Fabian Heilemann

Who they are

Fabian Heilemann is Founder and CEO of AENU — co-founded DailyDeal, sold it to Google for $114M in 2011, then built Forto into a $2.1 billion digital freight forwarder before pivoting to climate-tech VC.

Person

Fabian trained in law — LL.B. at Bucerius Law School, then a Dr. iur. in Corporate Law at Heidelberg (2013) — before going straight into founding mode. In 2010 he and brother Ferry co-founded DailyDeal, Europe's first couponing portal; Google bought it in 2011 for $114M. Rather than ride that exit, they repurchased the business from Google in 2013 and folded it into Sky & Sand Group, a holding vehicle that also included Heilemann&Co. agency and the pepperbill POS system. He then co-founded Heilemann Ventures the same year. In 2016 he co-founded FreightHub — later rebranded Forto — which grew to a $2.1 billion valuation as a digital freight forwarder. He added a Stanford GSB program along the way. By 2021 he was at Earlybird Venture Capital as General Partner, where he backed category leaders including N26, UiPath, Aiven, and Isar Aerospace. In 2021 he left to found AENU with Ferry, an evergreen impact-focused VC. The through-line is serial co-founding with his brother, each venture larger in ambition than the last — classically trained lawyer who became a builder, then an investor, now a mission-driven fund manager. Alongside AENU he co-founded Leaders for Climate Action (LFCA), a coalition of 210+ tech CEOs and VCs that lobbies for climate policy and publishes research; he writes actively on the AENU Insights blog and speaks at DLD, Hello Tomorrow, and on podcasts including MCJ Collective and Climate Insiders, covering impact capitalism, ESG in VC, and burnout prevention.

Company

AENU closed its fund at €170 million in September 2024, well above the original €100 million target — a strong signal of LP conviction in European impact VC. The fund operates as an evergreen structure (no fixed wind-down), investing Seed and Series A checks from €500k to €5M with follow-ons up to €10M in European climate tech and social impact companies. In 2026 AENU led a €10 million seed round for Galvany, a profitable heat-pump company in Germany, showing the fund is actively deploying. The portfolio has already produced 1 unicorn, 1 IPO, and 4 acquisitions — including Minimum, Plantix, and Tesvolt — since inception. AENU also earned a Certified B Corporation score of 127.5, a credential none of its core competitors currently hold.

Market

AENU operates in European early-stage impact VC, a segment accelerating on the back of regulatory pressure, corporate net-zero commitments, and growing institutional demand for ESG-aligned capital — particularly around Europe's energy transition. The firm positions itself as a leader in what it calls 'impact capitalism', arguing that financial returns and positive environmental/social outcomes are structurally aligned rather than in tension. Core competitors have not achieved B Corp certification, which AENU uses as a differentiator; broader rivals include Planet A Ventures, World Fund, and other European climate-focused early-stage funds.

Network

Fabian's closest working relationship is with his brother Ferry Heilemann, co-founder and partner at both AENU and Heilemann Ventures — they have built every major vehicle together since DailyDeal in 2010. AENU's first cornerstone LP was E.R. Capital. Fabian has also co-authored position papers ('5 for '25') with Berlin-based funds PT1, Cavalry Ventures, Project A, Planet A Ventures, and World Fund, suggesting active peer relationships across the European climate-tech VC community.

Ferry Heilemann· Co-founder and Partner, AENU

How they likely show up

Serial co-founding with the same partner (Ferry) across DailyDeal, Heilemann Ventures, and AENU → likely values deep trust over breadth of relationships; prefers a small, high-conviction inner circle.
Law doctorate → VC → operator (Forto) → back to VC → own fund: he has lived the full stack of company-building and capital formation → unlikely to be impressed by theory; will probe whether you've actually done the thing.
Evergreen fund structure chosen deliberately over standard 10-year LP vehicle → thinks in long cycles and resists short-term pressure; probably impatient with quarterly-return framing.
Active public writer and podcast guest on 'impact capitalism' and burnout prevention → comfortable being a visible, opinion-carrying voice; expects the same directness in return.
Co-authored a joint position paper with five rival funds → collaborative by instinct within the ecosystem, even with competitors; signal of someone who plays positive-sum.
Possibly — the burnout prevention theme in his public content suggests he has had direct personal experience with it, meaning he may be unusually candid about the human cost of high-growth founding.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific AENU Insights piece — 'Impact Capitalism in a Nutshell' is the flagship — and push on the tension he sees between financial returns and impact measurement; he's written about it and will have a sharp view.
→ Don't treat 'impact' as a soft add-on: he chose an evergreen structure and pursued B Corp certification specifically to put structural skin in the game; engage with the mechanics, not the sentiment.
→ The DailyDeal → Forto → AENU arc is well-known to him — skip the biography recap and ask about what surprised him moving from operator to GP to fund founder; the transition is where the interesting lessons live.
→ He co-founds everything with Ferry — if you're talking about AENU, acknowledge the partnership dynamic rather than attributing everything to him alone.
→ If you work in climate tech or impact investing, come with a specific thesis disagreement or a deal you found interesting — he co-authors position papers with peers, so intellectual sparring is welcome.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Galvany seed round — AENU led a €10M seed into a profitable heat-pump company in 2026, which is an unusual bet (profitable at seed is rare in climate hardware). Ask what that signals about where AENU is hunting right now.
Mention the B Corp score of 127.5 — he published it as a differentiator against competitors who don't hold it. It's a concrete structural choice, not just a badge, and he'll have a specific view on why it matters for a VC fund.
Bring up the '5 for '25' position paper co-authored with PT1, Cavalry, Project A, Planet A, and World Fund — it's a signal that he's building coalition infrastructure in European climate VC, not just running a fund, and it opens a conversation about where European policy is heading.

Discovery questions

The evergreen structure is a deliberate departure from the standard 10-year fund clock — what decisions does it actually change at the portfolio company level, and where does it create friction with founders expecting a typical VC dynamic?
You've been on both sides — operator at Forto, GP at Earlybird, now fund founder at AENU. When you're evaluating a climate-tech team at Seed, what do you look for that a traditional VC would systematically miss?
LFCA has 210+ CEOs and VCs — at that scale, how do you keep the coalition from becoming a talking shop? What's the mechanism that makes it actually move policy?

Avoid

Don't conflate 'impact investing' with accepting lower returns — he has built a public thesis around impact capitalism precisely to refute that assumption, and treating it as a trade-off will signal you haven't read anything he's written.

Make it yours