Our broad network of financial supporters now includes a total of 246 individuals. Personalities from diverse fields—sport, politics, media, society, and business—are part of it. Our co-founders, Katharina Kurz and Lisa Währer, discussed the unique structure of FC Viktoria Berlin in light of the new financing round.
The full conversation is available for free in the latest podcast episode of the Sportsidols Medienschau.
Lisa I We want to build a network around the FC Viktoria Berlin team, and to achieve this, we’ve launched a new funding round. This approach is mostly seen in the business and start-up scenes. Could you explain a bit more about it?
Katharina I To start, I should say that while Berlin calls itself the sports capital, it’s essentially the sports capital for men. In none of the major sports is there a truly established fan culture for women’s sports, where thousands flock to cheer on female athletes.
When we asked ourselves how we could advance a women’s team, we realised it was essential to build support on broad and, most importantly, many shoulders—both in terms of backing and funding. At the same time, when you look at many cases, not only in sports but in areas where women are at the forefront, the financial structures behind them are still predominantly male. That’s another thing we wanted to change. From the beginning, we’ve deliberately used the term 'investor,' which is often frowned upon in men’s football, because we want to show that women’s football can be a viable business case.
Since our first funding round two years ago, we’ve activated our network and invited people to invest in FC Viktoria Berlin with smaller stakes. To clarify the investment terminology: the minimum stake, or ‘ticket,’ is €10,000, allowing someone to join; the maximum is €50,000. We’re purposefully avoiding any single person having enough influence to dominate decisions.
While this ticket size is a substantial amount, it’s still quite accessible compared to other start-up investments. This way, we’ve built an incredible, diverse network of supporters—athletes like Franziska van Almsick, Maria Höfl-Riesch, and Anke Huber, but also individuals from media, the start-up scene, and beyond. The beauty of it is that this network is very broad, and so many of the investors are women, many of whom are investing for the first time and learning how it all works.
With this new funding round, we’ve actually gained another 60 amazing investors. We now have a total of 246 investors, all united under a single limited company (GmbH). This setup is quite unique, and even in terms of investor management, it’s something you don’t see very often. We’re definitely trying to take a different approach.
Credit: Kai Heuser, @heuserkampf
L I Absolutely! And it was a very deliberate decision on our part to take this more business-oriented path. We began our journey toward the Bundesliga with an amateur team that had almost no supporting infrastructure. We knew that financing this wouldn’t be feasible through donations alone; real investment was essential. The need for these financial resources becomes clear because we can put them to very effective use. Everything relies, in some way, on funding—whether it’s for the athletic team itself or all of our communication initiatives. Maybe you could talk a bit more about exactly where we’re investing these funds.
K I The most important thing for us, of course—and we were the first to do this when we started—is that we’ve given our players contracts and are advancing step by step. In the beginning, we called it more of an expense allowance, but primarily it allowed us to ensure the team was covered by professional association insurance. This is absolutely essential, as there are severe injuries even in amateur football. Without adequate infrastructure for proper care afterwards, things can take a bad turn. So, we’ve expanded support within our coaching staff, which is a huge area, and the structure behind the team has become much more professional. It’s essentially a small business, from accounting to social media, all of which need dedicated attention.
We’ve invested the funds well so far, but they’re essential. We’re clear on our goal to help professionalise women’s sport as a whole, and we can see a lot of movement around us in this direction. That’s exactly where we need to go! For a young girl or woman, the dream of becoming a professional athlete and making a living from it should be completely normal. Right now, we’re far from that reality. Yes, there are major clubs that can now pay substantial salaries, but the average salary for players in the Bundesliga has a limited lifespan. So, when a career eventually ends, players also need to consider what they’ll do next. In the 2nd Bundesliga, salaries aren’t even the norm yet.
So, we’re still far from having professional structures, and to achieve that, we need more focus on the issue. We need more spectators, more media attention, and more people, companies, and sponsors who are truly excited to invest in this area and believe in pushing it forward together.
L I The next few years are going to be absolutely crucial. There’s now a general understanding that money has to be invested in something if it’s going to become profitable in the end. This is how all start-ups and companies operate. In women’s football, this kind of investment has simply been lacking in recent years. People have always said there’s potential there, but they also said women had to make it happen on their own, bringing more spectators to the stadiums and generating more attention. Now, I believe many have finally understood that this doesn’t happen by itself—investment is essential.
In the coming years, it will be critical to turn this case towards profitability. Everyone—clubs, players, associations, and media—needs to take this step and establish the product professionally to achieve the visibility and infrastructure required. I’m completely confident that, with this approach, our investors will see returns. Because, as I said, studies have consistently shown that there is real potential and that people are eager to engage with women’s football.
There’s also another model in the spotlight right now, like St. Pauli’s cooperative. Why didn’t we choose the cooperative model at the time?
K I It's a great model, of course, and it fits for St. Pauli. It relies on the club's incredibly broad fan base of solidarity and also unites the social movement behind it. I think that's really great. Why didn't we do that? Firstly, of course, you need an incredibly broad fan base that you can count on, and we didn't have that yet. We have to build that up first. That's why our goal for financing FC Viktoria Berlin was, on the one hand, to raise a bit more money.
On the other hand, we also wanted to turn this topic into a business case and communicate it. If you look at the men's media rights, where Bundesliga clubs receive simply insane amounts of money via the DFL and look at the difference to the women, there is still an incredible amount missing to get to a good financial level. That will be our task together with many other players over the next few years. What is very important and what we keep talking about: That we don't simply try to copy men's sport. We don't want to enter the same spheres. I think we all agree on that. We want to see how we can create our own women's football - from the stadium experience to earning money. We don't have all the answers yet, but we're on the right track and that's why we're networking with many other players.
L I Then tell us, if there are still people who would like to become part of us and investors, what needs to be done?
K I If you still want to be part of it, you can of course write to us at investors@fcviktoria.com and then we'll simply start talking. We have just raised over 700,000 euros in a so-called first closing. This means that we still have the potential to push another half a million euros into next year as part of this financing round. We hope to bag the rest by the middle of the second half of the season and are currently in talks. That is very exciting!
L I So, stay tuned!
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