Raising from LPs in Germany: How Managers from Outside Germany Get Their First Meetings
If you manage a private fund outside Germany and want to meet German LPs, start in Frankfurt or Munich rather than Berlin, expect many family offices to invest like funds of funds, and do not mistake a crowded conference for a meeting strategy.
Germany is one of the largest markets for Private Capital Development (PCD) introductions, with steady activity for years. PCD has arranged one-to-one introductions with German allocators for managers from the United States, Asia, Europe and beyond. This page sets out what we see around those meetings.
Who allocates to managers from outside Germany
German LPs are spread across the country rather than concentrated in one financial capital. The German institutions that have taken first meetings with managers PCD introduced include:
- Family offices and multi-family offices, in Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt and beyond.
- Funds of funds and investment firms, including venture fund-of-funds programs.
- Private banks.
- Professional and church pension schemes, including the Versorgungswerke, the pension funds of Germany’s professional chambers.
- Insurers, foundations and public funds.
A German pattern worth knowing: family offices become funds of funds. More than in any other market we work in, German family offices grow into fund-of-funds managers, investing for other families and institutions as well as their own. Some of the country’s largest fund-of-funds programs began as family offices. For a manager, that means a German family office meeting can be a fund-of-funds meeting, with a fund-of-funds process behind it.
How a first meeting in Germany works
- Start in Frankfurt or Munich. In our experience those are the natural first stops for a manager new to German LPs. Berlin is not.
- Expect video first. Most first meetings PCD has arranged with German LPs have been virtual. When a German LP meets in person, it is often worth the trip: in 2026 a manager PCD introduced met a Hamburg multi-family office at its offices.
- German LPs travel, too. A German multi-family office met a U.S. manager PCD introduced in person in New York, where the manager is based.
SuperReturn is not a meeting strategy
Berlin draws enormous attention from GPs and LPs every June as the home of SuperReturn International, the industry’s largest private capital conference, which takes over the InterContinental Berlin and spills into neighboring hotels. It is worth understanding what it is and is not.
- LP calendars fill up well before they arrive. The meetings that matter at SuperReturn are booked weeks in advance.
- Many managers do not attend at all. They book meeting rooms nearby and see LPs around the conference instead.
- Do not expect to bump into an LP. The event is vast. Anyone counting on a meaningful chance conversation in the hallways should rethink the plan.
PCD schedules introductions around where an LP is based, not around the conference calendar. If an LP you are meeting will be in Berlin that week, that is a detail to confirm, not a plan to build on.
When to go
- SuperReturn week (June) is the busiest week of the year for German-based LPs and for every LP who travels to Berlin. Book well ahead if you want time during it, or plan meetings in LPs’ home cities outside it.
Why the room matters in Germany
PCD’s co-founder has been bringing managers to Germany since 2012. Randy Mitchell took his first delegation of fund managers to Munich in late 2012, while at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and returned about a year later. Under PCD, a delegation met LPs in Munich in November 2021, alongside Geneva and Zurich.
The largest fund managers are over-marketed to German LPs, who hear from them constantly, in Berlin every June most of all. What a German allocator values is a manager it would not otherwise meet, introduced by someone it knows. PCD’s introductions come from Randy Mitchell’s own email address, and many of the allocators who receive them are people he has met in person. Not all of them, but many.
Where PCD's role ends
PCD builds a manager's standing with German allocators and arranges the introduction. It does not offer or promote a fund, and it does not solicit investment on a manager's behalf, in Germany or anywhere else. Questions about offering fund interests to investors in Germany belong with the manager's own counsel there.
If you are an allocator checking that a manager is regulated and licensed in its home market, or a manager preparing to be checked, PCD's Global Directory of Fund-Manager Regulators names the regulator and the public register to consult in each major jurisdiction, Germany’s BaFin among them.
Private capital associations in Germany
- German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK) — bvkap.de. The national body for private equity and venture capital, based in Berlin (Bundesverband Beteiligungskapital).
The full, verified list of more than 100 associations worldwide is in PCD's Global Directory of Private Capital Associations.
Frequently asked questions
Do German LPs invest in funds managed outside Germany?
Yes. Family offices, funds of funds, private banks, professional and church pension schemes, insurers and foundations in Germany all take first meetings with managers from outside the country.
Where should a first trip to German LPs start?
In Frankfurt or Munich, in our experience. Berlin draws the attention every June because of SuperReturn, but it is not the natural first stop.
Is SuperReturn Berlin a good place to meet LPs?
Only if the meetings are booked in advance. LP calendars fill well before the event, many managers meet LPs in nearby hotels rather than attending, and a chance conversation in the hallways is not a plan.
Why do German family offices behave like funds of funds?
Many German family offices grow into fund-of-funds managers, investing for other families and institutions as well as their own. A family office meeting in Germany can come with a fund-of-funds process behind it.
Is a first meeting with a German LP in person or by video?
Usually by video, in PCD’s experience. When a German LP does meet in person, at its office or on its own travels, it is a strong sign of interest.
Looking at investors in Germany?
If you have no relationships there yet, the introduction is the part we do.
Cross-border LP introductionsEducational content only. This page was researched and drafted with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy before publication. It is general information, current as of the "Last reviewed" date shown above, and is not legal, tax or compliance advice. Private Capital Development LLC is not a law firm and is not a broker-dealer. PCD facilitates relationships between fund managers and institutional investors, on a flat-fee retainer.
Private Capital Development, a Benefit LLC, is a Maryland-based firm founded in 2018 that connects private capital fund managers with institutional allocators through personal, one-to-one introductions. Capital Mobilization is the name of its capital-introduction practice.