Uli Grabenwarter

Uli Grabenwarter is Deputy Director – Equity Investments at European Investment Fund (EIF). In this capacity he oversees EIF’s activities in Impact Investing (social/environmental/infra), Technology Transfer and Venture Capital, with EIF being Europe’s biggest Fund-of-Funds Investment platform in that space. Besides his responsibilities at the EIF, he runs his own investment portfolio as an angel investor in venture capital, predominantly in life sciences start-ups and serves on the Board of three investment firms in VC and Impact Investing.

Previously, and until mid-2014, he was responsible for EIF’s strategic development in the equity space and in this context has led the build-up of the Social Impact Accelerator, the first pan-European social impact investing fund-of-funds. Prior to this Uli was Head, Equity Fund Investments at EIF after having worked for several years at the European Investment Bank and at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in corporate finance, project finance, finance consulting and audit.

Uli shared many of his thoughts and observations on the risk and return dynamics of VC and PE investments in the bestselling Euromoney book “Exposed to the J-curve – Understanding and Managing Private Equity Fund Investments”, as well as in several articles and white papers. He equally has published numerous articles on impact investing as an emerging asset class. Until recently, Uli was Trustee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing and is a regular keynote speaker at private equity conferences throughout the world.

Areas of interest

• Risk/return strategies in Venture Capital and Private Equity
• Investment selection
• Portfolio and investment strategies for PE/VC funds
• Impact Investing Strategies
• Impact Measurement