Post by Andreas Schmidt

Last week we argued that Germany's most deployable venture capital is private: family offices and Mittelstand wealth, available now because it waits on no legislation. This week the other side of that argument arrived, and it is a strong one. The German Venture & Growth Forum, two dozen of the country's leading fund houses, published its Playbook making the institutional case, with KfW's chairman and the Chancellor's investment envoy behind it. It is the most serious attempt yet to move Germany's insurers, Pensionskassen and Versorgungswerke into venture. Its core claims hold up. The €15–30bn Germany raises short of the US each year is real. The returns argument is sound. And the myth that regulation forbids these allocations is overdue for retirement: the quotas have room, and they are widening. So this is not a disagreement. It is a question of clocks. Unlocking the institutional pool is the larger prize and the slower one. It runs on quota reform, Solvency II, and new foundation rules, each a multi-year process. The Versorgungswerke are the real opportunity: funded, patient, the right shape, held back by caution rather than law. That is a culture that can change, over years. Private capital does not have to wait for any of it. Two pools, one goal, two clocks. We built Springboard Health Ventures to work the faster one while the larger one matures. https://www.gvgf.de/ Springboard Health Angels Martin Blessing KfW bio:cap #venturecapital #mittelstand #familyoffice