Romy Schnelle

Geschäftsführer

2023 - Current

Managing one of Europe’s leading seed investors for innovative technologies and business model with a total fund volume of around 1.4 billion €. Shaping the future of Germany’s start-up ecosystem and beyond with great enthusiasm for innovation and technology.

Partner

2008

Sourcing, negotiation, and support of investments in tech start-ups. Working closely with founders to scale and professionalize businesses and to accelerate fundraising. Leading companies to various sizes up to e.g. >250 employees, >48 m€ annual revenue, >20m active user, >2,5 Mio. App-Loads, >500k Facebook Fans. Successfully sold 10 portfolio companies, stocard to Klarna in 2021, metoda to Maxburg PE in 2020, Kiwigrid to industry consortium with LG, Innogy SE, Aqton in 2016; bab.la to Oxford Universal Press in 2015; FTAPI Software to QSC in 2014; MeinProspekt to Axel Springer in 2014; textunes to Thalia in 2011; Raumfeld to Teufel Lautsprecher in 2010. On top of responsibilities for own portfolio supervise and support >10 Investment Managers in sourcing, negotiation, financing, and sale of their portfolio companies, to date 32 Portfolio companies.

Board Observer

2013

Fast and Reliable Software Storage

Member of the Advisory Board

2014

International retail performance advertising company for large-scale online retailers

Chair of the Investment Committee

2021 - 2023

Board Observer

2020 - 2021

Member of the Advisory Board

2016 - 2020

Makerist is the leading marketplace for digital patterns and associated crafting and textile products for the modern creative DIY community in Europe

Member of the Advisory Board

2013 - 2016

Kiwigrid develops and operates Europe's leading Energy IoT (Internet of Things) Platform providing energy management to enable truly smart energy usage. HTGF sold its shares to industry consortium with LG, Innogy and Aqton in December 2016.

Member of the Advisory Board

2012 - 2015

The bab.la language portal helps you learn foreign languages. 32 dictionaries in 21 languages are the core product. In April 2015 bab.la was successfully sold to Oxford University Press (OUP).

Co-Founder - CSO/COO IOSONO (today Barco Audio Technology)

2005 - 2007

IOSONO is the technology leader in the area of 3D audio and provides products for audio post production, cinemas, events and entertainment. IOSONO is a spin-off of Fraunhofer Institute of Media Technology led by Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg, who invented mp3 - the de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players. IOSONO was aquired by Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops networked visualization products for the Entertainment, Enterprise and Healthcare markets. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with 3,250 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of 1.051 billion euro in 2014

Manager Business Development

2003 - 2004

Since its foundation in 2000, the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, has developed key technologies for the age of digital media. With its software solutions, IDMT is a major partner for the creative industry in Germany and the world. In the field of 3D audio and image processing, IDMT develops new immersive and interactive media formats.The institute is led by Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg, who invented mp3 - the de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players.