APX closes 100th deal: 100 deals done and still counting
Robert Martin is an investment manager at Porsche Ventures. Among other things, he’s responsible for the cooperation with partners in the Porsche start-up ecosystem. One such important partner is the early-stage investor APX, which was created as a joint venture between Porsche AG and Axel Springer. Here, Robert gives an insight into APX’s milestone of investing in more than 100 companies.
At Porsche Ventures, we’re investing in founders who dare to build their dreams. While these dreams don’t necessarily have to be related to the automotive industry, they need to have a strategic fit for Porsche and its long-term 2030 goals. Therefore, we mainly focus on companies that are in the early and growth phases, so-called series A start-ups.
In order to find the most promising start-ups on the rise, we also scout for early-stage deals. A key partner in this endeavor is APX, which perfectly complements the Porsche start-up ecosystem, as they also invest in pre-seed funding.
APX: early-stage investor and long-term partner
Founded in 2018, APX invests in exceptional earliest-stage founders, providing over 500.000 Euro for portfolio startups before series A. Furthermore, APX provides unlimited venture development, as well as access to a unique APX.network — their own digital product that connects founders, experts, mentors and follow-on investors in one place.
Thanks to the growing success, Porsche and Axel Springer reiterated their commitment to the start-up ecosystem by increasing the dynamic funding for APX to 55 Million Euro, as announced in January this year. Recently, APX completed its 100th deal, making it one of the most active venture capitalists in Europe. Moreover, APX has made 27 follow-up investments, further strengthening their portfolio partners.
This success wouldn’t be possible without a great team. APX employs a diverse team with a female to male ratio of roughly 50/50 and 10 different nationalities within its core. The portfolio startups extend the core team to a worldwide network from more than 20 nations. Congratulations to the whole team for their achievements!
Corporate start-up collaboration
Out of those one hundred deals, around thirty start-ups are deeper collaborating with Porsche AG to take their individual projects to the next level. Here are three examples:
Tucan is a start-up from Berlin that develops artificial intelligence for speech recognition. Together with Porsche, the start-up produces the podcast series ‘Driven Minds’.
Sharpist, a Berlin-based start-up, offers a digital coaching platform for employees that helps them to pursue their careers with greater focus and productivity. Initially launched as a pilot project at Porsche, Sharpist has expanded to include Porsche HR.
Nitrobox is a Hamburg-based software start-up offering an agile monetization platform that supports the order-to-cash process of new business models. After completing the APX program, Nitrobox was supported with additional funding from Porsche Ventures.
Through its venture capital activities, APX is strengthening the Porsche start-up ecosystem. Furthermore, its portfolio of companies creates synergies within the ecosystem, both among themselves and with our Porsche teams. We, at Porsche Ventures and Porsche AG, are grateful to work with these amazing minds and support their business ideas for a better (digital) future.
More deals to come…
APX has gone through a strong evolution in the last few years, and as a result, has become more ambitious and bolder with its deal strategy. In other words, not only have the start-ups grown through the APX program, but APX has also grown through its work with the start-ups.
We’d like to congratulate the team at APX for their tremendous job and look forward to the next exciting deals into highly talented founders and promising start-ups. If you are inspired to share the journey, they look forward to seeing your pitch deck. You can easily submit it via their website: https://apx.vc/looking-for-funding.
Robert Martin is Investment Manager at Porsche Ventures.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with a focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
