An investment holding company that puts its own capital to work.

What an investment holding company is

An investment holding company exists to acquire and hold shares in other companies. In Germany it is usually a GmbH. The main difference lies in where its money comes from: a fund raises capital from third parties and has to return it after a fixed term. An investment holding company that invests its own capital has no such term.

For a team raising money this is not a detail. When an investor wants to sell, how much it can follow on and how patient it is in a weak year almost always follow from its structure.

How Weidner Ventures is set up

Weidner Ventures is the holding of the group. It holds the stakes and invests its own balance-sheet capital. The operating work runs through Weidner & Friends: marketing, building, platforms and AI enablement. This split is why we can contribute work for equity next to money. How build, accelerate and back fit together is described in Why a project holding builds itself today.

Because there are no investors with a fund term behind us, the holding period follows the company, not a calendar. We invest with smaller tickets than a fund, usually together with business angels we know well. What that means in practice is set out in Co-investments with smaller tickets.

Four ways to invest

• Cash: a classic equity stake in cash, usually smaller tickets, often alongside other business angels.
• Knowledge & Work for Equity: valued packages of knowledge, building and marketing in exchange for equity. How it is valued cleanly is explained in Knowledge for Equity.
• Convertible loan: capital today that converts into equity at the next round. Cap and discount are covered in Convertible loans: cap and discount.
• Token: where Web3 creates real value. The trade-off is described in Token or equity.

How your pitch reaches us

1. You send your pitch through the form on our home page. A deck helps, a short and honest text is enough to start.
2. Every submission lands in our Pitch Center and is reviewed together once a week: Dennis Weidner and business angels from our network.
3. You hear from us within one to two weeks. Selected teams are invited to a short virtual call.

What we look for in that review is laid out in How our investment committee decides.

Setting up your own holding?

If you want to set up an investment holding company of your own, for example for your own shares, that is a legal and tax question. Guides on it are available at gruenderfreunde.de (German), and the concrete structure always belongs with a lawyer and a tax adviser.