Austrian Venture Capital Speedinvest has just launched their 50 Million Euros fund – Speedinvest i – to invest in young industrial tech companies, Austrian website Futurezone announced yesterday. Speedinvest i follows after Speedinvest successfully lunched Speedinvest x and Speedinvest f micro funds.
Reportedly, the VC will provide between 100.000 and 2 million Euros to all eligible startups that are primarily focused in developing a solution for the industry sector. The main criteria will be the composition of the team and the vision of the startup, and the winning startups will receive a full support from the Speedinvest experts and full access to the industry partners.
So far, many well-known companies from the traditional industry sector are on board to become partners with the young startups who will help them innovate and digitize, thus transforming them into more competitive and more efficient companies on the market. The world leading powder metallurgy process chain company –Plansee; the manufacturer of cable cars and gondolas –Doppelmayr; and construction magnate Wacker Neuson are just few of the companies that are willing to cooperate with the industrial tech startuppers. Reportedly, 20 traditional industry firms are on board and open for collaboration.
Apart from cooperating with young entrepreneurs in Austria, the VC plans to collaborate with young startups from Munich, Germany, where reportedly a strong ecosystem was formed with the great support of industry. UK, Russia and France are also in the loop, as countries with most developed industry sectors.
To date, the fund Speedinvest it has already invested in five young companies, including the Vorarlberg start-up crate.io, which provides database solutions for the industry, Senseforce, which supports companies in the transition to data- and service-oriented business models, and the Munich- based start-up Twaice, which measures battery data to help manufacturers increase uptime and reduce development costs.
Partner and Head of Speedinvest i Fund / Photo: https://speedinvest.com/marie-helene-ametsreiter/
According to the Speedinvest team, so far, comparatively little money has flowed into start-ups from this field.
“In the industrial sector there are long decision cycles, the sales are complex, but also the margins are higher,” says Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, Partner at SpeedInvest and head of the new Fund.
Founded in 2011 in Vienna, Austria, Speedinvest is a revolutionizing European Venture Capital. The VC not only invests capital in world-class talent, but also provide the entrepreneurial know-how, and operational experience that is rare outside of a place like Silicon Valley, but is so essential to building great companies. Aside from their office in Vienna, Speedinvest is present in Germany, with offices in Munich and Berlin; in San Francisco, California; and Moscow, Russia.
Speedinvest Is, on the other hand, was just announced this summer as a micro-fund under the Speedinvest umbrella, focused on Industry 4.0. The fund is primarily dedicated to areas such as big data & analytics, intelligent production systems, and new business models for the industry. According to its founders, Speedinvest i is the “first pan-European Venture Fund for Industrial Tech Startups”, that would also serve as a bridge to Silicon Valley.
Just as a reminder the first micro fund lunched by Speedinvest was Speedinvest x, a 50 million Euros micro fund that focuses on early-stage (pre-seed, seed and early Series A) investments ranging from 100.000 to 1 million Euros in European and — occasionally — North American entrepreneurs who are a) building the platforms and marketplace businesses of tomorrow, and b) the technologies that enable them.
Later, Speedinvest announced their second micro fund Speedinvest f, yet another 50 million Euros micro fund that focuses on growth funding for European fintech companies in the areas of payments, alternative lending, insurance, investments, personal finance as well as data, compliance and infrastructure. Typical ticket sizes of initial investments range from 1 million to 4 million Euros. Investors in Speedinvest f include a number of former Fintech founders and financial services experts from across the world, as well as NEA (New Enterprise Associates), one of the most renowned VC funds in the U.S.