Dirk Kanngiesser

Dirk is a Partner at Cartagena Capital based in Palo Alto, USA. Dirk Kanngiesser is the principal founder and a Partner of PolyTechnos, an early stage Venture Capital company investing in innovative technologies. He has almost 20 years of Venture Capital experience, mostly in Partner roles.

He previously held a Partner position at Baring Private Equity Partners which gave him access to one of the most privileged networks in the investment industry. Prior to that, he worked at Procter & Gamble and Siemens, where he was an operative in brand management, product development, and project engineering.

Dirk is currently a board member of Cappella (Ireland, USA), Varioptic (France), and Ondeego (USA). He was a board member of Remos and he invested and/or has also served on the board of a number of European success stories such as Danionics (IPO Copenhagen) and Gemplus (IPO France/Netherlands). He has served on the boards of Venture Capital firms such as Capricorn Venture Partners and the EuroMerchant Balkan Fund. He also served as a member of the EVCA High Tech Committee. In addition he was a member of the German Stock exchange task force in the creation of Neuer Markt.

Dirk has studied in the USA and Europe and holds a dual citizenship (U.S. and Germany). He received his degree (Dipl. Ing./M.S.) in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, and his MBA from the University of Michigan. He served at the German Airforce Headquarters and holds a U.S. commercial pilot license.

dirk (at) cartagena-capital.com