Robert Gentz
About Robert Gentz
Robert Gentz co-founded Zalando in Berlin in 2008. He is its co-CEO and sits on the Management Board. According to the company's investor relations page, he was born in 1983. He oversees Zalando's strategy, with a focus on growing its consumer business.
He holds a diploma in business administration from WHU, Otto Beisheim School of Management. A profile on StartupIntros says he co-founded Zalando with David Schneider. His angel investing is a side activity next to his executive role at Zalando. He is based in Berlin.
Crunchbase lists 15 personal investments, and PitchBook lists 17. Both databases show CodeWords as the most recent. Tracxn records an angel round in the solar energy company Enpal in November 2020, alongside David Schneider, and also lists Mondu.
Other investments listed by data providers include Linear (2023), Droppe (2024) and Taito.ai (2024). PitchBook also lists Female Invest, with no year given. These databases are not self-reported, so counts differ between them.
In May 2026 Gentz took part in CodeWords' $9M seed round. Visionaries led the round, and firstminute capital, Sequel and Illusian also took part. Tech.eu names him among the angels, along with the CEOs of Miro, ElevenLabs, Personio and Supercell. CodeWords is a London company whose agent, Cody, builds and runs automations for non-technical users.
In November 2024 he was one of the angels in Taito.ai's €2.5M seed round, which Accel led. Taito.ai makes employee performance management software.
Third-party profiles (EasyVC, AngelMatch) list him as backing pre-seed and seed companies, mainly in Europe. The sectors they list include AI, SaaS, e-commerce, retail, payments, insurance, security, energy tech and IoT.
Those profiles give a check size of $5K to $50K. They do not say where the figure comes from, and Gentz has not confirmed it publicly. We found no public statement from him on what he looks for in founders.
- CodeWords: London AI automation platform. Seed round of $9M, May 2026.
- Taito.ai: employee performance management software. €2.5M seed round, November 2024.
- Linear: software development and project management tool. Listed as a 2023 investment.
- Enpal: Berlin provider of solar energy solutions. Angel round, November 2020.
- Mondu: listed as a portfolio company by Tracxn. We found no investment date.
- Female Invest: listed by PitchBook. We found no investment date.
- corporate.zalando.com/en/investor-relations/our-management-board
- slush.org/program/robert-gentz
- startupintros.com/people/robert-gentz
- tech.eu/2026/05/07/codewords-raises-9m-to-bring-proactive-ai-agents-to
- dealroom.co/companies/agemo
- thesaasnews.com/news/taito-ai-raises-2-5-million-in-seed-round
- tracxn.com/d/people/robert-gentz/__GR04hAD14pNgajFNzs0SWeEmyFVwpWBRTiJ
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/152989-93
Investing activity
Robert Gentz appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $9M. The most recent is CodeWords (Seed, $9M, May 2026).
Robert Gentz most often invests alongside Visionaries, Andrey Khusid, François Chollet and Kieran Flanagan, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Robert Gentz
Who is Robert Gentz?
Robert Gentz is the co-founder and co-CEO of Zalando, which he started in Berlin in 2008. He also invests personally as an angel in early-stage startups.
Does Robert Gentz invest in AI startups?
Yes. He was an angel in CodeWords' $9M seed round in May 2026, and he backed Taito.ai's seed round in November 2024. Data providers also list AI among his sectors.
What check size does Robert Gentz write?
He has not stated one publicly. Third-party databases list $5K to $50K, but we could not trace that figure to him, so treat it as an estimate.
What stage does Robert Gentz invest at?
Data providers list pre-seed and seed. His recorded AI deals, CodeWords and Taito.ai, were both seed rounds.
How can founders contact Robert Gentz?
We found no personal site or verified social profiles for him. Founders usually reach angels like him through warm introductions, such as co-investors or other founders he has backed.
Is Robert Gentz an angel investor?
Yes. Robert Gentz invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Robert Gentz invested in?
Robert Gentz's AI investments include CodeWords. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Who does Robert Gentz co-invest with?
Robert Gentz's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Visionaries (1 deal), Andrey Khusid (1 deal), François Chollet (1 deal), Kieran Flanagan (1 deal) and Mati Staniszewski (1 deal).
How can founders reach Robert Gentz?
Founders on Lounge can see Robert Gentz's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Robert Gentz to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.