GHARAGE Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2026 by Lennard Niemann, Darren Soh, and Kilian von Berlichingen, with offices in Hamburg, Berlin, and Singapore. The firm emerged from the venture capital and innovation activities of Gebr. Heinemann, one of the world's largest travel retail conglomerates, and launched as an independent platform with its first institutional fund. GHARAGE targets one of the most structurally under-digitized industries at scale: airports, travel retail, and the broader travel and trade ecosystem.
GHARAGE backs early-stage startups building the operational and digital infrastructure of global travel and retail. Investment themes include automation and AI-enabled operations, digital infrastructure, travel technology services, logistics and supply chain innovation, and document processing and reconciliation workflows. The underlying thesis is that air passenger volumes are projected to double in the coming decades while airports and travel retail operators continue to rely on manual workflows, creating a sustained structural gap between industry growth and technology adoption.
Fund I closed at €40M in early 2026, anchored by Gebr. Heinemann, the Hamburg-headquartered travel retail group that generated €4.3B in turnover in 2024. The fund is actively seeking additional limited partners, specifically airports, brands, and retail operators who want early access to portfolio companies and the ability to test innovations within their own operational environments. The fund plans to back approximately 30 companies from Seed to Series A, with a geographic focus on Europe and Southeast Asia, though investing globally. Several portfolio companies have already been backed before the fund's public launch.
Leadership
Lennard Niemann is Managing Partner, based between Hamburg and Berlin, and leads the fund's overall strategy and European deal flow. He previously led the venture and innovation activities within Gebr. Heinemann before spinning GHARAGE out as an independent platform. Darren Soh is Partner, based in Singapore, and drives Southeast Asian deal flow and market access across the region's aviation and retail ecosystems, including proximity to Changi Airport, one of the world's most operationally advanced aviation hubs. Kilian von Berlichingen is a co-founder of the firm.
Investment Strategy
GHARAGE invests at Seed and Series A, aiming to be an early institutional partner to founders before widespread industry adoption has occurred. Beyond capital, the fund's primary value proposition is operational access: portfolio companies can validate and pilot solutions directly within real-world airport and travel retail environments through GHARAGE's LP and partner network spanning airports, brands, and global retail operators. This shortens sales cycles and accelerates adoption in an industry where enterprise procurement is notoriously slow. The firm can lead rounds or co-invest, and the dual presence in Europe and Southeast Asia is designed to help founders expand internationally from the start across different regulatory environments and operational structures.
Notable Investments
Fund I has already backed several companies addressing structural challenges in travel and retail:
Other
GHARAGE Ventures is actively inviting airports, travel retailers, and brands to join as limited partners, making this one of the few funds in the travel tech vertical structured as an open industry platform rather than a closed institutional vehicle.
For founders building in airport operations, travel retail, logistics, or AI-enabled services for the travel ecosystem, GHARAGE offers a direct path to pilots and procurement decisions with major operators, which is often the hardest and most time-consuming part of scaling in this sector.
carl.oertel@gharage.de (Hamburg) / darren.soh@gharage.sg (Singapore)
Lennard Niemann — Managing Partner
Darren Soh — Partner
Germany
