Investing in innovation together

Companisto is the investment platform for startups and growth companies. Business angels and investors participate in groundbreaking innovations, promising companies, and ideas that write history through venture capital. As a fintech company, we stand for lean processes, specialized knowledge, and efficient solutions. We are the driver of innovation in the field of professional online corporate finance. In a diverse society, we assume responsibility for the founding culture in Germany and Europe.

Pioneering Spirit

Pioneering spirit as we understand it is the uncompromising urge and determination to explore new paths to success. Pioneers take risks. Not everyone achieves their goal. But those who succeed have the potential to create great things.

Pioneering spirit develops in outstanding teams and through special personalities. Promising business ideas arise from creativity, assertiveness, and initiative. The ability to turn these ideas into product or process innovations makes it possible to open up new markets. This is the cornerstone for the successful companies of tomorrow.

Companisto is the partner of pioneers.

Our Team

Partner

Tamo Zwinge, LL.M. (Hons)
Tamo Zwinge, LL.M. (Hons)
Founding Partner
Managing Director

Tamo Zwinge is the managing director of Companisto and worked as a lawyer in the large international law firm CMS Hasche Sigle in the areas of company law, corporate transactions, and private clients for several years. Because of his expertise, Tamo is specifically responsible for the legal structure of Companisto and the continuous optimization of the Companisto model in terms of follow-up financing by venture capital companies.

Together with David Rhotert, Tamo founded the Berlin start-up "partycard" in 2001 and served as its managing director until it was sold in 2005. Tamo studied law at the Freie Universität Berlin and completed his legal clerkship in Berlin and Pretoria, South Africa. Afterward, he received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in commercial law with the specializations of "International Company and Capital Markets Law," "Corporate Governance," and "International Sales and Finance" at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Tamo has published articles on different aspects of corporate governance in international journals, for instance in the U.S. and in the UK.

Tamo is frequently impressed by the large number of very good and innovative ideas in Germany. He envisions a crowdinvesting platform that will enable these ideas to be implemented in such a way that not just a few but many people –the Companists – will benefit from it.

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David Rhotert
David Rhotert
Founding Partner
Managing Director

David Rhotert is the managing director of Companisto and specializes in consulting start-ups as an independent lawyer.

Already during his studies, he had founded "partycard," his first start-up, in 2001, which he managed together with Tamo Zwinge until they sold their shares in 2005. He knows the challenges and difficulties young company founders are faced with from his own experience. Crowdinvesting is meant to improve this situation.

David was born in Berlin and studied law at the Freie Universität Berlin. He was employed by the research and documentation service of the German Bundestag before he worked in the legal department of a major German company in Beijing for some time. During his work in two large international law firms, he also gained an in-depth knowledge in the domain of mergers & acquisitions.

He is a member of the "Kompetenzteam Mittelstand" (team of experts on small and medium enterprises) and of the committee for innovation, technology, and industry of the Berlin chamber of industry and commerce (IHK Berlin). Since 2011, he has been involved in the project "IchMachMichSelbständig.de" of the Berlin chamber of industry and commerce and has been supporting the Wirtschaftsjunioren (young entrepreneurs) Berlin. He is also a member of the Genshagener Kreis (Genshagen circle), an association established by the Einstein Foundation Berlin in order to improve communication between leaders from the areas of business, science, arts, and culture.

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Cristian Irimia
Cristian Irimia
Partner
CTO

Cristian is a passionate and innovative programmer, who has been developing high-quality software systems for more than ten years. Whenever he designs frameworks, web infrastructure, relational databases, or other scalable data systems, he is in his element.

At Companisto, Cristian deals with the operation and development of the platform and ensures its consistent improvement.

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Christoph Schweizer
Christoph Schweizer
Partner
Head of Investment

Christoph Schweizer has been involved in venture capital and business angel financing for over 20 years, including as a former partner at btov Partners, a leading European venture capital provider for entrepreneurial private investors.

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Venture Partner

Dr. Stephan Beyer
Dr. Stephan Beyer
Venture Partner

Dr. Stephan Beyer combines many years of experience in the areas of finance, sales and technology. Today he works as a serial entrepreneur and founder in the area of innovation and digital manufacturing. He has realized ten exits, including Aupeo!, Ableton, NandaTech, Inubit, all of which are from the B2B, software, deep tech and medtech sectors and are now part of corporations such as Bosch, Siemens, Panasonic.

Today, he supports leading tech companies as trusted advisor for the C-Suite and acts as an advisor for fast-growing companies. An entrepreneur at heart, in his last role in 2014 he was among the founders of BigRep and a driving force behind the strategic development and global expansion of the company. As an engineer, Stephan holds a PhD in Finance from the Technical University of Berlin.

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Carsten Brandt
Carsten Brandt
Venture Partner

Carsten Brandt brings with him more than 20 years of experience in various industries and consulting. This is coupled with his international expertise, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2008, he founded PMsquare, an IT consulting company in Sydney, Australia and expanded it together with his team in Asia, with offices in Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Germany, Sri Lanka and a partnership in the USA. 

After PMsquare's Asia-Pacific units merged with Cornerstone Performance Management in 2016, Carsten started business angel investing in various geographies and industries. In 2019 Carsten returned to Germany. In addition to the management of PMsquare GmbH, the German unit of his company, he also focused more on the D-A-CH area with his start-up support.

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Wolfgang Schmidt
Wolfgang Schmidt
Venture Partner

Wolfgang Schmidt possesses more than 30 years of experience in IT for various industries. After building up new business areas in the energy and IT industry, he founded X-INTEGRATE Software & Consulting GmbH in 2007, which supports medium-sized and large companies in the digitalization of business processes and automation of decision-making processes.

In 2010 Wolfgang Schmidt was one of the initiators and co-founders of Cloud Ecosystem e.V. - the community of the digital economy, with the goal of accelerating the spread of innovative digital business solutions in and with the cloud. As a networker, Wolfgang supports the promotion of start-ups and invests in different territories and industries. His equity portfolio contains a double-digit number of larger investments.

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Dr. Martin Hecker
Dr. Martin Hecker
Venture Partner

Dr. Martin Hecker worked in the telecommunications market for over 20 years, contributing his expertise in IT, sales and new technologies. Prior to that, he was mainly involved in innovative business ideas and their implementation. In 2002, he founded Message Mobile GmbH, which was sold to a Nasdaq-listed company in 2019.

He has been an angel investor for more than 20 years, supporting companies in various industries at different stages of growth. In addition to technology-related topics, he prefers to take care of the area of innovation or support companies in all matters related to management and organization.

He has been active as a business angel on Companisto since 2014.

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Investment Team

Christoph Schweizer
Christoph Schweizer
Partner
Head of Investment

Christoph Schweizer has been involved in venture capital and business angel financing for over 20 years, including as a former partner at btov Partners, a leading European venture capital provider for entrepreneurial private investors.

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Robert Wegner
Robert Wegner
Head of Portfolio Administration

As Head of Portfolio Administration, Robert Wegner is responsible for managing our portfolio. In close coordination with the investment team, the development of the portfolio companies is regularly analysed and appropriate measures taken. With his in-depth knowledge of the portfolio companies, he is thus the important interface between the investors, the portfolio companies and Companisto.

For more than 10 years, he has accompanied the start-up scene and gained a lot of experience. His experience includes positions at the Berlin Economic Development Agency - Berlin Partner -, the Digital Association BITKOM and a leading global law firm, where he deepened his great expertise in the areas of communication, financing, process and project management.

At Companisto he is engaged in knowledge transfer and regularly organizes Tech Talks. He is interested in the fields of artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, Internet of Things and FinTechs.

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Andreas Fakler
Andreas Fakler
Investment Director

Andreas represents Companisto on the advisory board of NIMMSTA GmbH, among other things. He is also responsible for the acquisition, financing and operational support of selected start-ups and maintains close contact with our investor network.

Previously, he worked for one of the leading companies in the renewable energy sector. As Director of Finance, he spent several years in California and was responsible for the development and expansion of the national holding company, as well as the company's expansions in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. After his return to Munich, he was responsible for setting up the headquarter’s Investment Management.

 

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Nicky Hughes
Nicky Hughes
Senior Investment Manager

Nicky is a senior investment manager and part of the deal flow team. He is responsible for the acquisition and analysis of deals and structures the financing rounds on Companisto. Besides his academic education in finance, he has a personal interest in the world of venture capital investing. He is particularly motivated to enable the implementation of innovative business ideas with a lasting impact. 

He studied economic sciences (finance) at the University of Hohenheim and gained experience in international trade and finance at the locations Dubai, Bangkok and Denpasar. 

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Florian Huber
Florian Huber
Investment Manager

Florian Huber has been working as an Investment Associate at Companisto since April 2022. He is responsible in particular for identifying and supporting promising young companies in the southern region of Germany. Previously, he completed a master's degree in economics, which he successfully completed with a focus on crowdinvesting. His goal is to drive innovation and thus actively shape the future.

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Dr. Robin Ghosh
Dr. Robin Ghosh
Investment Manager

Dr. Robin Ghosh joined Companisto in October 2023 and is responsible for identifying, analyzing and evaluating startups, especially in the northern region of Germany. In addition to deal sourcing, his tasks include due diligence, contract negotiations, and close communication with business angels. Previously, he worked for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for 10 years. Most recently, he coordinated the INNOspace initiative for the German Space Agency to promote innovation, startups and cross-industry technology transfer. In this context, the doctor of engineering established, among other things, nationwide cross-industry networks.

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Erik Waldenmaier
Erik Waldenmaier
Investment Manager

Erik joined Companisto in April 2023 and is responsible for deal sourcing, analysis and evaluation of startups.

Previously, he completed a master's degree in economics with a focus on entrepreneurship. In the process, he gained experience in an M&A consultancy as well as in the financing of start-ups and spent several years in the world of blockchain technologies.

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Liliana Leybovich
Liliana Leybovich
Operations Managerin im Investmentteam

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Ramin Shahnazary
Ramin Shahnazary
Backoffice Operations Manager & Producer

Mit einer beeindruckenden Vergangenheit in der Film- und Fernsehbranche ist Ramin Shahnazary unser Experte für den Sekundärmarkt. Wir schätzen uns glücklich, so ein Multitalent in unserem Team zu haben.

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Angelika Schreiber
Angelika Schreiber
Backoffice Operations Manager

After completing her training as an office management assistant at KPMG, she set off for new shores. Through a professional school friend, she came across our eager shores and dropped anchor.
Angelika has been actively supporting the portfolio team since September 2022. She looks after administrative and project management issues, as well as some portfolio processes.
In addition to her training as a businesswoman for office management, she has also successfully completed her additional qualification as a European businesswoman.

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Customer Success

Sarah Buge
Sarah Buge
Head of Customer Success Management

Sarah Buge brings more than 10 years of customer care experience to the team, with most of her experience in the FinTech and e-commerce sector. Her vision is to provide an excellent service experience for every companion. To achieve this goal, she and her team will support our investors from the moment they register on the platform until the successful completion of the investment rounds.

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Hülya Güvenc
Hülya Güvenc
Customer Service Manager

Hülya has been working at Companisto since December 2022 and is responsible, among other things, for communication with our investors, share transfers from the secondary market, processing Trustpilot ratings and is our contact person for the data protection office and Effecta.
After a foray into the media world, she worked for many years as an administrative manager and office manager in the non-profit sector.

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Marvin Brandt
Marvin Brandt
Onboarding Manager

As Onboarding Manager, Marvin ensures a smooth start of new Companists. After years of experience in direct customer contact in the Customer Success area, Marvin specialized in an emphatic onboarding of new customers and partners. With this experience, he diligently ensures an efficient transfer of knowledge so that the first steps at Companisto of new members of our network go off easily.

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Michael Weidemann
Michael Weidemann
Senior Back Office Operations Manager

Michael Weidemann joined Companisto in October 2020 and is responsible for the administrative management and monitoring of non-customer specific processes. From the notary appointment over the capital increase to the deposit transfers to the disbursements, he ensures in the background a smooth process for our investments.
His many years of experience as teamlead in the areas of commerce, customer and payment service distinguish him.

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Robert Riedel
Robert Riedel
Backoffice Operations Manager

Robert Riedel is Backoffice Operations Manager at Companisto. He worked for many years in the operational management of a ground services provider for aircraft handling at Berlin airports and is therefore very familiar with services, customer contact and operational day-to-day business - even under time pressure. At Companisto, he takes on administrative tasks, custody account transfers, handles the secondary market and supports the portfolio team with updates and surveys.

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Pascal Buder
Pascal Buder
Backoffice Operations Manager

Pascal is the Backoffice Operations Manager at Companisto.
He worked for a payment service provider for several years, where he was the first point of contact for crowd platforms.
At Companisto, he now takes care of the smooth running of internal tasks. From the notary appointment for the capital increase to custody account monitoring and payouts.
Pascal's mother tongue is not only German, but also Sorbian. A minority in Lusatia.

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Janette Lenz
Janette Lenz
Office Manager - maternity leave

Janette is the magic dust that keeps our office running. With her successful degree in economics, more than five years of professional experience as a branch manager for one of the most successful coffee hubs in Berlin, and her networked way of thinking, she makes sure that everything runs smoothly here and that Companisto is a place of harmony. Every now and then, she also has a kind word for our printer.

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Tomas Messina
Tomas Messina
Working student in the investor support

Tomas Messina has been part of the Companisto team since August 2022 and has been providing strong support in investor relations ever since. Among other things, he ensures that our platform runs smoothly for both new and old investors and is always available to answer questions about your investments. He is also currently studying industrial engineering at the TU Berlin.

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Hajredin Xhaka
Hajredin Xhaka
Junior Customer Service Manager

Hajredin has been working at Companisto since the end of 2023 and is responsible, among other things, for supporting our investors through to the completion of an investment as well as planning and moderating events.

He gained many years of experience in the telecommunications market and as an e-commerce manager and made a short trip to the solar industry before joining Companisto.

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Legal

Daniel La Marca
Daniel La Marca
Team Lead Legal

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Till Wedemann
Till Wedemann
Senior Legal Counsel

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Marketing

Sophie Schultheiss
Sophie Schultheiss
Team Lead Marketing

Sophie is passionate about marketing. Starting out in a full-service advertising agency, where she managed classic advertising campaigns, her path led her to a global corporation, where she was able to improve her skills and expand her field of knowledge to include project management and digital marketing in particular. At Companisto, she is internal and external contact person for all marketing related topics for financing rounds. She is also responsible for the development and implementation of Companisto's strategic marketing orientation.

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Anja Kersten
Anja Kersten
Senior CRM Managerin

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Diar John
Diar John
Marketing Managerin – Affiliate & Kooperationen

Diar has been working for Companisto since March 2022 and is responsible for affiliate and influencer marketing. Previously, she worked in the category department at Wayfair (Global Ecommerce Company), where she managed suppliers. During her bachelor's degree, she founded a fitness blog through which she worked with various brands, learning how to collaborate with influencers, network, and the power of influencer marketing for businesses. She will use the analytical skills she learned at Wayfair, as well as the knowledge she gained as a blogger, to find the best influencers and affiliates for Companisto. The goal is to increase brand awareness and attract more investors.

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Annika Schade
Annika Schade
Marketing Coordinator/ Innovation Assistant

Annika writes and coordinates: She works as a marketing coordinator and innovation assistant and is involved in the creation of textual content, search engine optimization, content planning and press relations. Annika studied media and communication sciences and then started her career in a digital marketing agency. She was able to further expand her expertise as a content manager at a tech company and another fintech company.
She finds it particularly exciting to present difficult topics in text form and make them easy to understand.

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Community Building und Event Unit

Anna Schlei
Anna Schlei
Team Lead Community Building

Anna has already built and managed communities in social and sustainable startups, as well as the healthcare industry. Her degree in international business law has also come in handy with one or two questions. But the question of how to form a supportive community out of a group of strangers with community activities, events and certain tools is what drives her the most.

Since 2022, she has been using the insights she has gained at Companisto in the area of community building. Together, they pursue the vision that startups should not only be supported financially, but also with knowledge, experience, and contacts from the community.

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IT / Dev

Cristian Irimia
Cristian Irimia
Partner
CTO

Cristian is a passionate and innovative programmer, who has been developing high-quality software systems for more than ten years. Whenever he designs frameworks, web infrastructure, relational databases, or other scalable data systems, he is in his element.

At Companisto, Cristian deals with the operation and development of the platform and ensures its consistent improvement.

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Bogdan Schimbischi
Bogdan Schimbischi
Programmer

Bogdan is our ambitious problem solver with more than ten years of experience in website development, database management, and software testing. Dedicated to his work, Bogdan is an active contributor in the open source scene and a dynamic member of the PHP community.

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Christos Pazaras
Christos Pazaras
Senior Web Developer

Christos is a passionate web developer who has been developing professional websites and complex web applications for the past eleven years. It is his principle to write clean, easily maintainable and extendable code, and to create applications that elegantly blend security and functionality with attractive design and usability.

Together with Cristian, Christos contributes to the platform's maintenance, functionality, and extension and keeps it up-to-date with the latest trends and requirements.

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Vlad Ionescu
Vlad Ionescu
Programmer

 Vlad is a PHP programmer with more than seven years of experience in developing complex applications. His job in the team is to ensure that development is aligned with new technologies and software design patterns. Always open-minded and creative, Vlad plays an important role in the team.

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Maricel Toma
Maricel Toma
Programmer

Maricel has more than 10 years of experience in IT, specifically in server management and optimization. This expertise enables him to find creative solutions for complicated and subtle coding issues. Database management helps him to improve and streamline data storage and establish new security protocols.

His calm personality and analytical thinking allow him to overcome all the challenges.

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Alexandra Dobre
Alexandra Dobre
Office Manager

Alexandra is the office manager of our department. Her role is to ensure a good working environment, to schedule meetings and appointments, organize the office layout, maintain the office condition and arrange necessary repairs, organize office operations and procedures, and to provide general support to visitors.

Very dynamic and creative, Alexandra succeeds in making everybody smile.

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People & Office Management

Alexander Haja
Alexander Haja
Head of HR & Office Management

Alexander Haja is Head of HR and Office Management at Companisto. He and his team take care of all aspects of human relations and office management. He ensures the satisfaction of all employees and a harmonious working environment. In short: Alex is something like the good spirit of Companisto.

The certified project management expert (IPMA) comes from the Far North - which is certainly the reason for his calm mind, his level-headed nature and definitely his "Moin Moin!", or "Moin Moin! Alex has a proven communication coach and businessman for dialogue marketing.

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Sara Caci
Sara Caci
Office Manager

Sara makes things happen.

She organizes everything that has to do with our office and work equipment, so that everyone can do their work and everything runs smoothly at Companisto. And if she has a really good day, she sometimes orders ice cream for the whole team.

In addition to her training as an office management assistant, Sara has also successfully completed her additional qualification as a European businesswoman.

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Nick Nolzen
Nick Nolzen
Steuerfachangestellter

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Janette Lenz
Janette Lenz
Office Manager - maternity leave

Janette is the magic dust that keeps our office running. With her successful degree in economics, more than five years of professional experience as a branch manager for one of the most successful coffee hubs in Berlin, and her networked way of thinking, she makes sure that everything runs smoothly here and that Companisto is a place of harmony. Every now and then, she also has a kind word for our printer.

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Please note

The acquisition of the offered securities and investments is associated with considerable risks and can lead to the complete loss of the invested assets. The expected yield is not guaranteed and may be lower. Whether it is a security or an asset investment can be seen in the description of the investment opportunity.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about investing on Companisto, please contact our service team:


Toll-free phone number for investors calling from Germany:
0800 - 100 267 0

Companisto investors hotline:
+49(0)30 - 346 491 493

We are available Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.