LEA Partners venture team becomes independent as LEA Ventures
The Karlsruhe-based firm is focusing on physical AI, sovereign infrastructure and technology to modernise established industries across Europe.
The venture investment team at LEA Partners has become independent, operating as LEA Ventures from Karlsruhe. Partners Nils Seele, Alexi Malikotsinas and Martin Trenkle lead the firm, which is targeting founders developing technologies intended to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty.
Its investment strategy covers three areas: physical AI, including robotics and autonomous machinery; sovereign infrastructure, encompassing computing, data and AI technologies; and software and AI used to modernise industrial operations. The infrastructure focus includes secure software serving industry and the public sector, while industrial investments target Germany’s Mittelstand firms and larger manufacturers.
The firm’s geographical scope reaches beyond southwest Germany to industrial and research centres elsewhere in Europe, including Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Milan and Amsterdam. Seele, managing partner of LEA Ventures, said the team wanted to support companies over the long term as they sought to compete internationally.
Since 2017, the team has backed around 40 companies through three funds. Its investments include Aleph Alpha, Black Forest Labs, Flip, Codesphere and Q.ANT, with sevDesk and understand.ai among its portfolio exits.
