Rainer
Märkle

Rainer's habit of seeking out tough challenges led him to the world of VC. He studied engineering and economics, and worked in four different continents as a tech builder before navigating his way into venture capital. He applies a strong background in e-commerce to his work, which now spans a wide focus on anything that has the potential to become a large success or have a positive impact.
Rainer has always sought out a broad perspective across all aspects of life. Growing up with three siblings, he shared interests in sports, music and technology. His early titles included local football captain, certified ski instructor and church musician. In line with his constant curiosity, he earned a MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology, Munich, and completed his Masters at Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies in the US. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD, France/Singapore, all with the highest distinctions. His professional career started as an engineer in the mobile and fiber communications sector with Siemens. Two years later, he joined their VC from a tech perspective. After his MBA, Rainer joined 3i in their European VC team. He had also previously supported friends in an internet start-up (later sold to PageJaunes).

Rainer joined HV more than a decade ago. In his third week at the firm, HV invested in Zalando. Accompanying the founders of Zalando from seed to IPO and beyond has been the most rewarding chapter in his VC career. It taught him that anything is possible, boundaries are imaginary and amazing things can happen by working in the right set-up. Aside from this he has been involved in big exit stories with HelloFresh, Quandoo and Stylight. Some of his other highlights include working with Scalable Capital, Alasco and finn.auto.

In his spare time, Rainer is a family guy. He also likes to push boundaries in sports, participating in the Ironman World Championships Hawaii and many other endurance events.