DACH Regional Venture Capital Funds · Private Equity, VC & Investor
Lakestar
European technology venture capital firm managing private investment funds.
Available information varies by company and source.
Profile record updated:
Company facts
- Official name
- Lakestar Advisors GmbH
- Entity type
- COMPANY
- Founded
- 2012
- Headquarters
- Switzerland
- Company size
- 50–200
- Market cluster / sector
- DACH Regional Venture Capital Funds
- Market role
- Private Equity, VC & Investor
- Official website
- lakestar.com
What Lakestar does
Lakestar raises closed-end investment vehicles from limited partners and allocates fund capital to technology companies. It creates value through investment selection, portfolio construction, governance, follow-on financing support and exits. Revenue derives principally from recurring fund-management fees and performance-linked carried interest on realised investment gains.
Category differentiation
Lakestar is a private technology investment manager, not a technology software vendor or a retail financial-services platform. It is distinct from portfolio companies and from Lakestar SPAC I SE, its separate investment vehicle.
Strategic context
AI-supported assessment from the existing company research; distinguish interpretation from sourced facts.
Lakestar Advisors GmbH, trading as Lakestar, is a Zurich-headquartered private technology investment firm founded by Dr. Klaus Hommels in 2012. It manages more than US$6 billion in assets and invests in technology companies across stages, with activity in Switzerland, Germany and the wider European market. Its operating structure includes affiliated regulated entities in Germany and the United Kingdom. Lakestar earns investment-management income by raising and managing private funds for limited partners, deploying capital into portfolio companies, and participating in investment gains. Its direct customers are institutional and other professional capital providers allocating to its funds, while portfolio technology companies receive capital, governance and strategic support.
Company news briefing
Briefing updated:
European technology venture capital firm Lakestar has continued to expand its portfolio through recent co-investments, including backing Onodrim Industries in a $300 million Series A round and participating in a $30 million financing round for GPS-free drone software startup SE3. Lakestar also supported funding rounds for voice intelligence platform Modulate and AI adoption platform Ares Intelligence, while portfolio company ZBD advanced its embedded financial infrastructure for video games.
Business model & monetisation
Lakestar monetises private funds through recurring management fees charged on committed or managed capital and carried interest tied to realised portfolio investment gains. It may also receive sponsor economics associated with investment vehicles such as SPAC structures; the HomeToGo transaction was conducted through Lakestar SPAC I SE rather than as a direct operating acquisition by Lakestar Advisors GmbH.
- Private-fund management fees
- Service Fee
- Carried interest on realised portfolio gains
- Percentage Take-Rate
- SPAC sponsor economics and vehicle-specific fees
- Service Fee
Products & capabilities
No products with linked sources are available in this view.
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Competitors & alternatives
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Pan-European venture capital adviser backing science and technology companies.
Global venture-capital firm funding companies from Seed through growth stages.
Swiss venture capital firm backing European technology startups.
European venture and growth investor backing technology companies across stages.
German multi-stage venture capital platform for technology start-ups.
Side-by-side comparisons
Recent recorded signals
Dates refer to the source publication. Older entries are historical context, not evidence of a new event.
German Investor Misses Anthropic Deal: €500K Would Be €167M
Investment · Recorded impact score: 1/5
Enrico Mellis, venture partner at Lakestar and founder of Animal Syndication, reveals he passed on an early investment opportunity in Anthropic. He and a group of angel investors were offered secondary shares from FTX's holdings at a $3 billion valuation, with a minimum ticket of €500,000. They declined due to a confusing pitch deck, OpenAI's then-high valuation of $8-10 billion, and the sketchy FTX context. Mellis calculates that if Anthropic goes public at a $2 trillion valuation, the €500,000 would have grown to approximately €167 million after accounting for 50% dilution. He reflects on the lesson learned: to distinguish between doubts about the company itself and doubts about the deal's presentation.
- Enrico Mellis is a venture partner at Lakestar and founder of Animal Syndication.
- Mellis and angel investors were offered secondary shares in Anthropic at a $3 billion valuation.
Yapily CEO Prefers Sidelines amid Open Banking Consolidation
Financials · Recorded impact score: 2/5
Yapily, a UK-based open banking infrastructure startup backed by Lakestar, reported improved financials for 2025, with turnover rising from £6.7m to £16.7m and a swing from a £16.2m loss to a £355,000 profit. CEO Stefano Vaccino attributes growth to a lean operation and increased revenue from existing customers including Revolut, Intuit, Adyen, and Google. The company, profitable since 2025, last raised a $51m Series B in 2021 led by Sapphire Ventures. Amid expected consolidation in the open banking sector, Vaccino stated a preference to remain on the sidelines and focus on organic growth. He highlighted upcoming catalysts such as Commercial Variable Recurring Payments (CVRPs) and the EU's Financial Data Access (FiDA) framework, while noting recent acquisitions like Paypoint's purchase of obconnect and TrueLayer's acquisitions of in3 and Zimpler.
- Yapily increased 2025 turnover from £6.7m to £16.7m and swung from a £16.2m loss to a £355,000 profit.
- Yapily is profitable since 2025 and has not raised funding since its $51m Series B in 2021.
Modulate raises $25M for voice intelligence platform
Voice AI · Recorded impact score: 3/5
Boston-based voice intelligence startup Modulate has raised $25 million in new funding. The round was led by Future Ventures, with participation from Hyperplane and Lakestar. Modulate uses over 100 small models to offer enterprises transcription, emotional analysis, deepfake and AI music detection, and policy enforcement for voice agents in regulated industries. The company was founded in 2017 by Mike Pappas and Carter Huffman, initially focusing on voice modulation for gaming, before pivoting to voice-based moderation and now AI audio detection and intent analysis. With the funding, Modulate plans to expand its on-premises and on-device deployment capabilities for increased privacy and hire around 10 additional employees to bolster model building. The startup currently has 40-45 employees.
- Modulate raised $25 million in new funding
- The round was led by Future Ventures with participation from Hyperplane and Lakestar
ZBD unveils embedded financial platform for games
Embedded finance / Payments in gaming · Recorded impact score: 3/5
ZBD (Zebedee) revealed a platform of embedded financial infrastructure for video games, including products named Embedded Accounts, Embedded Payouts, Embedded Rewards and Branded Debit Cards. The offering is designed to support money flowing into games, through player economies, and back out to players and creators — enabling deposits, real-money peer-to-peer marketplaces, creator-economies, compliant cash-outs, and payouts via bank accounts, Cash App, gift cards and push-to-card. ZBD said it has raised $90 million from investors including RAINE, Square Enix and Lakestar, and is a licensed payment provider across most US states and the EEA. Gordon Thornton, ZBD chief commercial officer, framed the move as enabling two-way financial relationships between players and publishers.
- ZBD revealed an embedded financial infrastructure platform for games with multiple products.
- Products announced include Embedded Accounts, Embedded Payouts, Embedded Rewards and Branded Debit Cards.
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Questions about Lakestar
What is Lakestar?
Lakestar is a Zurich-headquartered private technology investment firm that manages venture and growth investment funds.
Who uses Lakestar?
Institutional and professional limited partners invest in Lakestar-managed funds, while technology companies receive portfolio investment and strategic support.
How does Lakestar make money?
Lakestar earns recurring fund-management fees and carried interest on realised gains from portfolio investments.
Sources & coverage
This profile uses public, official and technically observable information. Missing information does not prove that a product or relationship does not exist. The list below does not imply that every profile statement has been verified.
4 publicly documented primary sources and citations linked across the market graph.
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