Deutsche Börse Group Continues Building Growth Partnerships Through DB1 Ventures and Innovation-Focused Investments

A unique focus on innovation and growth partnerships is part of Deutsche Börse Group’s DNA. DB1 Ventures is pursuing investments aligned with the strategy “Leading the Transformation” across the capital markets infrastructure value chain.

Stephan Leithner commented on this as follows:

“A unique focus on innovation is part of Deutsche Börse Group’s DNA. Just like a focus on growth partnerships!

This is why we have been pursuing our venture partnering strategy around the globe continuously. And this is where our DB1 Ventures team comes in. Their job is to spot the business models of the future along the capital markets infrastructure value chain where Deutsche Börse Group can add value and not just money.

I met with Markus Hablizel, head of our DB1 Ventures team, to reflect on some of our recent investments. These include our investment in global cryptocurrency platform Kraken to bridge traditional and crypto markets, anchored in our partnership announcements from Q4 2025. Our investment in MerQube as an angle to further strengthen our technology leadership in the index industry. And our investment in Performativ, a provider of a cloud-native wealth management platform, to further strengthen our transformation leadership in the buy-side space. We could add many other examples!

Markus and our team bring industry understanding, analytical skills, and a special understanding for fast-growing companies – Markus, a former startup founder, is a good example of this. A huge thank you to the whole DB1 Ventures team, Monika Fuchs, Leopold Büning, Aahan Achar, and Christoph Osburg, who have been navigating the portfolio with team spirit and target orientation!

Currently, the DB1 Ventures portfolio includes 23 investments (direct and fund investments) in the US, UK, Europe, and Israel, with 10 exits to date. Just like the recent investments, our portfolio is aligned with our Deutsche Börse Group strategy “Leading the Transformation”. To shape the future of finance, the Venture team is collaborating with many of our engineers of the capital markets who are building the infrastructures to leverage innovative technologies along the entire capital markets value chain – building bridges between traditional markets and crypto, digital, and private markets.

Let’s continue building strong partnerships and the infrastructures for innovation and growth!”