Andreas Nemeth, CEO and managing partner of Uniqa Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2025.
Andreas Nemeth, founder and managing partner of Uniqa Ventures, has a good track record when it comes to picking future unicorns.
He was a seed-stage investor in Wayflyer, an Ireland-based financing platform for ecommerce brands, which reached a $1.3bn valuation just two years later. He also backed UK-based business banking platform Tide, which is close to a $1bn valuation, and Bitpanda, a cryptocurrency exchange with a $4bn valuation.
In fact, Uniqa Ventures, the investment arm of Austrian insurance company Uniqa, is one of the most prolific CVC investors in Europe, having backed 59 companies in the eight years since it was founded. It has had 19 exits so far.
Nemeth’s instincts for startups come from two things. One is his early experience working with startups in the 1990s. “People on my team and myself have been engaged in or founded companies ourselves. We understand the spirit and the resilience you need. You have to be a non-conformist to start a company,” he says.
“We never interfere with the founders’ ambition and spirit. We just give them money and help them grow their business.”
Second, he is not afraid to think big and makes a point of looking for companies with the potential to impact a billion people. “If you have something that could improve a billion people’s lives, there is a good chance this company can become a valuable asset,” he says.
One company he is excited by is Moove, a Nigerian financing company for ride-hailing and delivery drivers, which is rapidly expanding across Africa and beyond. It allows people who would not easily get loans from the traditional banking sector to set up businesses.
Uniqa Ventures writes initial cheques of up to $5m with the same again reserved for further rounds. The focus of the $150m fund is mainly financial, and the team operates with a great deal of independence from the parent company.
Nemeth, says he is wary of pulling startups too much into a corporate agenda. “We never interfere with the founders’ ambition and spirit,” he says. “We just give them money and help them grow their business.”
See the full list of Emerging Leaders 2025 here.
