Stefan Jeschonnek

Stefan Jeschonnek is a German serial entrepreneur turned early-stage investor, best known as a co-founder of the European payments unicorn SumUp and of the fintech back-office startup Zeitgold. He began his career as a software engineer before moving into product and leadership roles. He holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Jeschonnek co-founded SumUp, the mobile point-of-sale and card-payments company, in its early days (~2012) and served as Chief Product Officer, helping build one of Europe's leading fintechs, which grew to millions of merchant customers across dozens of countries. In 2015 he co-founded Zeitgold together with SumUp co-founder Jan Deepen and Kobi Eldar (a former officer of Israel's Unit 8200). Zeitgold built an AI-plus-human back-office and bookkeeping app for small local merchants, allowing owners of businesses with a handful of employees to manage their financial administration from a smartphone.

Zeitgold was acquired by Deel — the global hiring and payroll platform — in a deal announced on August 4, 2021, which Deel used to strengthen its payroll and AI capabilities. Following that exit, Jeschonnek focused on investing through Discovery Ventures, the Berlin-based fund he co-founded with Jan Deepen. Positioned as "operators turned investors," the pair back early-stage founders and draw on their own experience scaling companies from ideation to pre-IPO.

• Stage: Pre-seed and seed, typically writing initial checks of roughly €200k to €1m.
• Sectors: Core focus on Fintech, B2B SaaS (for SMBs and enterprises), and Artificial Intelligence, while remaining open to breakout companies in other industries.
• Founder-first: "We back outstanding entrepreneurs solving big and relevant problems" — the firm prioritizes exceptional teams and category-defining potential over any single vertical or geography.
• Hands-on operator support: As former founders/operators, Stefan and Jan work closely with portfolio teams to reach product/market fit, share operating experience, and open their network — rather than acting as passive capital.
• Geography-agnostic within key hubs: Active across Germany, the rest of Europe, the USA, and Israel, backing "ambitious companies worldwide."