FOR MOST OF MY CAREER, I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALLOCATING CAPITAL UNDER LONG-TERM ACCOUNTABILITY.
As Head of Venture Capital at Schwarz Group, Europe’s largest retailer, my role was to build and manage technology-focused investment strategies that had to perform inside a global organization.
That meant making decisions that required:
- discipline over excitement,
- structure over improvisation,
- and long-term conviction under real scrutiny.
At that level, capital allocation leaves little room for illusions. You quickly learn that not all growth creates value – and that strong partnerships matter as much as strong ideas.
HOW MAGNAT STARTED FOR ME
I first met Karsten and Omar 2021 through G2K, which Schwarz Group invested in during my time there.
They were not pitching a vision detached from reality. They were building, scaling and navigating complexity in real enterprise environments. What stood out immediately was how closely our perspectives aligned: on technology, on value creation, and on what it actually takes to scale a company responsibly. Over time, it became clear that we shared a conviction: the best outcomes are created when deep operational experience meets institutional investment discipline.
That conviction became the starting point of MAGNAT.
Karsten, Omar and I came together with a shared realization: if you combine real operator experience with institutional investment discipline from day one, you can build a fundamentally better venture platform. Not a fund that talks about value creation – but one that is designed for it.
MAGNAT was founded as a symbiosis of both worlds: founders who have built and exited companies, and an investor perspective shaped by allocating capital at institutional scale.
Over the past months, we’ve been building MAGNAT together – intentionally, from the ground up – aligning on how we evaluate opportunities, how we work with founders, and what kind of partners we want to build this with. My role as a founding partner has been strongly focused on translating the operator-led conviction into a platform that also meets the expectations of long-term institutional partners – from fund structure and governance, to capital allocation and reporting discipline.
MAGNAT is the result of that joint build.
WHAT KIND OF PARTNERS WE’RE LOOKING FOR
MAGNAT is operator-led, but institutionally built.
We’re looking for partners who:
- understand venture capital as a long-term commitment,
- value clarity, structure, and transparency,
- and are comfortable navigating complexity rather than chasing headlines.
We work best with partners who think in cycles, not quarters. Partners who appreciate that:
- disciplined decision-making compounds,
- patience is a strategic advantage,
- and trust is built through consistency, not promises.
What partners can expect from MAGNAT
At MAGNAT, we combine:
- hands-on operational insight from founders who have built and exited,
- with institutional standards around governance, reporting, and capital stewardship.
We believe in:
- clear strategies,
- honest communication – especially when things don’t go to plan,
- and alignment across the full lifecycle of an investment.
No surprises. No noise. Just focused execution.
A PARTNERSHIP, NOT A TRANSACTION
The strongest LP relationships I’ve seen were never passive. They were built on:
• mutual respect,
• constructive challenge,
• and a shared understanding of how value is created over time.
That’s exactly the type of partnership we’re building MAGNAT for.
