Lucas Merle

Lucas Merle is a Partner on the investment team at eCAPITAL Entrepreneurial Partners, a Münster-based, entrepreneur-led venture capital firm founded in 1999 that manages own-capital funds totaling over €400 million. eCAPITAL backs early- and growth-stage deep-tech companies "with a positive impact on society," concentrating on enterprise software, cybersecurity, sustainability/climate tech, IoT, and new materials. Merle joined the firm in 2018 and was listed as a Principal through 2025 before the firm's team page began listing him as a Partner.

Before venture capital, Merle built an operating and consulting background across renewable energy and services. He began his career as a management trainee at the renewable-energy developer juwi, then worked as an Operations Manager at the on-demand home-services startup Helpling, and later as a management consultant at UDG Consulting (which merged into SMP Strategy Consultants). This mix of hands-on startup operations and strategy consulting informs the "sparring partner" style he brings to portfolio founders.

He holds a B.Sc. in Management from Kozminski University (Warsaw) and an M.Sc. in Entrepreneurship & Digital Innovation from ESCP Business School. At eCAPITAL he focuses primarily on software and AI startups, with particular attention to B2B software and cybersecurity. Outside of work he cycles, reads, travels, and holds a skipper's license.

• Stage & check: Initial investments of roughly €2–6 million per company, with the "ability to increase our total investment per company significantly in follow-on rounds"; his personal sweet spot sits at late seed and Series A.
• What he backs: B2B software, AI, and cybersecurity startups — "particularly those that move beyond single-product offerings."
• What makes him say yes: He weighs "the technical moat of the product, the scale of the problem being solved, and the ambition and capability of the founding team," and looks for "entrepreneurs who think long-term, are deeply committed to their mission, and are open to being challenged."
• On execution over ideas: "Ideas are just the starting point. The real magic happens in the messy work of building, testing and executing."
• Support model: eCAPITAL is a hands-on but non-controlling investor — "not here to micromanage, but we do believe in being involved. Our style is collaborative, direct, and constructive" — offering strategic sparring on go-to-market, international expansion, organizational development, and C-level recruiting.