Marko Maschek

Marko Maschek
Nationality	German
Occupation	Business executive, private equity professional
Known for	Managing director of Maschmeyer Group; co-founder and managing partner of Marondo Capital

Marko Maschek is a German business executive and private equity professional known for his role as managing director of the Maschmeyer Group, the investment vehicle of German entrepreneur Carsten Maschmeyer. He is also a co-founder and managing partner of Marondo Capital, a private equity firm headquartered in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) that specializes in investing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Under Maschek's leadership, Marondo Capital has positioned itself at the intersection of private equity and the European defence and critical infrastructure sectors, raising funds to acquire and develop companies producing dual-use technologies and components. Maschek's career trajectory reflects a broader evolution in German private equity, moving from traditional family-office investing to sector-focused fund management in areas of increasing strategic importance to European security and industrial policy.

Career

Maschmeyer Group

Marko Maschek serves as managing director of the Maschmeyer Group, the private investment and holding company founded by German financier and entrepreneur Carsten Maschmeyer. In this capacity, Maschek has been involved in overseeing a portfolio that spans venture capital, growth equity, and direct investments across multiple industries. The Maschmeyer Group is one of the more prominent family-office-style investment platforms in Germany, and Maschek's role within it has placed him at the centre of the German investment landscape.

Marondo Capital

Maschek is a co-founder and managing partner of Marondo Capital, a private equity firm focused on the DACH region. The firm concentrates on acquiring and developing small and medium-sized enterprises, a sector that forms the backbone of the German industrial economy. Marondo Capital has gained particular attention for its strategic pivot toward defence-related and dual-use investments, a move that has placed the firm within a growing cohort of European private equity managers responding to the continent's changing security environment.

Fund I

Marondo Capital's debut fund established the firm's presence in the DACH mid-market, focusing on SMEs with specialised industrial capabilities. The fund's investment thesis centred on identifying companies with strong market positions in niche industrial segments, a strategy that would later inform the firm's more targeted approach in subsequent fundraising efforts.

Fund II and Defence Focus

In 2025, Marondo Capital launched fundraising for its second fund, targeting €250 million in commitments. The fund's investment strategy represents a significant thematic evolution, concentrating on dual-use defence and critical infrastructure assets. The fund targets German SMEs that serve as key suppliers of components to the broader European defence supply chain.

This strategic direction reflects a broader trend in European private equity. With investment into Europe's defence sector on the rise — driven by heightened geopolitical tensions, increased NATO spending commitments, and a renewed emphasis on European strategic autonomy — Marondo Capital under Maschek's leadership has identified German SMEs as critical but often overlooked participants in the defence industrial base. Many of these companies produce components, technologies, or services that have both civilian and military applications, fitting the "dual-use" classification that has become central to the European defence procurement debate.

The timing of Fund II's launch coincided with a period of intense activity in the defence-related private equity space. A growing number of institutional investors, including pension funds and insurers, began revising their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies to permit investment into defence assets that had previously been off-limits for many allocators. This shift in institutional appetite provided a more receptive fundraising environment for firms like Marondo Capital that were explicitly positioning themselves in the defence and critical infrastructure space.

Role in the European Defence Investment Landscape

Marondo Capital's fundraising and investment activities under Maschek's direction have placed the firm within a wider conversation about the role of private equity in European defence. The year 2025 was described as a record-breaking period for private equity deals in the aerospace and defence sector, with major firms including Blackstone, Warburg Pincus, and others all active in the space.

However, the pivot toward defence has not been without complexity. Industry observers have noted several challenges facing private equity firms entering the defence sector, including reputational risk and a relative lack of fund opportunities compared to investor demand. Some market participants have questioned whether valuations in the defence technology sector have become stretched relative to the underlying opportunity. Christian Wiehenkamp, chief investment officer of family office Perpetual, publicly expressed wariness about defence tech valuations, questioning whether the sector opportunity matched the high level of investor demand.

Further complications emerged later in 2025, with reports suggesting that the pace of defence deployment in private equity was being hindered by various structural and regulatory factors. These dynamics underscore the market context in which Maschek and Marondo Capital have been operating — one characterised by strong tailwinds of political and strategic demand, but also by the practical challenges of deploying capital into a sector that has historically been underserved by private equity.

Marondo Capital's approach, focused on the German Mittelstand (mid-market companies), represents a distinct niche within the broader defence investment trend. Rather than pursuing large-scale defence primes or high-profile defence technology startups, the firm under Maschek's leadership targets the smaller, often family-owned companies that form the lower tiers of defence supply chains. These companies frequently possess specialised engineering capabilities, long-standing customer relationships with defence primes and government agencies, and proprietary technologies that are difficult to replicate — characteristics that align with traditional private equity value creation strategies in the industrial mid-market.

The dual-use focus is also notable from a regulatory perspective. Companies producing components or technologies with both civilian and military applications occupy a different regulatory and reputational space than manufacturers of weapons systems or munitions. This positioning may allow Marondo Capital to attract capital from institutional investors that remain cautious about direct weapons-related investments, even as ESG policies are being loosened across the industry.

Recognition

Marondo Capital's fundraising for its second fund attracted coverage from major private equity and financial publications, including Private Equity International, PE Hub, and Venture Capital Journal, reflecting the firm's growing profile within the European private equity industry. The firm's strategic focus on dual-use defence SMEs in the DACH region has positioned it as one of the notable emerging managers in a sector that gained substantial attention from institutional investors throughout 2025.