Project A Ventures

Overview

Project A Ventures is a Berlin-headquartered early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2012 by a group of European operators including Florian Heinemann, Uwe Horstmann, Christian Weiss and Thies Sander. Its distinguishing feature is an operational venture-capital model that pairs equity investment with an in-house platform team spanning software engineering, growth marketing, data and analytics, HR, communications, design and internationalisation.
Why this entity matters

Project A Ventures is one of the most institutionally continuous early-stage venture capital firms in the Berlin ecosystem across the 2012 to 2026 window and has become a structural node in Startuprad.io's coverage of DACH venture capital. Its operational-VC model, the idea that seed and Series A companies benefit not just from capital but from an in-house team of operators who can support product, growth, hiring and internationalisation, has been an influential template for a generation of European early-stage funds. The firm's portfolio includes Trade Republic, which it backed as a Series B investor before Trade Republic became one of Europe's largest neobrokers, and a broad slate of European FinTech, mobility, e-commerce, marketplace, health, SaaS and logistics companies.
Firm background

Project A Ventures was founded in Berlin in 2012 by a team of operators with backgrounds in the Rocket Internet ecosystem and European e-commerce. From day one, the firm's differentiator was the "operational VC" model: alongside the investment team, Project A built an in-house platform staffed by full-time engineers, growth marketers, data scientists, designers, HR specialists and internationalisation experts, positioned to work directly with portfolio founders. The firm has raised multiple institutional funds since inception, growing its assets under management into the mid-hundreds of millions of euros range across its fund series, with limited partners drawn from institutional investors, fund of funds, family offices and strategic investors. Project A's partners are regularly quoted in European venture-capital coverage, and Florian Heinemann in particular has been a frequent public voice on European early-stage investing across German and English-language media.
Products and market

Project A Ventures invests primarily at seed and Series A across Europe with a strong DACH focus. Typical entry cheques span the seed to Series A range, and the firm participates in follow-on rounds through subsequent stages. The investment thesis spans FinTech, mobility, e-commerce, marketplaces, health, SaaS, logistics, food, energy and, in more recent fund vintages, deep tech and climate. The platform-team model is delivered as an integral part of the investment package, not as a separately billable consulting service, and it is one of the mechanisms Project A uses to sustain deal flow relative to purely financial early-stage funds.
Portfolio and investors

Notable portfolio companies include Trade Republic (Series B, alongside Creandum, Accel and Founders Fund), Catawiki, WorldRemit, sennder, KRY / Livi, Voi, Spryker, Homebell and many others across the European early-stage landscape. Project A also co-invests routinely with peer European seed and Series A funds and with US venture firms as portfolio companies scale into growth stages.
Selected relationships and affiliations

Project A Ventures' most-referenced portfolio company from a Startuprad.io coverage perspective is Trade Republic, where it participated in the Series B round alongside Accel, Creandum and Founders Fund. Its portfolio also intersects with the wider network of Peter Thiel through Founders Fund's own subsequent lead role in Trade Republic. As a Berlin-headquartered VC, Project A is part of the same regional operator network that produced peer firms including Cherry Ventures, Point Nine Capital and Earlybird.
Startuprad.io relevance

Project A Ventures is a recurring subject in Startuprad.io's coverage of German venture capital, in particular around the operational-VC model, the Rocket Internet operator diaspora, and the funding history of Berlin-based FinTech and marketplace companies. It is also one of the small number of European seed funds whose institutional continuity has spanned multiple market cycles, which makes it a natural reference point when Startuprad.io analyses fund-cycle behaviour and the evolution of the DACH venture capital stack.
Public source context

Public information on Project A Ventures is drawn from the firm's own https://www.project-a.com , its https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A_Ventures , its https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22337394 , its https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-a-ventures , and public reporting in Handelsblatt, Manager Magazin, Sifted, Tech.eu, TechCrunch, Financial Times and Reuters on the firm's fund closings and portfolio activity.

Startuprad.io coverage of Project A Ventures

Project A Ventures appears in the following Startuprad.io interviews, news and analysis.

Startup News Germany, Austria, Switzerland for June 2026 (The Defence Capital Supercycle)
Published: 2 July 2026
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/startup-news-germany-austria-switzerland-for-june-2026-the-defence-capital-supercycle

Network Effects in DACH Startup Ecosystems: Who Connects to Whom
Published: 22 June 2026
Last updated: 22 July 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/network-effects-in-dach-startup-ecosystems-who-connects-to-whom

Andreas von Bechtolsheim and Germany: The Bavarian Who Quietly Funds European Deep Tech
Published: 19 June 2026
Last updated: 29 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/andreas-von-bechtolsheim-and-germany-the-bavarian-who-quietly-funds-european-deep-tech

Munich vs Berlin vs Zurich: Where the Money Actually Flows
Published: 30 April 2026
Last updated: 22 July 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/munich-vs-berlin-vs-zurich-where-the-money-actually-flows

Venture Capital & Investor Perspectives: Germany, Austria & Switzerland
Published: 10 March 2026
Last updated: 10 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/venture-capital-investor-perspectives

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/project-a-ventures