New Berlin-based single family office in our database: Scale Invest

This article directly stems from the research process for our German single family office database. Our list of German single-family offices includes the most important family investment vehicles in Germany. In this article, we are highlighting an interesting family office that was recently added to our database.

Jens Wasel co-founded Amazon-focused retail firm KW-Commerce, which was merged with SellerX in 2021. The firm had more than 450 employees and generated yearly revenues over €100M. Now, Jens Wasel intensified the activities of its Berlin-based single family office Scale Invest. In this article, we highlight the investment activities of the firm. 

Three main investment areas

The relatively new family office has three main investment areas: „real estate“, „venture capital“ and „capital“. Within the property investment focus group, the family invests in multi-family houses mainly in NRW and Brandenburg for up to €20M. The target gross rental return of potential investments lies at 6%. Within the „Ventures“ investment vertical, the family office invests in eCommerce, SaaS, EdTech, HealthTech, PropTech and CleanTech startups. While most family offices are rather active as co-investors, Scale Invest aims to take an active role by providing knowledge, web design and marketing services as well as recruiting activities, thereby being a classical value-add investor. Portfolio companies include happy glam, Little Boar and Valoreo. The family office also invests in funds, such as Redstone, Cavalry Ventures and Flex Capital. Furthermore, Scale Invest also supports young entrepreneurs and interested people with its „Entrepreneur Academy“, which is also a unique offering from a family office.  Within the „Capital“ asset class, the family office invests – as most traditional family offices – in stocks and other types of securities. 

Conclusion

We think that Jens Wasel’s new single family office is a great add to Germany’s growing family office landscape, by taking a value-add approach and pursuing exciting, well-balanced investment verticals. In March 2023, ex-Berenberg banker Niels Fritze took over the leadership of the family office, as a further step to expand and establish the family office.  

Picture Source: Florian Wehde