E 782 — Impact Investing Germany: 10 Deals, 200 Pitches

How does a German business angel decide where her money goes? Birte Kattelmann-Jagdt screened about 200 startups and backed 10 since May 2024. She argues that angel investing is one of the few asset classes where one person decides directly which companies get built, and that impact and returns are not a trade-off.

This is not a fintech episode. It is about capital allocation, which every fintech founder and investor deals with. Birte's due diligence questions apply to any pre-seed funding round in german startups: Is the sales pipeline signed contracts or just encouraging conversations? Which single assumption kills the model if it is wrong? Is there a credible exit in a thin market?

Host Jörn "Joe" Menninger talks with the founder of Bekaya – Ventures & Advisory, winner of the BAAR Green Angels Award NRW 2026, about her rules, her data and the growth partnerships that follow a check.

What you will learn:

1. Her 2 non-negotiables: a woman as operating co-founder with real equity, and impact built into the model

2. The data she cites: 78 cents of revenue per dollar invested for startups with a female founder versus 31 cents for all-male teams (BCG)

3. Why huge sales pipelines often hide talks instead of contracts

4. Numbers that fail a second look, such as a 3-month sales cycle that really takes 12 to 18

5. Why she asks every team: do you own your IP?

6. The €5 million to €50 million funding gap for hardware-heavy companies

Also covered: why writing the check is the easy part, how she challenges founders without damaging trust, and why she stopped backing business models that depend on future regulation.

Full blog post and sources: https://www.startuprad.io/post/green-tech-angel-investor-birte-kattelmann-jagdt