy to continue to support the team along their mission to change the way organisations think and care about mental health."

Read why we first invested in Unmind’s Series A in 2020 [here](https://insights.project-a.com/creating-a-world-where-mental-health-is-universally-understood-nurtured-and-celebrated-35ab8a801c92).

Unmind raises $47M to tackle workplace mental health

Unmind Website

__Berlin, 03.05.2021.__ Project A co-invests in Inwerk, the leading online provider of professional office furniture in Germany. The private equity co-investment is made in collaboration with the Triton Smaller Mid-Cap Fund advised by Triton, which acquired a majority stake in Inwerk earlier this year. Inwerk is an award winning designer of unique and innovative office furnishing solutions. Led by its two founders, the company is serving over 400,000 customers, including 75% of the Dax 30 members.

__Ben Fischer__, General Partner at Project A, states: “Inwerk is a true success story in a very dynamically changing market. Once the Covid-19 pandemic has passed, we will see a huge shift in how offices will be used, designed or restructured. Inwerk can make the difference here and Project A is very happy to support their journey with our operational team.”

Inwerk develops, manufactures and sells innovative design office furniture systems. The company has a product range of 10 million article variants, which it sells via its online store and two large office furniture exhibition locations. Inwerk specializes in designing custom-tailored office furniture with a proprietary planning service of its in-house team of interior designers. 

The company has been recognized as a top innovator and has received numerous design and sustainability awards such as the iF gold design award 2021 for Inwerk’s Masterbox Kitchen. In the Open Innovation Lab "LAB-3", completed in 2020, Inwerk researches and develops new systems for new work infrastructures and for home office furnishings. 

__About Inwerk__
Inwerk is one of the leading online providers of professional office furniture in Germany. Inwerk was founded in 2001 and has 105 employees in two offices. The company, headquartered in Meerbusch near Düsseldorf, is a pioneer in online multi-channel marketing and an award-winning designer of unique and innovative office furnishing solutions. The company has served over 400,000 customers with a comprehensive product and service offering including own design furniture and 3D office planning services.
Inwerk's most recent developments include completely new types of office furniture systems that have been proving themselves in practice in many companies since 2019 and provide the tools for flexible and transparent new work infrastructures, such as the multifunctional Masterbox® furniture system. In 2018, Inwerk also developed home office furniture that gives home offices the same ergonomic quality as classic office workplaces and meets the requirements of the German Occupational Health and Safety Act, which stipulates that health and safety requirements must be met. www.inwerk.de 

__About Triton__
Since its establishment in 1997, Triton has sponsored ten funds, focusing on businesses in the industrial, business services, consumer and health sectors. The Triton funds invest in and support the positive development of medium-sized businesses headquartered in Europe. Triton seeks to contribute to the building of better businesses for the longer term. Triton and its executives wish to be agents of positive change towards sustainable operational improvements and growth. The 48 companies currently in Triton's portfolio have combined sales of around €17.7 billion and around 102,000 employees. For further information: www.triton-partners.com 

__About Project A__
Project A is one of the leading venture capital companies in Europe with offices in Berlin and London. In addition to $600 M in assets under management, Project A provides its portfolio companies with a wide range of operational support services. This includes more than 100 experts from key areas such as software engineering, business intelligence, marketing, recruiting, and many more. In 2020 Project A was named Germany's best VC by Business Insider magazine. Project A was founded in 2012 and since then has supported more than 60 start-ups in 12 countries. The portfolio includes companies such as Catawiki, WorldRemit, Homeday, Spryker, sennder, KRY, Trade Republic, and Voi. www.project-a.com 

Project A invests in Inwerk

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Project A is an operational VC that provides capital, network, and exclusive access to a wide range of operational expertise. The Berlin-based investor with $500 M assets under management backs early-stage companies in the digital technology space.