Rouven Dresselhaus

Rouven Dresselhaus is a Berlin-based investor best known as a co-founder and Managing Partner of Cavalry Ventures, an early-stage German venture fund he helped establish in 2015/2016 alongside Claude Ritter, Stefan Walter, Markus Fuhrmann, Marcel Hollerbach, and Dominik Matyka. He began his career as a consultant in KPMG's Financial Risk Management practice before moving into venture investing, serving as the Berlin outpost for the early-stage fund Capnamic Ventures around 2012 and building the network that seeded his angel career.

Beyond venture capital, Dresselhaus carries a significant operating and family-business pedigree. He was closely involved with the family enterprise Joseph Dresselhaus GmbH & Co. KG, an industrial distribution business with roughly €220 million in annual sales, and was instrumental in its sale to the Dutch industrial holding company Nimbus. This blend of hands-on operating experience and finance grounding informs his approach to backing founders.

At Cavalry he led the investment team and championed backing companies "as early as it makes sense," including pre-product and pre-revenue stages, with the stated goal of partnering with founders for seven to ten years. He built a reputation for a strong Series A follow-on rate from top-tier funds. In September 2024 he announced he was stepping back from Cavalry to focus on family and, in time, pursue new challenges — the third partner to depart the firm that year — while pledging to remain "closely connected, invested, and supportive." He is also a mentor for accelerator programs including Techstars and Techstars/SAP.io and is a member of Founders Pledge.

• Stage: Pre-seed and seed, frequently the first institutional money in — "as early as it makes sense for the company," including pre-product and pre-revenue
• Check size: Angel checks ~$100K–$2M (sweet spot ~$500K); Cavalry initial checks €500K–€4M, via priced rounds or convertibles
• What makes him say yes: "Founders who are pursuing daring projects. Big vision & able to deliver on the nitty gritty parts." He looks for an outstanding founding team with genuine founder/market fit and the ability to build an amazing product in a large market
• Sectors: B2B software and SaaS (HR, sales, legal tech), enterprise and consumer software, with a stated current interest in AI/ML, big data, and process innovation
• What he avoids: Pure e-commerce, pure adtech, and hardware-only companies
• Relationship model: Long-term partnership orientation (7–10 years), aiming to help founders build "category-winning" companies