Mario Götze will go down in soccer history as the player who scored the winning goal that made Germany champions of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. But he's also an increasingly skilled angel investor.
Götze's personal investment vehicle, Companion M, currently has a portfolio of more than 70 companies, two of which will become unicorns in 2025 – Danish fintech company Flatpay and German AI startup Parloa. But the athletes also learned some lessons about scrutiny opportunities along the way. “We will only agree to invest if the startup and its founders check all the boxes,” he told TechCrunch.
Boxes can be very subjective at Goetze's investment stage, typically in pre-seed and seed rounds, with ticket sizes between 25,000 and 50,000 euros ($29,000 and $58,000). To address this, Companion M is “focusing on specific areas where we have built deep networks and expertise,” Goetze says. Surprisingly, sports is not one of those areas, at least not directly.
According to Götze, Companion M is primarily focused on B2B SaaS, software infrastructure, cybersecurity, as well as health and biotech. Although not sports technology per se, health and biotechnology is a natural niche for athletes who are interested in human performance and health and have the freedom to pursue unconventional opportunities in those fields.
In 2020, Goetze made headlines for investing in German cannabis startup Sanity Group, at a time when most institutional investors in Europe were not trying to dabble in cannabis with a 10-foot pole. Since then, Germany has liberalized some of its cannabis laws, providing a boost for startups that are set to capture a 10% share of Germany's medical cannabis market by 2024.
Cannabis is still prohibited for competitors, so Götze will have to wait to try it himself. Götze, 33, still plays professionally at top-flight level for German club Eintracht Frankfurt. But rather than wait for retirement, he's taking cues from American athlete investors like NBA champion Kevin Durant.
Götze is not the only active European soccer player to invest in startups. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé are also investors. But as a father of two young daughters, he has to balance a variety of obligations. “We have to schedule calls before and after practice and arrange meetings during weeks when there are no away games or Champions League games,” Götze wrote.
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Götze doesn't do everything himself, but he doesn't just entrust his money to others either. Instead, he founded Companion M as a small team to support him with angel investing, partnerships, and other tasks. “These are important to me as a brand, especially in the long term. [my] It’s an active career,” he explained.
There is no denying that there is a branding aspect to these efforts. When Götze became Revolut's first-ever German brand ambassador, the fintech company cited his track record as an angel investor as an incentive. But as he prepares for his post-football career, Götze has found what he describes as “another passion outside of sport.”
This passion may not be as unexpected as you think. Götze and his siblings all became soccer players, but his father, Jürgen, is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Dortmund University of Technology, and the family spent time in Houston, Texas, while Jürgen visited Rice University as a postdoctoral researcher.
Not coincidentally, Götze invests primarily in Europe and the United States, with past investments including Miami-based Arcee AI and Frankfurt-based Qualifyze. Several portfolio companies continue to raise significant follow-on funding, and he has already exited some companies, including Berlin-based KoRo.
The exit will provide Götze with funds for reinvestment, but he is also focused on long-term asset consolidation. As a limited partner, Companion has supported more than 20 venture capital firms on both sides of the Atlantic, including 20VC, Cherry Ventures, EQT Ventures, Planet A, Merantix, Visionaries Club, and World Fund.
Götze is still under contract with the club and is reportedly in talks to extend his contract. But whenever he eventually retires, these ventures are likely to count him as a peer. “When I finish my career, I plan to focus on my investment activities,” he told Bloomberg. But still, don't expect him to reveal the anti-portfolio of the startup he inherited and later became hugely successful.
“There are a lot of new startups born every year, and you'll probably miss out on some of them. But regretting past decisions can lead to uneducated or impulsive decisions in the future,” he told TechCrunch. Speak like a true sportsman. If you dwell on your failures, you won't be able to set your next goal.