Newly launched microfund BOOOM today announced plans to invest €100,000 to €400,000 in approximately 30 companies in angel-only rounds or at Pre-seed and Seed stages across Europe. 

The newly created fund is backed by institutional investors, many founders of unicorn scale-ups like Celonis, Coupa Software, King.com and Flix, as well as Partners at VC firms such as Accel, Creandum or Index Ventures — and will focus on European B2B software at Pre-seed and Seed, Felix Plapperer, formerly Partner at B2B SaaS VC firm SquareOne, will lead the €17 million fund as the General Partner. 

David Nothacker, Julius Koehler, and Nicolaus Schefenacker, the founders of tech unicorn sennder, will act as dedicated 1:1 mentors to each startup team that BOOOM invests in.

The firm recently conducted its final closing at an oversubscribed €17 million. 

The LP base includes institutional investors, entrepreneurs (among them sennder, Celonis, Coupa Software, King.com or Flix), established family business entrepreneurs and more than a dozen Partners of VC funds such as Accel, Index Ventures or Creandum. 

According to Felix Plapperer, General Partner at BOOOM: 

“The core idea of BOOOM is to enrich the ‘traditional venture capital product’ with the learnings and advice of accomplished company builders & operators — in order to provide a truly differentiated mix of network, expertise and valuable experience to the early-stage founders we are partnering with.” 

Julius Köhler, co-founder, sennder, notes that joining forces with Plapperer on BOOOM creates a complementary set-up on the investment and founder-support side.”

All BOOOM portfolio companies will have access to a broad network of unicorn operators and founders from the BOOOM LP ecosystem. 

Portfolio founders will enter a 1:1 mentoring relationship with David Nothacker, Julius Köhler or Nicolaus Schefenacker — the three co-founders of tech unicorn sennder — for a 12 to 18 months period to receive guidance around the challenges of scaling a VC-backed company.

They will continue to be fully operational at sennder and streamline their start-up investments exclusively via BOOOM going forward. 

Christian Gahr – General Counsel at sennder – is acting as legal partner to support BOOOM and its portfolio companies around all legal matters.

“Scaling a venture backed company is all about making mistakes and learning from them. How do you hire a VP of Sales? How do you negotiate shareholder agreements or founder salaries with your VC investors?”

“Since starting sennder, we faced many challenges and learned from them — and it’s a rewarding experience to share those learnings with the early stage founders within the BOOOM portfolio,” shared David Nothacker, co-founder of sennder.

To date, the fund has already invested in several companies – either prior to or alongside venture firms such as Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Creandum, Point Nine or Accel. These include:

• Timberhub (a B2B marketplace for facilitating timber trade); 
• Ankar AI (an AI licensing and infringement detection tool for IP and R&D teams); and 
• Spread AI (an AI driven system creating Digital Twins of complex engineering products in automotive and aerospace). 

Lead image: Felix Plapperer, General Partner at BOOOM. Photo: uncredited.