Former F1 Champ Nico Rosberg Raises $100 Million For VC Firm

Nico Rosberg, a former Formula 1 racing champion, has raised $100 million for his venture capital firm, making it one of the largest technology investors from a former athlete.

Rosberg Ventures closed its third fund in January, giving it $200 million in assets under management, the firm said on Monday. The retired driver, who was born in Germany and lives in Monaco, is the firm’s founder and principal investor.

Sports stars like LeBron James and Serena Williams have set up funds to back startups and the recent artificial intelligence boom has drawn in more famous investors, including footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. Still, smaller startup investors — those with three or fewer funds — have struggled to raise capital in recent years, as uncertain economic conditions and higher interest rates have driven most of the money to established operators.

Rosberg Ventures writes relatively small checks, between $2 million and $5 million, which Rosberg called a “collaborative” tactic that doesn’t require large equity stakes or try to compete with blue-chip VC firms.

“I can’t come into football and suddenly think I’m going to beat Manchester City,” he said in an interview.

Rosberg retired from Formula 1 after winning the world championship in 2016, then moved swiftly into writing personal checks for startups. Those investments produced what Rosberg called “hits and misses,” including stakes in SpaceX and Lyft Inc. through special purpose vehicles, as well as air taxi startup Lilium, which filed for bankruptcy last year.

He started Rosberg Ventures in 2022, mostly operating as a fund of funds, backing prominent VC firms. Rosberg Ventures has increasingly invested directly in startups too, including ClickHouse, a database technology company spun out of Russian tech giant Yandex and valued at $6.35 billion in May. 

Rosberg has won deals through persistence, sending cold messages to startup founders on LinkedIn. He also isn’t shy about using his celebrity status — he routinely curates gatherings of well-known entrepreneurs and investors at Formula 1 Grand Prix races. 

The investor said he has helped broker commercial deals between startups and larger German companies, whose owners invest in Rosberg Ventures. (He declined to name his new fund’s backers.) In exchange for those connections, startups offer Rosberg Ventures opportunities to invest in VC funds.