Bjoern Bauermeister

Björn Bauermeister is a co-founder and General Partner of SIVentures, the Leipzig-based early-stage venture capital firm formerly known as Smart Infrastructure Ventures, which he launched in 2019 together with former JPMorgan fund manager Dirk Frohnert. Before turning to venture capital full-time, Bauermeister spent more than a decade as a professional investor trading structured financial products for investment banks — including a role as a trader at BNP Paribas — across New York and London. He is a CFA charterholder and studied at Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

Alongside his institutional finance career, Bauermeister has been an active hands-on business angel in Germany and Great Britain for over ten years, accumulating experience across roughly 60 startup investments and more than 10 exits before and during his SIVentures work. He founded SIVentures in part to address what he describes as a structural gap: Eastern and Central Germany historically lacked private early-stage capital providers such as business angels, and the fund was designed to bring that hands-on, founder-side capital to the region.

Today Bauermeister co-manages SIVentures from Leipzig, supported by founding partner Dirk Frohnert (ex-JPMorgan, London) and investment manager Falk Trietsch. The team is embedded in the Leipzig startup ecosystem — both Bauermeister and Frohnert serve as mentors at the SpinLab (HHL) accelerator, and the fund is connected to the Smart Infrastructure Hub and HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. Bauermeister also sits on the jury of the Sächsischer Gründerpreis (Saxon Founder Award).

In August 2025 the firm — now branded SIVentures — announced its second fund, SIVentures II, with a €30 million target (more than double the size of its first fund) and over 75% already raised at launch, backed by companies, banks, family offices, founders and funds of funds.

• Stage: Pre-seed and seed, partnering with founders "from day one" to help them reach product/market fit.
• Check size: Roughly €100K–€300K initial tickets in the first fund, scaling up to €500K per company with SIVentures II.
• Sectors: B2B software broadly, with SIVentures II focused on AI, software development, enterprise software, IT infrastructure and energy; the original Smart Infrastructure Ventures thesis centered on smart city, energy, e-health, proptech, e-mobility and IoT. He prefers software-driven, scalable business models.
• Geography: Germany and the DACH region, with a deliberate emphasis on Central Germany to fill the region's early-stage capital gap.
• What makes him say yes — his five criteria: (1) a strong, complementary founding team; (2) genuine customer focus to avoid product-market misalignment; (3) a clear, unique value proposition; (4) attractive market dynamics (size, growth, competition); and (5) good timing relative to market readiness and trends.
• Stated philosophy: "A great complementary team can succeed even in poor market conditions" — Bauermeister consistently weights team quality highest.
• Active, hands-on model: "As an active investor, we not only offer startups capital, but also see ourselves as a proactive sparring partner," supporting founders on product/market fit, sales development and other key operating topics.