How World Cup champion Mario Götze built a parallel career as an angel investor

Mario Götze will go down in football history as the player who scored the winning goal that made Germany champions of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. But he’s also an increasingly seasoned angel investor.

Companion M, Götze’s personal investment vehicle, now has a portfolio of more than 70 companies, two of which became unicorns in 2025 – Danish fintech Flatpay and German AI startup Parloa. But the athlete also learned some lessons along the way about scrutiny opportunities. “I would only agree to invest if the startup and its founders tick all the boxes,” he told TechCrunch.

Funds can be completely self-funded at the stage in which Götze invests – typically pre-seed and seed rounds, with ticket sizes between €25k and €50k ($29k-$58k). To address this problem, Götze says Companion M “focuses on specific areas in which we have built a deep network and expertise.” Surprisingly, sports is not one of these areas, at least not directly.

According to Götze, Companion M mainly focuses on B2B SaaS, software infrastructure and cybersecurity, as well as health and biotechnology. Although this is not sports technology per se, health and biotechnology is a natural home for the athlete interested in human performance and wellness – and who is free to pursue non-traditional opportunities in these fields.

In 2020, Götze made headlines for his investment in German cannabis startup Sanity Group, when most European institutional investors weren’t even touching cannabis with a 10-foot pole. Since then, Germany has liberalized some aspects of its cannabis laws, creating a tailwind for the startup that will secure a 10% share of the German medical cannabis market in 2024.

As cannabis is still banned for athletes in competitions, Götze will have to wait to try the substance himself: the 33-year-old still plays professionally at top league level with German club Eintracht Frankfurt. But instead of waiting for retirement, he is taking cues from American sports investors such as NBA champion Kevin Durant.

Götze is not the only active European footballer who also invests in startups – for example, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé do so as well. But as a father of two young daughters, he has to balance his various commitments. “I have to schedule calls before or after training and align meetings with the weeks when I am not playing away matches or playing in the Champions League,” Götze wrote.

Götze doesn’t do it all himself, but he doesn’t trust others with his money either. Instead, he created Companion M as a small team that he supported with angel investing, partnerships, and other tasks. “Those things are important to me as a brand, especially in the long term down the road [my] Active career explained.

There is an undeniable branding aspect to these efforts. When Götze became Revolut’s first brand ambassador in Germany, the fintech company cited his track record as an angel investor as an incentive. But while preparing for his post-football career, Götze found what he describes as “another passion outside of sports.”

This passion may be less unexpected than it seems. While Götze and his brothers all became football players, their father Jürgen was a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at TU Dortmund, and the family spent some time in Houston, Texas, when Jürgen was visiting Rice University as a postdoctoral researcher.

It is no coincidence that Götze invests mostly in Europe and the US, with previous investments including Miami-based Arcee AI and Frankfurt-based Qualifyze. Many portfolio companies have continued to raise significant amounts of follow-on funding, some of which have already exited, such as Berlin-based KoRo.

The exit gives Gotze capital to reinvest, but it also focuses on enhancing long-term wealth. As a Limited Partner, Companion has backed more than 20 venture capital firms on both sides of the Atlantic, including 20VC, Cherry Ventures, EQT Ventures, Planet A, Merantix, Visionaries Club, and World Fund.

Götze remains under contract with his club and is said to be discussing an extension. But when he finally retires, these investment firms could consider him a peer. “After my career ends, I plan to focus on my investment activities,” he told Bloomberg. But even then, don’t expect him to post his anti-roll collection of startups he came across that went on to become hugely successful.

“There are a lot of new startups every year, and there will be some that you will miss out on,” he told TechCrunch. “But regretting past decisions leads to making uneducated or rash decisions in the future.” Talk like a real athlete: Thinking about what you missed won’t help you score the next goal.