Falk F Strascheg

Falk F. Strascheg is one of the most experienced and successful venture investors in Germany and Europe. Austrian by birth and a Munich resident by choice, he trained as an electrical engineer, working in the field from the early 1960s. In 1971 he founded Laser-Optronic in Munich with roughly 30,000 Deutschmarks of starting capital, building it within a decade into Europe's leading manufacturer of lasers and laser systems. He sold the company to global market leader Coherent Inc. of Palo Alto, California (around 1981).

In 1987 Strascheg founded TECHNOLOGIEHOLDING, which he grew within a few years into the leading venture capital firm in Germany and the German-speaking countries, financing numerous innovative high-tech companies as lead investor. Of the 156 early-stage investments the firm made, 13 portfolio companies were listed on international growth exchanges and 31 were sold. At the end of December 2000 he sold TECHNOLOGIEHOLDING to the British investment group 3i Group plc. In 1998 he served as President of the European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA), the industry's European umbrella body.

Since 1997 Strascheg has run EXTOREL, the Strascheg family office and a sister firm to TECHNOLOGIEHOLDING, as Founding Partner and Managing General Partner. EXTOREL advises the family across the full spectrum of asset classes and has handled more than 100 direct investments and over 30 venture capital and private equity fund commitments, combining capital with board-level involvement and investor networks.

Beyond investing, Strascheg is a prominent supporter of entrepreneurship education. He founded the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) at the Munich University of Applied Sciences in 2002, and the Strascheg Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SITE) at EBS University in 2007 (renamed the Strascheg Center for Impact in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, SCIIE, in 2021). He holds an honorary doctorate (Prof. Dr. h.c.) and, with his wife, established foundations focused on scientific, entrepreneurial, social and cultural causes.

• Invests early-stage risk and growth capital directly through the family office, typically writing initial checks of €1–5 million and participating actively in follow-on rounds.
• Broadly diversified but B2B-leaning, with recurring interest in IT/web technology, electronics, laser & semiconductor, manufacturing, energy/cleantech and materials science — reflecting his own deep-tech and engineering roots.
• Says yes when three things line up: "The business or service idea should have certain advantages over existing offerings," and "the market for this idea must not only be big enough but also contain growth prospects."
• Prizes founder flexibility above the initial idea: he backs "people who are flexible enough to lead a company to success — who keep rethinking and checking whether they are on the right path," noting that most successful founders end up pivoting far from their original concept.
• Takes a long-term partnership approach, contributing board expertise and networks rather than acting as a passive capital source.