Why we started in summer 2024
In summer 2024 we started Generation Tech Partners, the first fund in Europe built exclusively around AI roll-ups. The term did not exist here yet. There were two observations that belonged together: businesses without a successor, and work that a machine can take over.
In summer 2024 Sebastian Herfurth and I started Generation Tech Partners, Elias Bitzer joined as the third partner in 2025. The term AI roll-up did not exist in Europe at the time. In the US, General Catalyst had led the first investment in Long Lake in February 2024, a holding company that buys property managers and runs them on its own AI platform. We knew about it, and we had arrived at the same idea from a different direction.
Two observations that belonged together
The first came from five years at Körber Digital and 76 AI projects in industry and the Mittelstand. The technology worked, the demo worked, and almost nothing reached the P&L. The reason was always the same: we put AI on top of old processes instead of rebuilding them. And we could not rebuild them because we did not own the companies. Advisers may propose. Owners may decide.
The second observation sat in the succession statistics, and nobody read it for what it was. Every year more than a hundred thousand German owners plan a handover, and more and more plan a closure instead. These are not sick businesses. They are businesses with customers, staff and margins that lack a buyer. One successor per company was the only answer the market knew, and it was not enough.
Together the two observations made a company: buy businesses without a successor, combine several from the same sector into a group, and rebuild the work inside them with AI. As owners, not as advisers.
Why a fund and not a platform
The US vehicles build the software first and buy the businesses afterwards. That works in markets where consolidated groups with thousands of employees are already for sale. The German Mittelstand is different. Businesses have 30 to 200 employees, the founder knows every customer, and the processes live in his head. This does not need a software company collecting firms. It needs a buyer with capital, patience and a method for the rebuild. Hence a fund with institutional capital, hence a holding period in years, hence the Task Architect method that runs before the signature, not after.
What has happened since
The timeline shows how quickly an observation became a category. In April 2025 Thrive Capital launched Thrive Holdings in the US with more than a billion dollars and OpenAI as a partner. In June 2025 Finance Forward reported on us for the first time. In February 2026 Tenet launched in Berlin as an inception-stage fund for AI roll-ups. In June 2026 we announced our fund publicly. In September 2026 Long Lake acquired American Express Global Business Travel for 6.3 billion dollars. The map of AI roll-ups now lists 74 players in 17 countries.
We were early, and we were early for a different reason than the others. Most vehicles buy because AI lifts the margin. We buy because the business would otherwise disappear, and the margin is the way to keep it. Both are true. Only the order decides which businesses you buy and how you treat the people in them.
What I have learned
First: a category is not created by a term but by buyers who buy. Second: whoever is early must be able to prove it, with date and source, otherwise the beginning belongs to whoever writes about it loudest. Third: the head start is not a possession. In two years the map will be twice as long. What remains is the question whether the businesses we bought are still standing in ten years. That is how I measure us.
Sources: General Catalyst, Manufacturing Outliers: Long Lake (first investment February 2024) · Finance Forward, 18 June 2025, Elias Bitzer joins the leadership team of Generation Tech Partners · TechCrunch, May 2025, on the roll-up wave among US venture funds · Tech.eu, 18 February 2026, Tenet launches · Finance Forward, 10 June 2026, Generation Tech Partners launches with 50 million euros · Business Wire, 29 September 2026, Long Lake completes acquisition of Amex GBT · KfW Research, Nachfolge-Monitoring Mittelstand 2025