Katja Hengstermann

Katja Schwarz, formerly Katja Hengstermann, is a Principal at Verdane in Munich. Verdane’s team page states that she joined the firm in 2024 and focuses on investments in energy transition and resource efficiency.

Before Verdane, she worked as an Investment Director at a DACH mid-cap fund; Equilar identifies that prior employer as Paragon Partners. Verdane says that in that role she sourced and closed partnerships with several companies in the European mid-market segment.

She began her career at Bain & Company, with a primary focus on the private equity industry. She holds a master’s degree from ESB Business School in Reutlingen and completed exchange programs at Harvard University and Portland State University.

Public German register records also show her as a former managing director of several Paragon-related holding/acquisition entities, including PP Media Holding GmbH and PP Media AcquiCo / WEKA Group-related entities, with departures recorded around January 2024.

• Verdane describes itself as a “specialist growth” investor and says it partners with tech-enabled and sustainable European businesses to help them reach the next stage of international growth.
• Verdane invests behind two structural megatrends: digitalisation and decarbonisation.
• Katja’s stated Verdane focus is energy transition and resource efficiency.
• Verdane can take either majority or minority positions, in single companies or portfolios, with firmwide equity tickets of €20M-€150M+.
• Verdane’s Idun strategy is specifically decarbonisation-focused; Idun II invests €20M-€100M into sustainable businesses and applies sustainability criteria, including a carbon-avoidance target.
• Verdane says it only backs businesses that pass its “2040 test,” meaning companies it believes can thrive in a more sustainable future economy.