Our Venture
Studio
Our venture studio is the ideal starting place for ambitious founders. Dive into our platform to build the next category-leading AI venture. Starting all the way at ideation up to Series A, our process sets you up for success.
We offer €1M in idea-stage funding and an attractive equity arrangement for experienced founders looking to bring AI to life.
The 5 pillars on which we build AI ventures
Team
Team
Team
We are the leading employer for AI in Europe, attracting both junior and senior as well as generalist and specialist talent from all over the world and thus enabling you to assemble a strong team from day one.
- On average, our ventures see 50+ applicants per engineering hire
- We ensure that you can assemble diverse teams from around the world
- Our hiring processes include cross-interviewing with experts and onsite days to help qualify candidates
Validation
Validation
Validation
We believe that even the greatest ideas require a very strong initial go to market. This is why we push you in getting a commercial signal from the market fast and provide sparring in validating your product and technical angle.
- We connect you with external experts, potential customers and open doors to win the first pilot projects
- Get sparring from our engineering team to validate your venture case from a technical perspective
- Our validation process challenges you to answer the right questions at the right time
Financing
Financing
Financing
Setting you up for a strong scaling phase, we will invest in the pre-seed and seed rounds of your venture - and connect you with influential other investors.
- Pre-Seed and Seed round investments by Merantix
- Use our network to approach the right investors for your deeptech venture
- Fundraising prep and coaching through us and external experts
Network
Network
Network
Your Founder's Journey starts at Merantix, and our community will follow you far beyond that.
- Exchange with our founder community to navigate hard times, build resilience, and develop leadership skills
- Receive mentoring and invest in your personal growth during our bi-annual Founders Retreats
- Establish your personal network and enter Berlin’s leading network of visionary entrepreneurs.
Collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration
At the core of our principles lies collaboration. We believe that by sharing and collaborating, we can unlock the real potential of AI.
- Open research agreements between our ventures - meaning we share code, contracts, and know-how
- Access our proprietary tech stack for rapid prototyping and co-work with any experts in our network
- Engage on our AI Campus Berlin for inspiration, co-creation, talent acquisition, and more
Your journey
Rapid Ideation
Start ideating by exploring powerful AI use cases in your personal domain of expertise and passion. Together with us, our network of partners, as well as the engineering experts at Merantix Momentum, you will get an understanding of promising solutions to tackle your chosen problem space.
The goal of the first months is to work out 4 cases that each can transform and define entire industries and define hypotheses that will build the base for exploring 1-2 cases in more depth.
Focused Deep Dives
After having selected the 1-2 most promising cases, you begin building the product, business model, and go-to-market pillars of your venture by setting up pilot projects, assembling a co-founder and team, and getting first partners involved.
We will bring relevant stakeholders on board, who will challenge and coach you throughout the way so that we can make an educated assessment of the business potential at hand.
Pre-Seed Investment
As your case approaches product-market fit, we express our conviction in your case by investing €1M, putting you in the ideal position to execute the scale-up of your venture.
Then, we will start operationally guiding you: From finance, operations to marketing and HR, we enable you to make sure your venture hits the ground running from day one.
Accelerated Growth
Next, you will assemble a powerful team to get early revenue traction and build trust relationships with the best investors for your case. We will be sparring partners for you to make sure you are focusing on the right measures to build and scale your venture.
Seed Investment
Finally, you will lead your venture through an impactful Seed Investment raise. Our studio will support you with pitch trainings, sales coachings, all the way to helping you build a robust data room. We then connect you with deep-tech investors who will help boost your venture to the next level.
Our
Network
We are cultivating the largest academic and entrepreneurial network around AI in Europe, be it with our own members, our solutions provider Merantix Momentum, our AI Campus Berlin, or in cooperation with the German AI Association.
All of this comes together in concert during your founder's journey with us, where we pair you up and guide you with the leading minds of today.
Florian Heinemann
Co-Founder & General Manager,
Project A
Katharina Wilhelm
Partner
Index Venture
Julian Teicke
Founder
WeFox
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Stephen Thorne
Investment Director
Sofbank Investment Advisors
Julia Reinhardt
Privacy Professional (CIPP/E)
Stiftung Mercator
Mathis Büchi
Co-Founder
Taxfix
Anaïs Bock
Founder
Let's Work Magic
Alex Bangash
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Transpose Platform
Julian Teicke
Founder,
WeFox
Ayush Jain
Investment Principal,
Greyhound Capital
We've got your back
Coaching you intensively throughout all of your journey is our management board, bringing knowledge, networks, and expertise for each step of the way.
Adrian is a serial entrepreneur and investor for the past 20 years, founding more than 10 companies both in Europe and the US, in digital healthcare, e-commerce, and AI.
Janette is a leading voice for deep tech investments in the DACH region, while also leading the efforts of the Merantix venture fund and building up one of Europe's most vibrant AI communities with the AI Campus Berlin.
Ranked 50th most influential women in Tech, Nicole is the Founder of Germany’s first AI solutions provider, Merantix Momentum. She is a leading female tech personality in Europe and advises the World Economic Forum on tech-related matters.
Rasmus has published over 15 academic papers with more than 2000 citations on deep learning while attending Oxford, Princeton, and ETH Zurich, where he received his Ph.D., and launched a face recognition service with 150m+ users.
Start your journey.
