# Jan Christoph Gras

> Jan Christoph Gras is a seed investor at Berlin Ventures (Berlin) backing SaaS and Software. See 9 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Berlin Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/berlin-ventures)
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Total investments: 9
- Last investment: Jun 2026
- Lead investor: 78%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jagras/

Jan Christoph Gras is a seed investor at Berlin Ventures in Berlin focused on SaaS and Software. Christoph co-founded his first company in 2004, one of the first providers of photobooks worldwide. After the exit of myphotobook he co-founded epubli, a publishing house 2.0 which was acquired by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. He holds 3 diplomas from the ESCP Europe in Paris, Oxford and Berlin.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SaaS | 2 | 22% |
| Software | 2 | 22% |
| Manufacturing | 2 | 22% |
| Sustainability | 2 | 22% |
| AgTech | 1 | 11% |

22 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 4 | 44% |
| Series A | 3 | 33% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 11% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Italy | 1 | 11% |
| France | 1 | 11% |
| Belgium | 1 | 11% |
| Germany | 1 | 11% |
| Switzerland | 1 | 11% |

6 countries tracked in total.

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gigaton | Gigaton is a climate technology company developing artificial intelligence to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. It intends to use AI technology to reduce carbon emissions by gigatonnes per year. Its emphasis is on energy-intensive industries like cement, steel, and glass, which account for more than 20% of global emissions. Deep learning isused by Carbon Re's Delta Zero platform for industrial decarbonization to enable rapid development and deployment of new low-carbon industrial processes, designs, and materials. | $26M | Series A | Jun 02, 2026 |  |
| Optiml | Optiml develops software that supports real estate decarbonization and energy transition planning. The company provides a digital platform that models building portfolios, evaluates renovation pathways, and assesses financial and carbon impacts of retrofit strategies. Its tools integrate technical, economic, and regulatory data to help assetmanagers prioritize investments and align with climate targets. Optiml also enables scenario analysis, tracking of emissions performance, and reporting capabilities that support sustainability decision-making. The company serves property owners, investors, and financial institutions seeking structured analysis for decarbonization planning and capital allocation. | $9.6M | Seed | Feb 17, 2026 |  |
| Ecair | Ecair provides software for indoor air quality and energy management. The platform aggregates data from connected sensors to track pollutants, CO2, humidity, temperature, and particulate matter in real time. Dashboards, alerts, and APIs support building operations, facility managers, and ESG teams. Algorithms estimate exposure, flag ventilationissues, and suggest HVAC adjustments to balance comfort, health, and energy use. Reporting tools support certifications and compliance, and data exports integrate with BMS, CMMS, and data warehouses. Services include device provisioning, calibration management, and analytics consulting for multi-site portfolios. | $5.8M | Seed | Dec 03, 2025 |  |
| Arsenale Bioyards | Arsenale is transforming biomanufacturing with a proprietary end-to-end platform that integrates advanced hardware, AI-driven software, and precision fermentation. Designed to bridge the gap from lab-scale innovation to industrial-scale production, Arsenale enables industries like food, chemicals, and materials to seamlessly develop and scalebio-based alternatives to petrochemicals and animal-derived products. By empowering companies to co-design with nature, Arsenale aims to drastically reduce costs by up to 90% while also significantly shortening the timeline for industrial-scale adoption of sustainable products. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, with operations in Pordenone and the US, Arsenale is building the industrial backbone of the bio-economy. | $10M | Seed | Feb 25, 2025 |  |
| Project Eaden | Project Eaden combines pioneering technology with an immense love for life and food. | $15.6M | Series A | Jan 22, 2025 |  |
| Optiml | Optiml develops software that supports real estate decarbonization and energy transition planning. The company provides a digital platform that models building portfolios, evaluates renovation pathways, and assesses financial and carbon impacts of retrofit strategies. Its tools integrate technical, economic, and regulatory data to help assetmanagers prioritize investments and align with climate targets. Optiml also enables scenario analysis, tracking of emissions performance, and reporting capabilities that support sustainability decision-making. The company serves property owners, investors, and financial institutions seeking structured analysis for decarbonization planning and capital allocation. | $4.1M | Pre-Seed | Aug 21, 2024 |  |
| Optiml | Optiml develops software that supports real estate decarbonization and energy transition planning. The company provides a digital platform that models building portfolios, evaluates renovation pathways, and assesses financial and carbon impacts of retrofit strategies. Its tools integrate technical, economic, and regulatory data to help assetmanagers prioritize investments and align with climate targets. Optiml also enables scenario analysis, tracking of emissions performance, and reporting capabilities that support sustainability decision-making. The company serves property owners, investors, and financial institutions seeking structured analysis for decarbonization planning and capital allocation. | $1.7M | Pre-Seed | Apr 20, 2023 |  |
| Paleo | Paleo is a food ingredient company that develops ingredients for plant-based foods, making them tasty, healthy, and more sustainable, feel and look like real meat or fish without hurting animals through bioscience. | $12.8M | Series A | Feb 21, 2023 |  |
| Gigaton | Gigaton is a climate technology company developing artificial intelligence to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. It intends to use AI technology to reduce carbon emissions by gigatonnes per year. Its emphasis is on energy-intensive industries like cement, steel, and glass, which account for more than 20% of global emissions. Deep learning isused by Carbon Re's Delta Zero platform for industrial decarbonization to enable rapid development and deployment of new low-carbon industrial processes, designs, and materials. | $4.8M | Seed | Nov 07, 2022 |  |

9 of 9 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Innovation Endeavors](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/innovation-endeavors) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [BitStone Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bitstone-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [byFounders](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/byfounders) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Clean Growth Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/clean-growth-fund) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [KOMPAS VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kompas-fe2f) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Rewe Group](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rewe-group) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Berlin Ventures

VC Fund · Berlin, Germany

Berlin Ventures invests in new and innovative internet companies as entrepreneur-driven pre-seed, seed and growth capital investors. In addition to primary and/or secondary funding they provide ‘hands on’ support with their entrepreneurial experience alongside their considerable knowledge and network of contacts in all relevant areas such asstrategy, internationalisation, marketing, logistics, product, follow-on funding, finance, human resources, etc.

4 contacts available at Berlin Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Frank Riedel | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/frank-riedel-8ff6 |
| Jan Christoph Gras | Founding Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jan-christoph-gras |
| Marek Barlein | Founder and CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/marek-b%C3%A4rlein |
| Martin Sinner | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/martin-sinner |

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## FAQ

### What does Jan Christoph Gras invest in?

Jan Christoph Gras invests primarily in SaaS, Software and Manufacturing startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 9 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Italy. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Jan Christoph Gras last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Jan Christoph Gras closed in Jun 2026. Shizune tracks 9 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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