Verve Ventures

With EUR 45 million invested in 2020, we are now investing as much as a 250 million fund on a yearly basis. Such an annual investment volume puts us in the league of the top 10% most active venture capital investors in Europe.

To prepare ourselves for this new chapter in our company history, we thought it was time for a change and a makeover. Our new brand name Verve Ventures reflects our ambition to build the leading European venture platform. We see tremendous potential in Europe’s technology and its entrepreneurs. We want to make it easier for investors to invest in the fastest-growing companies across Europe and thereby help these entrepreneurs to build companies that make a real difference.

For you as an investor, entrepreneur or partner, nothing changes. We are the same passionate team that is dedicated to the success of our startups. The only difference is: We are now Verve Ventures.

Our Team Members

We are a team of professionals with backgrounds in biotechnology, theoretical physics, computer science, biomedical engineering, corporate law, finance, medieval history and journalism.

Martin Scholl, Member of the Board

Martin Scholl led Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB, Switzerland’s third-largest bank after UBS and Raiffeisen) as CEO from 2007 to 2022. He has held various other positions such as Director of the Swiss Bankers Association and the business union Economiesuisse, and Deputy Chairman of the Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks. Besides Verve Ventures, Martin Scholl is a Board Member of Belvédère Asset Management and of IPZ Property AG (Switzerland Innovation Park Zürich).

Steffen Wagner, Co-Founder & Co-CEO

As our co-founder and co-CEO, Steffen's ambition is to build the world's most innovative venture capital firm. Steffen is also member of the Advisory Committee of the Swisscanto Growth Fund and is part of various selection committees, e.g. of the Swiss business incubators of the European Space Agency and the one of CERN. As "Vertrauensmanager" of the Foundation of German Business (“Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft”) in Switzerland, he helps select entrepreneurial talents with a sense of responsibility for the broader society for scholarships.

Lukas Weber, Co-Founder & Co-CEO

As co-founder and co-CEO, Lukas is passionate about smart people building and investing in companies that can make a real difference. He believes that IT will play a pivotal role in private market investing, changing the way we source and execute deals and grow portfolio value. Lukas studied Computer Science at ETH Zurich and ENST in Paris. Over his career he has worked at the intersection of IT and financial services and co-founded several companies.

Ralph Zurkinden, Member of the Board

He is an active angel investor and spent more than 30 years with UBS in different positions and global locations. From 2002 until 2009 he was UBS’ Global Head of Foreign Exchange for Wealth Management Clients and on the Management Committee of the UBS Investment Bank Switzerland.

Heinz Kunz, Member of the Board

Heinz Kunz joined Verve Ventures board of directors in 2020. He is the former head of Corporate Banking at Zürcher Kantonalbank. Heinz is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Swisscanto Pensions and a member of the board of various other institutions.

Michel Kaufmann, Marketing Projects

Michel joined jobs.ch in 2001 and helped guide the company to its current position as Swiss market leader with his work in product management, IT and marketing. He currently sits on the board of JobCloud (jobs.ch) and was a Verve Ventures board member from 2014 to May 2023. He is operationally involved in both companies as a project leader.

Address: Uetlibergstrasse 132, 8045 Zürich, Switzerland

Phone: +41 415 459 494