Lakestar

Patient. Principled. Founder‑centric. Today marks a defining moment for Lakestar. Our Founder and Chairman, Dr. Klaus Hommels, has shared a deeply personal letter announcing our sharpened strategy - a decisive step to return to the purest form of venture and double down on what has always defined us: building enduring companies alongside visionary founders.    This is about more than capital. It’s about deep engagement, long‑term partnerships, and the conviction to help companies transcend market cycles and shape Europe’s future.    Klaus, the entire Lakestar team is proud to stand behind this strategy. We are energised, committed, and ready to bring all our passion, expertise, and networks to the founders and investors who trust us. We’re excited for this next chapter - and to build it together.    Read Klaus’s full letter below, or here: https://lnkd.in/ezeTBSh8 Johannes Reck, Jannick Malling, Leif Abraham, Naren Shaam, Alan Chang, Charles O., Andrei Danescu, Patrick Andrae, Mario Schlosser, Peter Smith, Florian Otto, Eiso Kant, Eldar Tuvey, Roy Tuvey, Nik Storonsky, Daniel Metzler, Daniel Ek, Hjalmar Nilsonne, David Nothacker, Torsten Reil, Lorenz Meier, Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve

Congratulations to Dexory on the successful close of their $165 million Series C funding round led by Eurazeo, with participation from LTS Investments, Endeavor Catalyst, and existing investors Lakestar, DTCP, Atomico, Elaia, Latitude Ventures, and others. This milestone reflects the strength of Dexory’s vision and the growing global demand for intelligent, autonomous solutions in logistics and supply chain operations. Since its Series B last October, Dexory has rapidly expanded its AI-powered platform, DexoryView, across Europe, North America, and APAC – delivering real-time visibility and actionable insights to some of the world’s leading logistics and manufacturing companies including GE Appliances, a Haier company, DB Schenker, and A.P. Moller - Maersk. We at Lakestar are incredibly proud of CEO and Co-Founder Andrei and the entire Dexory team on this significant achievement! Having led the Seed round and supported the company since its early days, we’re excited to see how far they’ve come and look forward to what’s next. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eUJBFqrj

Led by former Revolut executives, Neverless is redefining how individuals build long-term wealth through accessible, technology-driven financial tools. Their latest product — the Boosted Bitcoin Plan — helps retail investors grow disciplined exposure to Bitcoin by combining the consistency of daily investing with the power of smart leverage. At a time when wealth creation increasingly depends on access to modern, automated investment tools, the Neverless team is continuing to build products that enable individuals to participate in the growth of digital assets with simplicity and control. Read more about it here: https://lnkd.in/ebataYpc

As long-term backers of Yapily, its new collaboration with Google is another testament to the strength, scalability, and trust behind its open banking infrastructure. Google will use Yapily’s platform to power bank account verification services for business customers across Europe, reinforcing Yapily’s position as a key enabler of financial connectivity for some of the world’s most innovative companies. Born in Europe and now shaping the open banking landscape, Yapily exemplifies Lakestar’s conviction in supporting European, category-defining technology. Congratulations Stefano Vaccino and the entire Yapily team! #Lakestar #OpenBanking #FinTech #Google 

Applications Open: Lakestar Visiting Analyst Program H1 2026 🚀 After the success of our first cohorts, we’re excited to open applications for the Lakestar Visiting Analyst Program in Berlin! The program is designed to support the next generation of European innovators and operators, offering hands-on exposure to venture capital and the startup ecosystem. With a track record of backing companies like Revolut, Spotify, Neko Health, Isar Aerospace, and Fyxer AI, we’re looking forward to welcoming new talent to the team. Past participants like Theodor, Mickie, and Paul have made a real impact – contributing to due diligence, founder calls, and industry events. For more on the H1 launch, check out our previous post: https://lnkd.in/ec2rQXWr Program Details: – Locations: Berlin – Cohort: H1 2026, running for 5-6 months – What You’ll Do: Collaborate with our investment team, participate in founder calls, support due diligence, and attend key industry events – Application Period: Opens October 1st for 2 weeks If you’re curious, ambitious, and passionate about startups – we’d love to hear from you! 👉 Link to apply in the comments. #Lakestar #VC #Startups #Careers

A stronger and more resilient Europe begins with strategic innovation and investment.   We are proud to share that Dr. Klaus Hommels, Lakestar’s Founder and Chairman, has been appointed as Chairman of the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF)’s newly launched Geopolitical and Strategic Advisory Council.   The Council will bring together senior leaders from NATO, governments, business, and the armed forces to guide the Fund and its portfolio companies on the urgent task of scaling innovation, accelerating industrialization, and strengthening Europe’s resilience.   This new role builds on Dr. Klaus’ work in establishing the NATO Innovation Fund as a pioneering €1+ billion venture capital platform, backed by 24 NATO Allies, to catalyse the Defence, Security and Resilience (DSR) ecosystem. Under his leadership, the Fund has already driven a step-change in European defence innovation, helping to close critical capability gaps and crowd in private capital.   As Chair of the Advisory Council, Dr. Klaus will continue forging alliances across the public and private sectors, tracking Europe’s industrial capacity, and advocating for the policies needed to ensure the Alliance maintains its technological edge.   At Lakestar, we are committed to supporting this vision of a stronger, more resilient Europe, built on the foundations of innovation and entrepreneurship.   Read more: https://lnkd.in/eKjhEqNb

Everybody is talking about how AI will unlock a new era of productivity and growth across industries. But this future can only become reality if everyone – not just technical teams – can build and automate workflows.   Enter Instruct.   What once required a full team of developers can now be done by anyone. With Instruct, every individual can design and automate the workflows they need using natural language. The no-code builder makes it simple to refine and adjust, while ready made integrations connect directly into the tools you already use.   At Lakestar, we use Instruct daily and have seen first hand how much it changes the way teams operate.   Today, Instruct is launching publicly. We cannot wait to see what the world builds with it. Together with Creandum, we supported Instruct from the very beginning and are excited to see this next chapter unfold.   Watch the launch video below. Try it out: https://instruct.ai/

Rising conflicts have changed the economics of defense forever, and the future of security will be defined by AI software layered onto low-cost, commercially available hardware at scale. That’s why we’re proud to back our portfolio company Auterion, which today announced a $130M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Lakestar and other existing investors participating. Auterion’s AI-enabled platform is already powering autonomous drone swarms globally, showing how software can deliver decisive advantages by enabling allied nations to deploy autonomous systems across air, land, and sea. Lakestar led Auterion’s first institutional round and has invested ever since. We remain convinced that Auterion’s open architecture and proven capabilities put it at the forefront of the seismic shift from legacy hardware to scalable, software-defined defense. Congratulations to Lorenz Meier and the Auterion team on this landmark milestone! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ehSNKZYj

The Daily Mail reported last week on Doccla’s partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Scotland’s largest health board, to launch a £3.6m “virtual hospital” as part of the NHS drive to cut waiting lists and free up hospital capacity.   Over the next three years, up to 1,000 virtual beds will be created, allowing patients to be safely monitored at home using Doccla’s digital health platform. With real-time tracking of vital signs such as blood pressure, oxygen levels and heart rate, clinicians can provide the right care at the right time.   The project is already being recognised as a big step forward in how care is delivered: smarter, more efficient, and designed to give patients better outcomes while supporting staff on the frontline.   We’re proud to be backing Doccla as they work with healthcare systems across the UK and Europe to build sustainable solutions that make healthcare work better for everyone.   Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/ezdv-475

The Telegraph highlighted the major backing surging behind Cambridge Aerospace for its work developing scalable, cost-effective air defence systems. We are proud to count ourselves as one of them.   Cambridge Aerospace is pioneering a new generation of interceptor platforms, designed to meet the growing demand for agile and affordable homeland defence across the UK and Europe. Their technology is vital for the West to strengthen democratic resilience and support long-term security.   As Cambridge Aerospace’s founder and chief executive, Steven Barrett, noted: “Defence investing has gone from being a topic to avoid to being part of ESG, contributing to democracy.”   Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eCwwHXuz