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AM Ventures
AM Ventures: An insider’s perspective on venture capital for start-ups in Additive Manufacturing In an industry driven by innovation, start-ups play a vital role in creating the next generation of AM technologies, applications, software solutions and materials. However, only a small percentage of these start-ups will survive, and even fewer will thrive. Arno Held, Chief Venture Officer at AM Ventures Holding GmbH, presents a statistical analysis of start-ups across the AM sector, including success rates, geographic distribution and key areas of focus, and offers his insight into venture capital as it relates to the Additive Manufacturing industry.
When my long-time mentor Johann Oberhofer and I started AM Ventures, with great support from the Langer family, just five years ago in January 2015, we knew very little of what the world of AM start-ups looked like. I still remember my first day at the desk, in an oversized office on EOS’s Krailling campus, very well. The story of AM Ventures, however, actually began about six months before. After meeting an inspiring team of young entrepreneurs at a 3D Printing Cluster meet-up in Munich and convincing them to bring some colour to our industry by founding what is today the huge success story of DyeMansion, I realised exactly what I wanted to do with my network, and the technical experience I had built up at EOS over almost seven years: I wanted to found a start-up that helps other start-ups to start up. I pitched the idea to Dr Hans Langer and Johann Oberhofer, who quite liked it, and the rest, as they say, is more or less history. So, six months later, there I was. Alone in a big office. A desk, a chair and me. And what does a typical representative of Generation Y do
Vol. 6 No. 1 © 2020 Inovar Communications Ltd
when they have to start with a blank sheet of paper? They research the next steps on Google. I think I spent more than three months doing almost nothing else but researching every start-up that was developing or using Additive Manufacturing technology. I created an archive, collected data and started
to compare. I found reports, went to conferences, got introduced to very helpful contacts and eventually found the next start-up to invest in, and then the next, and then the next. Today, almost exactly five years after we began to build AM Ventures, I am very proud to have built a team of eight highly passionate AM experts
Invested countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK, Sweden, Australia, USA
Funding rounds: 15 Seed | 9 Series A
Ticket size: €0.5–5.0 million, minority share
Portfolio ventures: > 15
Funding stages: Seed to growth
Scouted start-ups: > 1,400
Fig. 1 Overview of the investment activities of AM Ventures
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Spring 2020
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