{{Short description|American venture capital firm}} {{Infobox company | name = Headline | logo = Headline VC.png | industry = Venture capital | founded = 1998 | founder = Mathias Schilling, Thomas Gieselmann<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-headline-raises-865-million-105951574.html |title=Exclusive: Headline raises $865 million and hires new head of growth |last=Garfinkle |first=Allie |date= 18 September 2024 |website=Yahoo! Finance}}</ref> | hq_location = San Francisco, California, United States | homepage = {{URL|https://www.headline.com/}} }}

'''Headline''', formerly '''e.ventures''' and '''BV Capital''', is a global and data-driven venture capital firm investing across stages and sectors, from direct-to-consumer to deep tech and software. It was founded in 1998 in Santa Barbara, California and has since grown to invest in four different regions worldwide: United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. The firm has its headquarters in San Francisco, California, with additional offices in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany; Paris, France; London, United Kingdom; Tokyo, Japan; Taipei, Taiwan and São Paulo, Brazil.

==History== BV Capital was the successor of Bertelsmann Ventures, an internet-focused venture funds in California initiated out of Germany already in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-06-30 |title=Bertelsmann Ventures: Baut Gründerfonds |url=https://www.manager-magazin.de/finanzen/artikel/a-83295.html |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=manager-magazin.de |language=de}}</ref> It was founded by Jan Henric Buettner,<ref>{{cite web|title=Profile Jan Henric Buettner|url=http://piratesummit.com/speaker/profile/jan-henric-buettner/|access-date=2012-02-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301030741/http://piratesummit.com/speaker/profile/jan-henric-buettner/|archive-date=2012-03-01|url-status=dead}}</ref> the former CEO and Wolfgang Rose, the former CTO of AOL Europe and was subsequently established in Santa Barbara, California. Buettner, acting as executive partner for Bertelsmann,<ref>{{cite news |author=Martin U. Müller, tr. Ella Ornstein |date=January 11, 2013 |title=For Millionaires, By Millionaires: Transforming a Baltic Sea Village into Paradise |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-multimillionaire-builds-luxury-hotel-complex-on-baltic-sea-a-877102.html |newspaper=Der Spiegel}}</ref> had previously built up the multimedia companies CompuTel and Videotel<ref>{{cite news |author=John Johnson |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-may-31-mn-35796-story.html | title=High-Tech Firms Plug Into Santa Barbara Lifestyle |date=May 31, 2000}}</ref> while Rose had worked with leading software companies in Europe.

In 2000, Jan Henric Buettner, alongside Wolfgang Rose, Mathias Schilling, and Thomas Gieselmann, founded BV Capital. This new fund brought together a number of international Limited Partners, in addition to Bertelsmann. Schilling and Gieselmann had already worked with Bertelsmann Ventures and held a Bertelsmann and AOL background respectively. Andreas von Blottnitz, who had collaborated with Buettner at AOL, acted as a Venture Partner with BV Capital.{{Needs citation|date=December 2024}}

The new fund moved from Santa Barbara to San Francisco and invested in internet companies, among them GoToMyPC (ExpertCity), which was acquired by Citrix in 2003,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Citrix buys GoToMyPC maker for $225 million |url=https://www.networkworld.com/article/877891/network-security-citrix-buys-gotomypc-maker-for-225-million.html |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=Network World |language=en}}</ref> or ONElist, which merged with eGroups<ref>{{Cite web |title=eGroups, OneList merge sites |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/egroups-onelist-merge-sites/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=CNET |language=en}}</ref> and got sold to Yahoo.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yahoo buys email list service eGroups in stock deal |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/yahoo-buys-email-list-service-egroups-in-stock-deal/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=CNET |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Yahoo!'s eGroups buyout fuels e-mail lists |url=https://www.forbes.com/2000/06/29/mu10.html |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> Further investments include Sonos,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-19 |title=Headline raises €776.5M for its Global Growth IV Fund |url=https://siliconcanals.com/headline-raises-e776-5m-for-its-new-fund/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=siliconcanals.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> nCircle, Angie's List, MrTed, Peanutlabs, and Vuze.<ref>{{Cite web |last=VCWire |date=2025-03-13 |title=Headline Promotes Taylor Brandt to Partner |url=https://vcwire.tech/2025/03/13/headline-promotes-taylor-brandt-to-partner/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |language=en-US}}</ref>

The company also established an office in Hamburg, Germany, in 2001 to oversee its investments in Western Europe.{{Needs citation|date=December 2024}}

In 2006, Christian Leybold, who had joined the San Francisco team in 2003, moved back to Europe to bring the company to Europe and established an office in Berlin, Germany, together with Andreas Haug. Later the company broadened its focus from the US and Western Europe to include Eastern Europe, Asia and Brazil, with offices opened in Russia and Asia in 2009 and in Brazil in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |author=Colleen Taylor |url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/07/22/redpoint-e-ventures-closes-on-130m-brazil-fund/ |title=Redpoint e.ventures Closes On $130M For Brazil-Focused VC Fund |website=TechCrunch |date=July 23, 2012 }}</ref>

Among the investments of its fourth generation of funds are BlueKai (Acquired by Oracle), Citydeal (acquired by Groupon), Grupo Xango, Farfetch, Munchery, Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn), Sapato (acquired by Ozon.ru), Eucalyptus Cloud, NGINX <ref>{{cite web |author= Steven Vaughan-Nichols |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/apache-and-iis-web-server-rival-nginx-is-growing-fast/ |title= Apache and IIS' Web server rival NGINX is growing fast |website=TechCrunch |date=Oct 11, 2011 }}</ref> and Deposit Solutions. <ref>{{cite web |author= Steffen Preißler |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article205377573/Mit-einem-Klick-zum-besten-Festgeldangebot.html |title= Mit einem Klick zum besten Festgeldangebot |website=Hamburger Abendblatt |date=Jun 11, 2015}}</ref>

In 2012, BV Capital became e.ventures, adopting the same name for all its international branches.<ref>{{cite web |author=Colleen Taylor |url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/07/15/bv-capital-rebrands-to-e-ventures-global-footprint/ |title=BV Capital Rebrands To e.Ventures, An Early-Stage VC Firm With A Global Footprint |website=TechCrunch |date=July 15, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Owen Thomas |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/eventures-data-driven-venture-capital-2012-7 |title= At E.ventures, These Crafty Germans Are Using Data To Reinvent Venture Capital |website=Business Insider |date=July 16, 2012}}</ref>

In 2021, e.ventures rebranded to become Headline.<ref>{{Cite web|title=VC firms Infinity Ventures, e.ventures to jointly rebrand as Headline|url=https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/infinity-e-ventures-redpoint-239975/|access-date=2021-08-15|website=DealStreetAsia}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Mike Butcher |url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/07/headline-vc/ |title= Headline VC closes $950M spread across three funds for startups in US, Europe, LatAm and Asia |website=Techcrunch |date=July 7, 2022}}</ref>

==Portfolio== Among Headline's notable investments are: {{div col|colwidth=18em}} * Angie's List * Acorns * AppFolio * Azimo * Betaworks * Bumble * delicious * Farfetch * goPuff * Groupon * Semrush * sonos * SpotHero * Thrive Market * The RealReal * YuMe * Sorare {{div col end}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{official|http://www.headline.com/}}

Category:Financial services companies established in 1997 Category:Venture capital firms of the United States Category:Companies based in San Francisco