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Dr. Sven Greulich, LL.M. (Cantuar), EMBA

Partner

Dusseldorf

Dr. Sven Greulich, partner at Orrick's Düsseldorf office, heads Orrick's Technology Companies practice in Germany. He advises technology companies and their investors on financing rounds (equity and debt), as well as on complex corporate transactions such as US flips and M&A projects, as well as cross-border joint ventures.

His clients include technology companies of all stages as well as venture capital and corporate venture capital investors. Together with an international and interdisciplinary team, he also supports scaleups and multinationals in their expansion projects, with a particular focus on cross-border transactions between Germany and the USA.

Sven’s goal is to build bridges for his clients between Germany, Silicon Valley, and other international technology hubs, helping them achieve successful growth in the global market. His legal and business background, entrepreneurial spirit, and experience from more than 400 financing rounds and M&A projects across various industries enable him to fully understand his clients’ strategic and commercial objectives and to develop creative solutions to achieve them.

Sven volunteers with entrepreneur groups at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, the RWTH Aachen, the Technical University of Munich and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; he regularly lectures at the WHU and the RWTH incubation and innovation centers. In 2020, he launched the Founder Legal Boot Camp, a unique free-of-charge seminar program that educates aspiring founding teams from technical and business universities about all relevant legal pitfalls in the areas of company formation, financing, and the initial growth phase. Organized in collaboration with Germany’s leading startup universities, the Founder Legal Boot Camp now takes place three times a year in Düsseldorf, Munich, and alternately in Karlsruhe/Stuttgart.

Sven's work has been repeatedly awarded, inter alia

  • Chambers ranks him as one of the top 3 venture capital lawyers in Germany (2025);
  • the leading German market publication JUVE - since 2019 - ranks Sven as one of Germanyʹs top 15 attorneys for venture capital, the highest recognition for this category awarded by JUVE (2025/2026);
  • Legal500 Deutschland includes Sven as “frequently recommended” for M&A (mid-sized deals) as well as private equity (mid-sized deals) and ranks him as a “leading partner” for venture capital (2025); and
  • Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers list Sven as a Best Lawyer in the category Venture Capital (2025), and Sven also received their award "Venture Capital Lawyer of the Year – Western Germany" (2025); and
  • in the 2017 edition of its Innovative Lawyers Report Europe, the Financial Times named Svenʹs work to connect start-ups with Germanyʹs Mittelstand (mid-sized companies) a standout “for making bridges between Silicon Valley and Germany”.

  • Sven Greulich has recently advised on, among other things, the following projects and transactions:

    Venture Capital and Corporate Venture Capital

    Investor Side

    • Atomico on its investment in a German deep-tech startup
    • Blossom Capital on investments in Kadmos, finmid, Buycycle and SuperX
    • Coatue as (lead) investor in multiple large cap venture capital investments in some of Germany's best-known start-ups including N26, Gorillas Technologies and Choco Communications
    • Energy Impact Partners on various ESG-Investments, including Zolar, Grover, Instagrid
    • GIC on various large-scale investments in the European ESG space, including Zolar, H2GS, Cerafiltec and Sunfire
    • Haniel on investments in numerous German start-ups, including InFarm, Wandelbots, Sdui and 1Komma5°
    • Headline Ventures as largest investor in the merger of German Fintechs Deposit Solutions and Raisin as well as on numerous investments in Germany and other countries, most recently for example in Numa, Finom and Plancraft
    • IVP on its investment in Kittl Technologies
    • Schneider Electric Ventures on numerous early-stage investments in European DeepTech start-ups, most recently on its investment in Makersite
    •  US listed company Skillz on a growth investment in and partnership with Exit Games
    • 3x Dax40, 2x MDax and several other German corporates on corporate venture capital investments and technology/team acquisition projects in the DACH region and the US as well as numerous investments in venture capital funds across the globe.

    Company Side

    • Accure Battery Intelligence on a USD 16m Series B led by Incharge (a joint venture between Porsche and DTCP)
    • Fintech scaleup auxmoney on its 150m EUR Series F led by Centerbridge
    • Camunda on raising a USD 100m Series B from Insight Capital and Highland Europe
    • SaaS scaleup Contentful on its 80m USD Series E with lead investor Sapphire and the preceding Series D and Series C financing rounds
    • Gigs on a USD 73m Series B led by Ribbit Capital
    • Lidrotec, a pioneer in chip singulation, on a USD 13.5m Series A2 financing round led by Lam Capital
    • Proxima Fusion on the EUR 130m Series A led by Cherry, Balderton, and numerous other investors, as well as on all previous financing rounds
    • Taktile on a USD 54m Series B led by Balderton, with participation from Index, Tiger Global, and YC, as well as on all previous financing rounds
    • More than 70 university spin-outs on their formation and, in many cases, also on subsequent financing rounds, including automaited, Accure Battery Technologies, Biothrust, Elevear, Gemesis, HBOX, Lidrotec, RIIICO, SE3 Labs, UMH, Vivalyx, Voltfang etc.
    • More than 110 German tech companies on their flips into a US holding structure as part of their admission to various US-based accelerator programs as well as on subsequent financing rounds (SAFE and equity), including Alpas, Autarc, Demodesk, Droidrun, Flower Labs, Gigs, Invitris, Iocalyze, Lowering, PowerUs, Sanvivo, Taktile, Telli, Throne etc.

    M&A

    • Qvest Media on its acquisition of a majority stake in US media systems company OnPrem
    • Deutsche Telekom on the establishment of an international joint venture with Zeiss Group to develop smart glasses
    • Kärcher group on its acquisition of SaaS company Service Partner One as well as various corporate venture capital investments
    • HAHN Group on the acquisition of robotic technology from US cobot robotic pioneer rethink robotics inc.
    • RSBG on various acquisitions in the USA, Canada, and Germany in the fields of services, data centers, cybersecurity, and medtech
    • STEAG on multiple M&A projects, including the acquisition of a business division of GILDEMEISTER group, the acquisition of the Krantz-Business from Caverion and the divestment of STEAG Power Minerals to EPH

    • GEA Group on the acquisition of the sanitary pump producer HILGE from Grundfos Group and several other M&A projects