Jan Sessenhausen is a German early-growth venture capital investor. Sessenhausen is known for steering away from generic trends. Instead, his investment ideology explores companies that are developing fundamental concepts that will drive innovation. Sessenhausen’s investment focus is on unlimited computing, ubiquitous sensors, untapped data and universal communities. 

With over a decade of experience in venture capital, software and consulting, Jan Sessenhausen has extensive knowledge of launching and scaling tech startups. He is the co-founder of Schanks Audio and is actively involved with early-stage software and technology investments at Tengelmann Ventures. Sessenhausen is also a member of High-Tech Gründerfonds, an investment committee involved with the hardware and automation industries, and is a member of the board of data Artisans and a member of the advisory board of Blickfeld. 

Location

After graduating with a high school diploma in 1999 from White Bear Lake Area High School in the United States, Jan Sessenhausen relocated to Germany. He enrolled at Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg/BA Stuttgart where he achieved a BA Diploma in Information Technology. During this time Sessenhausen worked part-time at SER Storage Technology. In 2002 Sessenhausen joined Hewlett Packard where he worked for three years in roles in software engineering and product management. He worked in several regions in Germany and in Fort Collings in the US. During his tenure, Sessenhausen was also part of a team that lead the company’s digital entertainment activities across Europe. In later years his investment activities would mostly be concentrated in Germany but include vested interests in the UK, Israel and the US.

Remarkable Investments

Jan Sessenhausen has made several major tech investments in innovative companies such as:

• Versus – Located in Berlin, Versus is an online shopping price comparison tool that uses AI to make comparisons. 
• Data Virtuality – A business intelligence firm located in Leipzig, Germany and San Francisco, US. The company is a multi-connector for all data sources, data systems and front ends.
• Data Artisans – A software company in Berlin which is focused on Big Data and is known as the makers of Apache Flink.
• Mobile Event Guide – A Berlin-based mobile app that provides information about events in specific areas. 
• Snyk – Located in London, UK, and Tel Aviv, Israel, Snyk provides web security solutions for developers. 
• Veodin – A Berlin-based enterprise software company that offers products such as SlideProof, a PowerPoint add-in for management consultants. 
• AgriData – A digital crop estimation company that uses drones and AI and is based in San Francisco, US. 

Latest News

Deutsche Startups featured an article in which some of the top venture capital blogs are listed. Jan Sessenhausen’s blog was mentioned in the article as a VC blog that founders and investors should follow. Gründerszene Magazine reported on seed funding initiatives by High-Tech Gründerfonds for Fruux, a startup with the goal of allowing users to synchronise their calendars, contacts and tasks from various applications and devices in the cloud. In the article, Jan Sessenhausen, in his capacity as investment manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, was quoted as saying that the company is positive about excellent prospects in further developing the products and additional interfaces.