About Shortcut Ventures
Shortcut Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2011. It is primarily based out of Hamburg, Germany. As of Jun 2018, Shortcut Ventures has invested in 6 companies. It primarily invests in Series A round in Germany based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from High Tech to Energy Tech and Enterprise Applications. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series B round of Stocard Overall, Shortcut Ventures portfolio has seen 1 unicorn and 3 acquisitions including key companies like SumUp, Stocard and ZenMate. A lot of funds co-invest with Shortcut Ventures, with names like b2venture sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Shortcut Ventures has team of 2 people including 2 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Rounds of Entry
Series A, Seed & 1 more
Portfolio Unicorns
Portfolio Soonicorns
Shortcut Ventures' List of Top Investments
Shortcut Ventures has a portfolio of 6 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investments are in Stocard and Stocard.Their portfolio spans across Germany, Spain and United States. They have invested in High Tech, Energy Tech, Enterprise Applications and 7 other sectors, across stages such as Series A, Seed and 1 more. Here is the list of top investments by Shortcut Ventures:1. SumUp
Provider of card payment terminals and point of sale systems. These hardware and software tools facilitate transaction processing for merchants. The offerings include mobile card readers, self-service kiosks, and digital invoicing capabilities. Merchants utilize these tools to accept contactless payments and manage financial records. The system integrates with mobile applications to support business operations and order processing.
Key facts about SumUp
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: Wilmington (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series E
- Total Funding till date: $997M
- Employee Count: 4,196 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Deutsche Bank, G Squared and 50 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, May 19, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
2. tado°
Provider of smart thermostats and energy solutions for home heating. The company offers smart radiator thermostats, smart thermostats for boilers and underfloor heating, and heat pump optimizers. It provides an application to manage energy consumption, set schedules, and control heating systems remotely. The company also offers dynamic tariff integration for heat pumps and electric cars.
Key facts about tado°
3. Stocard
Stocard provides an app-based platform for reward payments. It enables users to stores loyalty cards in the wallet. It offers reward points at each purchase using the stored loyalty card. The reward points can be used at partner merchants. It also enables businesses to accept reward points as payment. App is available on iOS and Android devices.
Key facts about Stocard
- Founded Year: 2011
- Location: Mannheim (Germany)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $25.3M
- Employee Count: 12 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Rocketship, HTGF and 8 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Jun 05, 2018, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
4. ZenMate
ZenMate provides secure VPN solution for consumers, professionals and enterprises. Products are available as apps for desktops & mobile devices and browser extensions for Chrome, Safari and FireFox. Features of Enterprise version VPN include user management dashboard, access to server networks, consolidated payment, multi-device access of application for each account, location anonymization, identity obfuscation based privacy browsing and malware blocking and tracking protection. Winner of the Europas Award for Best Security/Privacy Startup of 2014.
Key facts about ZenMate
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Berlin (Germany)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $4.53M
- Employee Count: 4 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Deutsche Telekom, Bessemer Venture Partners and 8 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Jan 27, 2016, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
5. UppTalk
UppTalk (formerly Yuilop) is a mobile communications app. Works over WiFi and 3G/4G without carriers and lets users communicate free - call, text, group chat and share multimedia - with any US and Canada cell phone or landline, even if receiver don't have UppTalk. Upon download, UppTalk offers a real phone number to users. This number can be used across devices, and the user can take calls even when only on WiFi.
Key facts about UppTalk
- Founded Year: 2010
- Location: Barcelona (Spain)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $6.11M
- Employee Count: 6 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Nauta Capital, Shortcut Ventures and 1 Other
- Latest Funding Round: Grant (prize money), Oct 07, 2013, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
Shortcut Ventures' Investments by Stage
Shortcut Ventures has made 4 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $8.17M, 1 investment in Seed stage with an average round size of $2.6M and 1 investment in Series B stage with an average round size of $23M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Series A | 4 |
Seed | 1 |
Series B | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Shortcut Ventures' Investments by Sector
Shortcut Ventures has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, FinTech, Consumer, Energy Tech and Enterprise Infrastructure. Notably, it has invested in 6 Tech companies, 5 Consumer (B2C) companies, 5 Software companies and at least 4 companies focusing on Enterprise (B2B).Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 2 |
FinTech | 2 |
Consumer | 1 |
Energy Tech | 1 |
Enterprise Infrastructure | 1 |
Others | 7 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Shortcut Ventures' Investments by Geography
Shortcut Ventures has made most investments in Germany (4), followed by Spain where it has made 1 investment.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Germany | 4 |
Spain | 1 |
United States | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Shortcut Ventures' recent investments
Shortcut Ventures has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by Shortcut Ventures:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 05, 2018 | Germany | Series B | 3524 | [+2] | |
Dec 22, 2016 | Germany | Series A | 4429 | [+1] | |
Mar 18, 2016 | Germany | Series A | 4074 | [+1] | |
Oct 07, 2015 | Germany | Series B | 3151 | [+5] | |
Oct 01, 2014 | Germany | Series A | 8798 | [+2] |
Unicorns in Shortcut Ventures' Portfolio
Shortcut Ventures has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - SumUp. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is SumUp which became a unicorn in 2019, 6 years after Shortcut Ventures first invested in it.Here is a list of unicorns in Shortcut Ventures' portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
82 | Provider of card payment terminals and point of sale systems | 2012 | Wilmington | Series E | ivzgyza |
Acquired companies in Shortcut Ventures' Portfolio
3 companies from Shortcut Ventures' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Stocard in Jul 2021 by Klarna for $*****.Here are Shortcut Ventures' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 23, 2021 | Mar 18, 2016 | Series A | 4301 | |
Oct 16, 2018 | Oct 01, 2014 | Series A | 1798 | |
Dec 15, 2014 | May 23, 2012 | Series A | 9207 |
Team profile of Shortcut Ventures
Shortcut Ventures has a team of 2 members including 2 Partners located in Germany. Shortcut Ventures' team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Co-investors of Shortcut Ventures
Over the past 14 years, 75 investors have co-invested in Shortcut Ventures's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Shortcut Ventures: HV Capital, Target Partners and 8 others have invested in rounds before Shortcut Ventures. There is 1 company where HV Capital has invested before Shortcut Ventures and 1 company where Target Partners has invested before Shortcut Ventures.
- Top Co-investors of Shortcut Ventures: 9 investors entered a company along with Shortcut Ventures. These include investors like b2venture (1 company).
- Invested after Shortcut Ventures: A total of 56 investors have invested in Shortcut Ventures's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include BBVA Ventures (1 company), Goldman Sachs (1 company) and Temasek (1 company).
Recent News related to Shortcut Ventures
•
•
•
Vier Millionen für Stocard aus Mannheim | GründerszeneGruenderszene•Mar 18, 2016•Stocard, Shortcut Ventures, Alstin, CEWE and 1 other
•
stocard - ein stiller, aber erfolgreicher App-Platzhirsch - deutsche-startups.dedeutsche-startups.de•Mar 18, 2016•Stocard, Shortcut Ventures, Alstin, CEWE and 3 others
•
Tado Scores Further $17.1M As Smart Thermostat Market Heats UpTechCrunch+•Oct 07, 2015•tado°, Target Partners, Shortcut Ventures, BayBG and 4 others
•
ZenMate Raises $3.2 Million From Holtzbrinck Ventures and OthersVenture Village•Oct 01, 2014•ZenMate, Shortcut Ventures, Project A, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and 1 other
•
ZenMate Closes $3.2m Series A Led by Holtzbrinck, Launches on Firefox - Silicon Allee NewsSilicon Allee•Oct 01, 2014•ZenMate, Shortcut Ventures, Project A, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and 1 other
•
•
•
