Thorben Rothe, principal at corporate-backed venture capital firm Capnamic Ventures, has moved to this month become head of early-stage investing in Germany-based company for peer Iris Capital.
Erkan Kilicaslan has been managing partner of Iris in Germany and also had a strong corporate focus since signing a strategic partnership with Orange and Publicis in 2012. Five years later, the company closed a fund IrisNext, whose investors included a number of corporate entities, such as Publicis, Valeo, and Orange, alongside institutions such as BPIfrance and BRED Banque Populaire.
Rothe had spent five years at Capnamic, which includes Axa, Cewe, Cisco, Defacto, Euroweb, Gauselmann Die Spielemacher, Hahn Air, Helaba, MGO Digital Ventures, Muellermedien, NWZ Digital, Rheinische Post, Universal Music Group and DuMont Digital as its corporate limited partners in its funds, as well as the European Investment Fund and KFW as its state backers.
Before Capnamic, Rothe had been an analyst at DuMont Venture.