Berlin’s seed+speed Ventures closes €90M fund to supercharge European AI startups

Berlin-based venture capital firm seed+speed Ventures has closed its third fund at €90 million, tripling its original €30 million target after strong investor demand. The fund, led by Carsten Maschmeyer and Alexander Kölpin, will back European B2B and enterprise software companies at the pre-seed and seed stages, with initial investments ranging from €500,000 to €1.5 million and the potential for several million euros in follow-on funding per startup.

The new capital comes at a critical moment for European tech. While global AI development has been dominated by U.S. and Asian players, seed+speed Ventures is betting on homegrown innovation to compete on the world stage. The fund’s focus is on startups that not only build AI as a core technology but also provide tools to help companies deploy AI safely and effectively—addressing security, data protection, governance, quality, cost control, and measurable productivity.

“Our goal is to help European technology become solutions that set international standards,” said Alexander Kölpin, Managing Partner at seed+speed Ventures. “The question is no longer whether companies will use AI, but how they use it to remain competitive.”

Carsten Maschmeyer, also a Managing Partner, emphasized the urgency of European innovation: “If Europe wants to compete in the global AI race, we urgently need to drive innovation. We firmly believe in AI from Europe. There are strong, innovative founders here with an inventor’s mindset and world-class technology. What is often missing, unfortunately, is the power to build large companies from it—and that’s where we add value.”

The investor base for seed+speed III is diverse, including institutional investors such as banks and foundations, media groups, family offices, industrial holdings, professionals from the legal and tax sectors, real estate entrepreneurs, and high-net-worth individuals. Notably, several successful founders from seed+speed’s first two funds have reinvested in the new vehicle following their exits—a strong vote of confidence in the team’s approach.

Fundraising for seed+speed III began in summer 2024, and for the first time, the fund is open to European startups outside the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Since the fund’s inception, the investment team has already deployed capital into 13 startups, including:

Orq.ai (Amsterdam, Netherlands): A Generative AI collaboration/LLMOps platform that helps teams develop, test, deploy, and monitor AI agents securely in production.

RIIICO (Düsseldorf, Germany): An AI-based software platform that enables industrial companies to create a digital 3D model of their existing factories, allowing them to plan and execute factory expansions, new production lines, and other conversion projects four times faster and more flexibly than before. Customers include well-known automotive manufacturers.

Optimuse (Vienna, Austria): An AI platform for building engineering, retrofit projects, and operations. It shows planners of new and existing buildings early on which technical options reduce costs and emissions the most.

Eleven Dynamics (Solothurn, Switzerland): Provides automated inline metrology and quality assurance for manufacturing, helping companies reduce cycle times while improving quality. Customers include BMW, Audi, and Sauber Motorsport.

With €90 million at its disposal, seed+speed Ventures is positioning itself as a major player in the European AI ecosystem, aiming to bridge the gap between early-stage innovation and large-scale enterprise adoption. By investing at the earliest stages and supporting founders with follow-on fundraising, go-to-market execution, and sales-led scaling, the firm hopes to ensure that European technology not only competes globally but leads the way in responsible, secure, and impactful AI deployment.

As the AI race intensifies, seed+speed Ventures’ bold move signals a clear message: Europe is ready to innovate, compete, and set new standards in the global technology landscape.

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