Mario Götze has 70+ startup bets, two unicorns, and a portfolio built entirely while still playing football.
Mario Götze scored the goal that won Germany the 2014 World Cup. He also, quietly, built one of the most serious angel investing operations in professional football. Through Companion M — his personal investment vehicle — Götze has backed more than 70 startups at pre-seed and seed stage, writing €25,000–€50,000 tickets into B2B SaaS, software infrastructure, cybersecurity, and health tech. Two of those bets became unicorns in 2025: Danish fintech Flatpay and German AI startup Parloa.
Companion M is not a solo hobby. Götze runs a small team that handles deal flow, due diligence, and portfolio support. As a limited partner, he has backed more than 20 VC funds on both sides of the Atlantic — including 20VC, Cherry Ventures, EQT Ventures, and Planet A. He schedules investor calls before and after training, and aligns meetings to weeks without away fixtures. The infrastructure is built to survive a football calendar.
The thing that makes Götze's model worth studying is the timing. He did not wait for retirement to figure out where his money should go. He built the knowledge, the network, and the portfolio during his career — so when football ends, the investment operation is already running. That is the window most athletes miss entirely.
Read the original essay — TechCrunch →“I only agree to invest if the startup and its founders check all the boxes.”
— Mario Götze, Founder, Companion M