Wanted: Investors for KfW Capital Award

• Application phase begins on 15 April 2025
• Prizes will be awarded to personalities in the categories “Best Female Investor” and “Best Impact Investor”
• New special prize in 2025: “VC Game Changer”
• Awards ceremony to be held in Berlin on 6 November 2025

The KfW Capital Award will be presented for the fourth time this year. Investors will be able to apply in the categories “Best Female Investor” and “Best Impact Investor” from today to 1 July 2025. The KfW Capital Award for “Best Female Investor” recognises female venture capital (VC) investors who invest successfully in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany. The “Best Impact Investor” award focuses on investors and/or their VC funds who have defined impact as an integral part of their investment strategy and invest in start-ups and innovative tech companies in Germany.

As last year, there will also be a special prize – this year in the category “VC Game Changer”. The panel of judges will select a personality who has made an outstanding contribution to the further development of the VC ecosystem, for example by being a thought leader, developing new themes or launching initiatives. Unlike with the fixed categories, there will be no call for applications for this special prize. The prize money in each of the three categories is EUR 5,000.

The KfW Capital Award will complement the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award by again adding the investor perspective, as it did in the past. The awards will be presented at an awards ceremony in Berlin on 6 November 2025. The TV channel n-tv will broadcast a special report on the prizewinners.

“Women continue to be underrepresented in the VC market. As we are convinced that diverse teams are more successful in the long run, we will be placing a media focus on the topic of diversity with the category “Best Female Investor” this year as well, as we will now be selecting an outstanding female VC investor for the fourth time”,

said Dr Jörg Goschin, Chief Executive Officer of KfW Capital.

“Even if the area of impact investing is fortunately growing, the need for comprehensive solutions for the transformation of our economy remains strong. We will again be underscoring our commitment to this important segment with our award in the “Best Impact Investor” category. In addition, we will be honouring outstanding services for the VC ecosystem as an overarching theme with this year’s special prize “VC Game Changer”,

said Alexander Thees, Member of the Management Board of KfW Capital.

The jurors for the KfW Capital Award for “Best Female Investor” will be Dr Tanja Emmerling (Partner HTGF), Ulrike Hinrichs (Member of the Executive Board of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK), Prof Dr Heike Hölzner (Professor for Entrepreneurship and SME Management at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin and Co-Chair of encourageventures e.V.) and Dr Eva Wimmer (Head of the Directorate-General for Financial Market Policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance). The jurors for the KfW Capital Award for “Best Impact Investor” will be Dr Sabine Hepperle (Head of the SME Policy Department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action), Verena Kempe (Head of Investment Management at KENFO – German Nuclear Waste Management Fund), Felix Oldenburg (CEO of project bcause and Board Spokesman of gut.org gAG) and Dr Bryan Scheler, Vice President Solutions, Investments & Partnerships BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. For KfW Capital, each of the two Managing Directors will be on one jury, with Dr Jörg Goschin, CEO, for the category of “Best Female Investor” and Alexander Thees for “Best Impact Investor”. Theresa Bardubitzki, KfW Capital’s Senior Sustainability Manager, will round off KfW Capital’s presence on the two juries.

Note for applicants:

Investors will find the online application form and details about the application process at www.kfw-awards.de (in german). There is also the option to nominate investors for the award. In that case, proposers send an email about their proposed nominee to info-kfw-capital@kfw.de.

About KfW Capital

As a wholly-owned venture capital subsidiary of KfW Group, KfW Capital invests in European VC funds with support from the ERP Special Fund and the Future Fund. The aim of KfW Capital is to sustainably bolster the VC fund landscape so as to give innovative technology companies in Germany better access to growth capital. The VC funds for their part commit to investing at least the amount of capital brought in by KfW Capital into German high-growth enterprises. In addition to sector agnostic programmes, KfW Capital also invests via two facilities with a specific focus: in German and European VC funds that seek to generate social and ecological impacts in addition to financial returns via the Impact Facility, and via the Emerging Manager Facility, which invests in young, diverse teams. KfW Capital applies the Sustainability Policy and Exclusion List of KfW Capital in its investments. Further information on KfW Capital, the programmes and KfW Capital’s VC fund portfolio is available at www.kfw-capital.de.