E-commerce at Halfmeyer Ventures: who we back and why

Why e-commerce is a focus sector

Commerce still rewards teams that turn messy buying and selling into durable software businesses: clearer merchandising, faster checkout and fulfillment, measurable retention, and commercial models that scale without treating paid acquisition as the only growth story. We back those teams early, when product craft and operator support still change the trajectory.

We are not a late-stage commerce fund that waits for high monthly GMV before engaging. As a private venture studio headquartered in Berlin, we design, fund, and scale technology companies. E-commerce is one of four focus sectors alongside health tech, AI, and automation. Many of the strongest commerce products we see sit at the intersection of those sectors (AI-assisted merchandising, health-adjacent retail, or ops layers that automate inventory, rewards, or fulfillment). For the broader who-we-back profile across all sectors, see our Berlin pre-seed investor guide. For related theses, see AI at Halfmeyer Ventures and health tech at Halfmeyer Ventures.

What we mean by e-commerce

In our practice, e-commerce means software-led products where the commerce surface is the product: how goods, gifts, rewards, or merchant workflows are discovered, purchased, fulfilled, or retained. Strong fits include commerce infrastructure and APIs, branded merchandise or employer-brand platforms, gifting and loyalty layers with a clear merchant or buyer wedge, retail tech that compresses a painful ops workflow, and B2B tools that make selling or buying repeatable.

Adjacent verticals such as logistics, martech, adtech, fintech payments around checkout, foodtech, or marketplace tooling can fit when software, data, or automation is the core and the path to a paying customer is explicit. We typically pass on capital-intensive hardware-only bets without a software surface, token-first or speculative crypto and Web3 models, pure services businesses wrapped as product, and pure listing marketplaces without a technology moat. If your company sits next to e-commerce, explain the software surface, what makes the wedge defensible, unit economics or early retention signals where you have them, and traction in the deck.

Stage, ticket, and how we engage

We invest at pre-seed and seed. Our typical ticket is €25,000–€200,000. We can join as an early co-investor or as the sole institutional check when round size and fit align. Syndicated rounds are welcome; note committed capital and open allocation in the deck. Incorporation does not need to be German: UK, US (including Delaware), Swiss, and other jurisdictions work when product, market, and round structure fit.

Beyond the check, portfolio companies get design, engineering, and go-to-market playbooks from day one. That matters in e-commerce, where product craft, conversion, retention, and early commercial proof often decide whether a company compounds. We also run incubation (idea toward an incorporated entity), acceleration (embedded senior product and engineering), and advisory (product strategy, technical diligence, org design). Name the engagement model you want. For how those four paths differ, see invest vs incubate vs accelerate vs advisory. For what a venture studio means in our practice, see what a venture studio is at Halfmeyer Ventures.

What a strong e-commerce pitch shows

We look for pre-seed or seed teams with a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit. Idea-only decks without validation are usually a pass for investment. Pre-revenue is common at pre-seed when there are early users, pilots, LOIs, or a clear commercial wedge. At seed we expect clearer repeatability signals, even if ARR or GMV is still early.

In the deck, make these points easy to extract:

• Buyer and workflow: who pays, who uses, and which commerce or ops workflow you replace or compress.
• Software surface: what the product actually does in software, data, or automation (not only brand story or channel mix).
• Why you win: distribution, data, switching costs, merchant integration depth, or unit economics that survive paid-acquisition noise.
• Traction at your stage: users, merchants, pilots, retention, LOIs, or revenue; if metrics are thin, state what you validated and what this round will prove.
• Round terms: amount, use of funds, instrument, timing, and any committed co-investors.

Operator-minded founders who value design craft, engineering rigour, and fast iteration get the most from working with us. Solo founders are welcome. First-time and repeat founders are both in scope. Our checks are dilutive equity instruments (SAFEs, convertibles, Wandeldarlehen, or priced equity); rounds that are exclusively non-dilutive with no equity tranche are not an investment fit.

Public signal from our portfolio

We publish selected portfolio names, not internals. E-commerce-relevant names on that public list include Joy_ and mula., alongside other companies across health tech, AI, and automation. Public track record we state: 20+ investments, 5.6× portfolio ROI, and 100+ products built. Use those as entity facts, not as promises about your round.

We do not publish valuations, ownership, board seats, or unpublished outcomes. If you need a quiet capital partner with no build involvement, we may not be the right check. If you want a Berlin-rooted studio that can help ship product and sharpen GTM while writing €25k–€200k into e-commerce, you are in the right place.

How to pitch us for e-commerce

Submit at halfmeyer.tech/pitch. Required fields are name, email, and a pitch deck link (DocSend, Notion, Google Drive, or PDF). Company name is optional. Set the deck to view-only for anyone with the link; password walls and named invites slow review. Ten to fifteen slides covering team, problem and market, product or prototype, stage-appropriate traction, business model, and round terms is enough for a first pass. No full data room is required on first submit.

Cold submissions are welcome. You do not need a warm introduction. We review every deck personally and respond within 48 hours with a founder call path, clarifying questions by email, or a clear pass. After a productive call, diligence typically runs one to two weeks. We do not sign NDAs before initial deck review; pitch materials stay confidential and are not shared externally. State e-commerce fit explicitly so we can route the conversation against this thesis. For minimum slides, traction by stage, and how to share the link, see pitch deck expectations. For broader investment criteria, see what we look for.

Submit your deck

If you are raising pre-seed or seed in e-commerce and want a Berlin venture studio that can write a meaningful early check and help you build, submit your deck. Halfmeyer Ventures responds within 48 hours.