She angel invested in a circular startup. Now she's the CEO
14 Jul 2026
06:00
Urte Zahn spent years as an angel investor before one of her own portfolio companies asked her to take the top job.
She recently became CEO of Re-Fresh Global, a Berlin startup turning hard-to-recycle textile waste into new raw materials, just as an EU ban on destroying unsold clothing takes effect.
We spoke with Zahn about:
→ Why she swapped angel investing for an operating seat
→ Raising a €5m seed in a tight funding environment
→ What carmakers will and won't pay for greener materials
She recently became CEO of Re-Fresh Global, a Berlin startup turning hard-to-recycle textile waste into new raw materials, just as an EU ban on destroying unsold clothing takes effect.
We spoke with Zahn about:
→ Why she swapped angel investing for an operating seat
→ Raising a €5m seed in a tight funding environment
→ What carmakers will and won't pay for greener materials
Angel investors usually write a cheque and stay in the background. Urte Zahn wrote one, and a few years later ended up running the company.
She had backed Re-Fresh Global as an angel 2023 and became quite actively evolved in the company, leveraging her network to help it gain grant funding. Last summer the team and its investors asked her to come in, she says, and in January she took the CEO role.