Mario Götze will go down in soccer historical past because the participant who scored the successful aim that made Germany the 2014 FIFA World Cup champion. However he’s additionally an more and more seasoned angel investor.
Companion M, Götze’s private funding car, now has a portfolio of greater than 70 corporations, two of which turned unicorns in 2025 — Danish fintech Flatpay and German AI startup Parloa. However the athlete additionally realized some classes alongside the best way about vetting alternatives. “I solely agree to speculate if the startup and its founders examine all of the packing containers,” he instructed TechCrunch.
The packing containers might be fairly subjective on the stage at which Götze invests — sometimes pre-seed and seed rounds, with ticket sizes between €25k and €50k ($29k-$58k). To deal with this, Götze says Companion M “focuses on particular areas the place we have now constructed profound community and experience.” Surprisingly, sports activities isn’t a type of areas — at the very least indirectly.
In response to Götze, Companion M primarily focuses on B2B SaaS, software program infrastructure and cybersecurity, in addition to well being and biotech. Whereas that’s not sports activities tech per se, well being and biotech are a pure area of interest for an athlete interested by human efficiency and wellness — and who has the liberty to pursue unconventional alternatives in these fields.
In 2020, Götze made headlines for investing in German cannabis startup Sanity Group when most European institutional traders wouldn’t contact hashish with a ten-foot pole. Since then, Germany has liberalized some aspects of its cannabis laws, creating tailwinds for the startup that claimed a 10% share of the German medical hashish market in 2024.
With hashish nonetheless forbidden for athletes in competitors, Götze should wait to attempt the stuff himself: the 33-year-old continues to be enjoying professionally on the high league degree with German membership Eintracht Frankfurt. However slightly than ready for retirement, he’s taking cues from American athlete-investors akin to NBA champion Kevin Durant.
Götze just isn’t the one energetic European soccer participant who additionally invests in startups — for example, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé also do. However as the daddy of two younger daughters, he has to stability his varied commitments. “I’ve to schedule calls earlier than or after practices and align conferences with weeks once I don’t have away video games or play Champions League,” Götze wrote.
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Götze isn’t doing all of it himself, however he’s not merely entrusting others along with his cash both. As a substitute, he created Companion M as a small staff that helps him with angel investing, partnerships and different duties. “These are vital for myself as a model, notably in the long run, after [my] energetic profession,” he explained.
There may be an simple branding facet to those efforts. When Götze turned Revolut’s first-ever model ambassador for Germany, the fintech firm cited his monitor document as an angel investor as an incentive. However whereas making ready for his post-soccer profession, Götze has discovered what he describes as “one other ardour aside from sport.”
This ardour could also be much less sudden than it appears. Whereas Götze and his brothers all turned soccer gamers, their father Jürgen is a professor on the Division of Electrical Engineering and Info Know-how of TU Dortmund College, and the household frolicked in Houston, Texas, when Jürgen was visiting Rice College as a postdoctoral researcher.
Not coincidentally, Götze principally invests in Europe and within the U.S., with previous investments together with Miami-based Arcee AI and Frankfurt-based Qualifyze. A number of portfolio corporations went on to boost important quantities of follow-on funding, and it he has already exited some, akin to Berlin-based KoRo.
Exits give Götze capital to reinvest, however he’s additionally targeted on long-term wealth consolidation. As a restricted companion, Companion backed more than 20 venture capital firms on either side of the Atlantic, together with 20VC, Cherry Ventures, EQT Ventures, Planet A, Merantix, Visionaries Membership, and World Fund.
Götze continues to be below contract along with his membership and is reportedly discussing an extension. However each time he lastly retires, these enterprise companies may depend him as a peer. “After my profession ends, I plan to give attention to my funding actions,” he instructed Bloomberg. However even then, don’t count on him to publish his anti-portfolio of startups he handed on and that later turned enormous successes.
“There are many new startups yearly, and there will probably be some that you just miss out on. However regretting previous selections results in making uneducated or impulsive selections sooner or later,” he instructed TechCrunch. Spoken like a real sportsman: dwelling on what you missed received’t allow you to rating the subsequent aim.
