Contrarian Ventures

Leveraging decades of climate tech investing experience, we support early-stage entrepreneurs building transformative companies that do more with less. We back teams that are based in North America who are innovating across atoms, bits, or business models. Our initial investments range from formation capital to Series A, and we support companies as they scale.

We are backing pioneering businesses during their early-growth stage and get excited about solutions driving the systemic change of how energy is generated, distributed, stored, and consumed 🚀⚡

We are an early-stage venture capital firm investing in companies that jumpstart new industries in the emerging markets of Europe. Investment thesis Infrastructure for innovation We invest in startups that build the infrastructure for innovation and jumpstart new industries by breaking vicious cycles. The root of all evil Vicious cycles are endemic in emerging ecosystems - they are the byproduct of systemic deficiencies and make it difficult or even impossible for the emerging ecosystem to grow and develop. Example of such a vicious cycle at work in Central and Eastern Europe: the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is slowed down by the lack of the charging infrastructure; conversely, the charging infrastructure is not being built because of the lack of the EVs to use it. Because of their systemic origin, breaking such vicious cycles is a capital-intensive and a long-term endeavor - the kind of task a VC fund is both qualified and responsible to assume. On a high note - the root of all evil is where the promise of venture returns lies. A (technological) leap of faith Emerging ecosystems are strong enough to leapfrog existing technologies and adopt the solutions of the future. It happened in the past (see LTE adoption in Africa/India leapfrogging classical landlines) giving birth to a breed of companies that created their own markets. These startups are the backbone of the future ecosystem populated by dependent/client third parties. Opportunities A brave new world B2C - The rising billions In 2000, 6% of the world population was connected to the internet. In 2010, online adoption increased to 23% or 2 billion people connected. In 2020, more than 66% of all people will have online access. That’s an additional 3 billion people that will get access to the internet, raising the total number of connected population to 5.5 billion. B2B - The unicorn of one It is now possible to start a company valued at $1BN from your garage, with no assets and basically no employees. And this company may serve the giants of the corporate world. Fortune 500 companies already acknowledged that innovations come from small companies agile enough to disrupt industries. Today, the business development and strategy VPs turned into innovation scouters actively seeking emerging technologies and valuable teams to acquire or hire. Let’s talk money How we do it Our philosophy Our philosophy is quite straightforward: we invest at the earliest stages in companies whose founders have skin in the game, are coachable and address big markets. If the opportunity is real, we prefer to be the first institutional investor in such startups. Geography Our firm recruits regionally (in CEE) and invests locally (in Romania) to take advantage of country’s great technical talent, low labor costs, low operating costs and high-speed Internet access. Equity Because of our active engagement with our companies, we typically will take a correspondingly substantial equity ownership position (5% to 15%) in our investments and will join as a member of the company’s board of directors (Series A). Accelerator Stage At the Accelerator stage - we invest anywhere between €50,000 and €200,000 in exchange for 5% to 15% common stock. Series A At the Seed stage - our sweet spot is €500,000 but, if the opportunity is real, we can invest up to €4,500,000 in one company. Timing We are fast to say NO – won’t waste your time. Saying YES takes a bit longer: 4 to 6 weeks on average, but that depends on you too.

Prelude Ventures invests in and supports early-stage startups with the greatest potential to mitigate climate change. We invest early and accept informed risks through a fundamental emphasis on venture-level returns combined with a deep understanding of the challenges of frontier technologies and markets. In 2009, we started the company with a commitment to take action. We began with a simple idea: the economy of the future will be driven by the climate needs of today. We saw an opportunity to invest in and support bold thinking that could help turn the tide against climate change while building the next generation of category-defining businesses. We were in a position to help these entrepreneurs change the world. So we did. Years later, this continues to be our central ethos: if we can act, we must. The transition to the low-carbon economy is the greatest investment opportunity of this century. We champion the brightest ideas and the boldest entrepreneurs with the goal of achieving the greatest positive impact on climate.

We back bold founders building the next trillion dollar companies to fight climate change. Silence is designed by founders for founders. We’ve experienced the excitement of raising several rounds of capital, the relentless passion to reach thousands of customers, we have built amazing teams with hundreds of talented individuals and scaled operations at the fastest pace. We want to leverage this experience to help you succeed. How we can help? We can be as hands on as you want us to be. We trust you 100%. We will let you do your thing unless you reach out to us for help. These are the 5 areas where we can help: Fundraising: We've been on both sides of the table as founders and investors. We know what gets investors excited and can help you design the optimal fundraising process for your company. Operational excellence: Best practices - We grew from 0 to 1 million B2C users and 55k B2B users in 2.5 years. We can help you build the right processes, methodologies and systems to enable fast scalability. People and culture: We built a team of 250 people in 2.5 years. We can help you define your team structure, introduce best in class people practices and build a strong, cohesive culture. Go to market strategy: We've built and run 100+ sales and marketing teams. It is not rocket science but there are a lot of mistakes to be made. We can help you avoid making those mistakes and succeed faster. Board management: We won't sit on your board, which means that we will remain objective and can help you manage board relationships and guide board meetings towards the right outcomes. Investment Strategy Our investment strategy is based on these 10 principles: 100% focus on climate tech Global fund Early stage - seed is our sweetspot but we’ll do preseed and series A opportunistically We don't lead deals and we only invest when there is a lead on board We move very fast (aim to close the deal in 2-3 calls / same week) We work transparently - we share our investment heuristics and strategy and provide 100% honest feedback We only invest in 1% of the companies that we see We are as hands on as you want us to be Average ticket size for seed investments is $300k. This allows us to have a fast and standardized process for efficiency We require the following investor rights: pro-rata, information, co-sale and ROFR

Salvia is a first generation single Family Office based in Holzkirchen near Munich which was founded by Helmut Jeggle in 2014. Originally launched with traditional angel investments, Salvia has since evolved into an entrepreneurial venture capital investor. Salvia’s focus is on innovative startups from the deep-tech and science sectors. Strategy Our society is on the threshold to a decade of technological breakthroughs. Global macro trends such as climate change and resource scarcity are creating new kinds of challenges for companies that are addressing the global need for sustainability to cut costs, reduce emissions and energy consumption and drive innovation. We draw on our know-how, entrepreneurial focus and partnership approach as we play a role in steering the transformation and create sustainable value. Vision As we are an independent investor and sparring partner, our goal is to support innovative startups and grown-ups, creating long-term, opportune and “healthy” value. Mission Our mission is to identify talent and models, invest in them and build sustainable businesses. We draw on our many years of experience in the field of strategic corporate development and bring a strong global network and operational knowledge to bear on turning this mission into reality.