2024 moved fast - and we moved faster. It was a special year for many reasons, with our brand refresh in March setting the tone for a bigger and bolder year to follow. From there, we’ve hit a number of milestones and set the bar even higher for 2025. Here’s a look at some of our standout moments:
new $200M fund - Our largest fund to date, RAC VII closed at $200M to empower the next generation of innovations across software and science. With investments in 12 game-changing companies, including Proxima Fusion and LegalFly, RAC VII is already making waves.
portfolio milestones and exits - Our portfolio companies raised over $500M in additional funding - from Lakera's $20M Series A, to Memo Therapeutics CHF 20M Series C, plus plenty more (read on for the latest announcements). But funding rounds weren't the only milestones in our portfolio - this year, we also celebrated the successful exits of both Enviria and natif.ai!
leadership boost - In March we welcomed Daniel Graf as our new General Partner and first US-based team member. With an impressive track record leading product at Uber, Google, and X, along with his deep roots in the US and Swiss heritage, Daniel brings extensive operational expertise and a seamless cultural fit to redalpine. From his base in Silicon Valley, he is building a vital bridge between US and European tech while driving our portfolio success program.
global expansion - From Zurich and Berlin, we expanded our global presence to London and Silicon Valley, further establishing redalpine as a truly pan-European fund and enabling us to better empower the growth of our portfolio companies. We look forward to building a stronger on-the-ground presence in both locations and to deepening our engagement with the local tech ecosystems.
Thank you for being with us every step of the way! We wish you a festive holiday season and look forward to a strong start to 2025.
– the redalpine team
portfolio announcements
$4.5m for biolux to transform orthodontic treatments
Biolux (RAC VII) is on a mission to transform orthodontic treatment via its innovative light-accelerated orthodontics. We're proud to support them on this mission by leading their CHF 4M seed funding round, joined by Revere Partners, the oral health-only VC. Current orthodontic treatments are costly, painful, and time-consuming, yet demand is surging, with the orthodontics market expected to reach $21bn by 2030. Biolux’s flagship product, Orthopulse, benefits both patients and orthodontists, using near-infrared light therapy to accelerate tooth movement, reduce treatment time and discomfort, and improve patient outcomes.
“Biolux is already transforming orthodontics with its FDA-cleared, patented, and commercially successful flagship product, OrthoPulse®. We’re delighted to partner with the Biolux team as they enter the next growth phase, enhancing the user experience to support their rapid scaling and U.S. expansion,” said redalpine Principal, Daniel Dillinger. Read more here.
an investment hat-trick for 9fin
We invested in 2021, then in 2022. Now in 2024, we're delighted to triple down on our support for 9fin (RAC VI), investing in their $50M Series B round led by Highland Europe.
9fin's next-generation approach has revolutionized debt capital markets, mobilizing technology to unlock economic potential in the world’s largest asset class, worth a massive $135 trillion. The first information provider to integrate generative AI, nearly 200 of the largest firms now rely on 9fin's platform to gain a competitive edge and navigate complex financial markets. The latest funding will allow 9fin to drive further innovation in AI, grow its analytics team, and accelerate its US expansion.
We're proud to have supported 9fin since leading their Series A round, working with the team as they hit major growth milestones, including increasing ARR by 400% in two years and doubling their customer base, now encompassing asset managers with a combined AUM $17 trillion.
Read more in the Financial Times.
doubling down on the future of hospitality
We recently reaffirmed our commitment to Apaleo (RAC III) by participating in their €20M growth equity round. Led by PSG, the funding will accelerate Apaleo’s international expansion in Europe and globally, strengthen their team, and further enhance their scalable property management platform.
Since we invested in their seed round in 2018, Apaleo has been transforming the hospitality industry towards more innovative, flexible property management systems. Their platform empowers brands like citizenM and easyHotel, as well as accommodation providers such as Numa and Miiro Hotels, to build customized technology stacks according to specific needs.
Read more about Apaleo here.
portfolio news
The latest updates from our portfolio, in no particular order:
Relai (RAC IV) raised an additional $12M in Series A funding led by Ego Death Capital. The latest funding will help boost Relai’s expansion beyond Switzerland and accelerate its acquisition of the Crypto regulatory MiCA license to enable even more aggressive growth. Read more in CoinDesk.
Knowunity (RAC VI) launched in Chile, Peru, and Argentina, expanding their Central and South American presence. They have already taken the region by storm, amassing 100,000 active users in Mexico within just two weeks. In Colombia, Knowunity reached 10% of all students in under three months.
Proxima Fusion (RAC VII) was awarded a €6.5M grant by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to drive innovation in stellarator fusion power plants in partnership with the University of Bonn, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the Technical University of Munich. Read more here.
Proxima also named Barrington D'Arcy as Chief Manufacturing Officer. Barry will lead the development of the complex manufacturing systems required to build stellarator fusion power plants. He brings seven years of experience at SpaceX, where he led the ramp up of rocket production as Manufacturing Engineering Director and Senior Production Director.
Klarna's (Summit Fund) profitability streak has continued into the third quarter of this year after the company filed for IPO in the US in mid-November. Klarna posted a net profit of SEK 216M (€18.7M) for the third quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 57%, with AI integration helping to boost efficiency and profitability. Read more in the Financial Times.
Aktiia's (RAC III/Summit Fund) blood pressure monitoring bracelet has received commercial approval in Canada as its first market outside of Europe. Aktiia revolutionizes blood pressure management via its wearable, cuffless technology. Read more here.
N26 (RAC II) posted its first profitable quarter in Q3 after its growth restrictions were lifted by Germany's financial regulators earlier this year. The bank now attracts over 200,000 new customers monthly, with record levels of deposits boosting revenues from interest. Key product updates, including its stock & ETF offering and shared finances, are driving customer activity. Read more in Sifted.
Memo Therapeutics (RAC II) enrolled the final kidney transplant patient in Phase II of their landmark BK viremia trial. Memo’s 22-site US trial is now the largest placebo-controlled trial ever conducted for this disease and offers a promising treatment path for thousands of patients affected by BKVAN. Read more here.
Infinite Roots (RAC IV) launched their first product line in South Korea in partnership with Pulmuone, one of the country's leading food manufacturers. The launch is part of Pulmuone's Earth Diet line, which provides a wide range of nutritious, clean-label, and sustainable protein products. Read more here.
event highlights
redalpine's annual offsite
In early November, we gathered on a sunny island in Lago D'Iseo for our annual offsite - combining Italian la dolce vita with strategizing, brainstorming, and team-building!
This year’s offsite marked a significant milestone as we looked five years ahead and worked together to map out the next steps toward achieving our ambitious goals. Over four days, we:
Elevated our portfolio success measures to new heights
Sharpened our investment strategy to stay ahead in an evolving VC market
Shared insights from our task force on further integrating AI into our company and portfolio
Fueled our high-performance team culture with fresh ideas and renewed commitment
...and much more.
With new perspectives and the momentum to achieve even greater impact, we're excited to see what 2025 brings!
business insider gründerszene awards
We were delighted to celebrate Proxima Fusion's (RAC VII) victory in-person at the Business Insider Gründerszene Awards in Berlin earlier this week. Proxima scooped up the DeepTech and AI Startup of the Year award in recognition of their groundbreaking stellarator-approach to fusion energy. Gründerszene, one of Germany's leading business publications, established the awards to honor startups for their disruptive impact and promise of future growth. Read more here (DE).
what we're reading
Has AI scaling hit a limit? - Ashu Garg for B2BaCEO
Why it matters: The ongoing debate about whether making AI models bigger will still lead to real progress remains unresolved, with no clear path forward. Scaling faces significant challenges: high-quality data is finite, and relying on AI-generated data risks amplifying errors. In addition, the energy and computational power required are becoming unsustainable, pushing physical and economic limits. Finally, current architectures predict patterns but don’t truly understand them, meaning scaling may not lead to genuine intelligence. Experts disagree on the next steps, and from the outside, it’s difficult to judge who is right. The future of AI is uncertain and fascinating, requiring innovative thinking and diverse approaches to tackle these complex issues.