TRUMPF Putting ‘Adventure’ in Corporate Venture: Winding Path that Leads to Industry 4.0 Revolution

TRUMPF, family owned and founded nearly a century ago, is synonymous with innovation and a key contributor to the Industry 4.0 revolution.

TRUMPF Venture is the corporate venture capital arm of the TRUMPF group, and deploys a team with diverse backgrounds in engineering, physics, and finance. Managing director Dieter Kraft combines many years of experience in venture capital and business excellence, leading TRUMPF Venture as a fair partner and investor.

The company brings more to the table than just capital; it is an investor with an expansive network, deep domain expertise and proven skills in scalability. It has a pioneering spirit, and promotes developments that challenge existing business models.

This shapes concepts — such as Industry 4.0 — from the very start, and provides key impetus. TRUMPF supports promising start-ups keen to play a key part in shaping the industry of the future. Funded start-ups benefit from its investor relationships, rooted in technical expertise and market savvy, generating added value for its customers.

TRUMPF invests internationally, ideally in investor consortiums, with a focus on early stage financing — its sweet spot is series A — as lead and co-investor.

For a first fund of €40m, TRUMPF typically makes an initial contribution of €500,00 to €2m initially, establishing itself as a stable partner through future investment rounds.

In addition to a strategic fit, a risk-adjusted return on the capital provided is important. TRUMPF Venture strives for a minority interest, enabling start-ups to develop and grow.

TRUMPF looks for high-tech companies with complementary market and technology values. The criteria for an investment include an outstanding team, a business model that incorporates ground-breaking technology, and business innovations characterised by sophisticated selling points — ideally with initial turnover.

Additional requisites for investments are an experienced management team, scalability, and potential for sustainable growth and added value. With its network connections and industrial production experience, TRUMPF can help company founders to get started on the market, and to grow.

TRUMPF focuses on start-ups that will shape the industry of the future. It is happy to work on joint investments, providing expertise in technical due diligence and assisting the start-up team to overcome technical obstacles on the path to becoming a great scaling company.