Michael Hochholzer

Michael is Managing Director of the Giesecke+Devrient Ventures - the Corporate VC arm of the Giesecke+Devrient Group. G+D Ventures focuses on investments in payment (innovative payment systems & providers, digital currencies, Web3...), digital security (cyber security, cloud security, data privacy...), digital identities (eKYC,...) and secure connectivity (IoT...) - predominantly in European companies. Our investment sweet spot is in the range of € / $ 0.4m to 4m. Prior to G+D Ventures, Michael managed the Industry Fund at Siemens Venture Capital with investments across Europe and the US, later called Next47. Before he was a Partner at BayTech Venture Capital in Munich, where he led investments in software, communications and clean tech companies in Europe. He started technology investing in 2001 with Infineon Ventures, the corporate venture organization of Infineon Technologies, where he concentrated on semiconductor-related startup companies predominantly in Israel. Prior to Private Equity, Michael held several operational positions in marketing and product line management with Siemens Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies. In his responsibility as General Manager of a corporate-internal start-up, he launched Infineon's RFID business. Educated at the Technical University of Munich, Michael graduated with a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering. His subsequent Ph.D. thesis focused on research in optical communications.