Earlier this year we were delighted to welcome Gülsah Wilke to DN Capital as a Partner to head up our investments and operations in Germany. I've known Gülsah for many years and have always admired her deep understanding of the DACH market and her dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion in the tech industry through her massive network, capital and experience, so it was a real coup to have her join us.
Gülsah has been with DN for just over four months. At our recent DN offsite in London, we delved into her current projects and discussed the most exciting opportunities in the German tech ecosystem. I wanted to share some snippets from our conversations.
Nenad: DN has always followed the German and DACH tech ecosystem with interest. What do you see as the most exciting prospects in 2024?
Gülsah: There’s a lot in the area that we’re excited by. The AI hype is very much in play in DACH, just as it is nearly everywhere else, but we’re looking less at LLMs and large models and more at the practical application layer, finding companies that are using AI to develop genuine solutions to real problems. DN’s existing investment in Cognigy is a great example of this, it’s a Düsseldorf-founded company that develops AI agents for corporate enterprises to use in customer service, making the process both more cost effective and more efficient for customer and company. At the same time, it is already making parts of its revenues in the US which is one of DN Capital’s USPs: building the transatlantic bridge for companies based in Europe and vice versa.
A second area is ESG, energy transition and sustainability tech. The DACH and EU regulatory environments are driving companies towards sustainability and adding increasing requirements for data collection, mandatory reporting as well as optimized and alternative energy sources, which means there’s a large opportunity for startups to solve problems and improve processes through technology and AI for companies with an ever-growing sustainability focus.
Finally, I’m also looking closely at digital health given my operator background and experience as the global COO and Chief Quality Management Officer of Ada Health, a leading digital health scale up. Technology and AI can have a powerful impact on making healthcare accessible to all irrespective of personal and social background, country, age or gender. At the same time, the primary objective should be to put health in the hands of each and every person to better understand, track and improve their own health. For firms there is huge opportunity in developing technologies that cut the time to diagnosis for example, which is another potential practical application of AI. This can drastically cut the time to diagnosis, emphasising prevention before cure and early detection.
For me personally, the guiding theme as an investor is to ask myself: What is the impact that I can have through my investments for better access to health, education, work (conditions) as well as for a more sustainable future for generations to come?
Nenad: Diversity and inclusion are clearly passions of yours, and as a migrant myself, we are deeply committed to these causes too. Could you tell us a little more about the initiatives you're leading?
Gülsah: I co-founded 2hearts in 2020 to be the careers support network that I needed when I was younger. It is Europe’s largest platform and community with more than 3000 members across 150 nationalities in Europe empowering, supporting and mentoring young people with migration backgrounds, and migrant founders in the tech scene. Our mission is to build tomorrow’s tech society with cultural diversity in Europe. Both at 2hearts and at DN my priorities are the same – to support founders from underrepresented backgrounds with capital, network and guidance, and also in the medium to long term to build an investment team that represents society as a whole and is as diverse as the founders we back. We as investors have a lot of responsibility by deploying capital. I want to invest in the best founders irrespective of background – not just the obvious options that every VC in Germany and Europe sees. There’s a lot of work to be done here in Germany but I’m confident that DN is a strong platform from which to make progress – I see DN as the most culturally diverse VC team in Europe with more than 12 nationalities or hearts as we at 2hearts like to call them, at a team size of close to 20.
At 2hearts we recently launched our Angels Collective, Europe’s most diverse network of angel investors across Europe consisting of serial entrepreneurs, executives and investors with a mission to source and support founders with two hearts – meaning those with backgrounds from two (or more) countries or cultures, being either migrants themselves or those with parents or grandparents who are migrants. This will be a great dealflow source for us at DN Capital. In July we hosted our first networking dinner in Berlin, supported by DN, and this will be followed by further events in Europe.
Nenad: How have you been spending your time in your first quarter at DN?
Gülsah: It’s been a great few months embedding within the team and immersing myself further in DN’s unique investment approach and methodology. I’ve travelled extensively around Germany and Europe to meet the team and our network.
I've been actively exploring the German market to uncover the most promising deals and exciting opportunities, while maintaining strict valuation discipline. It's essential to invest at sensible valuations to ensure the companies we support can grow steadily and sustainably. There's a lot out there; we just need to stay disciplined.
Finally, I’ve been spreading the mission of 2hearts throughout DN and beyond. It’s been an intense but highly rewarding few months in the position and I’m looking forward to what’s to come.
