Merantix Capital’s €103M Fund Breaks the Studio Mold to Hunt European AI Startups

Target sectors and investment thesis

Merantix Capital invests in AI’s application layer, concentrating on sectors where deep domain expertise and proprietary data create enduring advantages. The firm’s stated areas of interest include healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and logistics . Its investment thesis emphasizes category-defining companies that use AI as a general-purpose technology to unlock exponential leverage .

Limited partners and strategic backing

While the complete limited partner list for the €103 million fund has not been disclosed, two strategic investors are confirmed from earlier partnerships:

• KPMG invested in the Merantix AI fund as part of a long-term strategic partnership announced in December 2024. That collaboration also includes joint customer projects, knowledge transfer, and KPMG’s participation across the broader Merantix group .
• Jungheinrich invested €5 million in Merantix Capital’s AI fund as part of a strategic partnership announced in May 2025. The industrial truck manufacturer focuses on AI applications in robotics, sustainability, enterprise AI, energy, and logistics .

Earlier reporting from Sifted in November 2023 noted that Merantix was targeting €100 million for the fund and was in talks with existing LPs including SoftBank, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Kellogg Foundation . The final closed amount of €103 million and the confirmed LP composition as of June 2026 come from the Handelsblatt report .

Portfolio and track record

The Handelsblatt announcement did not name specific new portfolio companies connected to the €103 million fund . Historically, Merantix’s portfolio has been built entirely from its in-house venture studio. The firm backs pre-seed and seed-stage AI-native companies, with biotech and life sciences representing roughly one-third of its historical portfolio .

Merantix’s official portfolio page describes partnerships with founders building AI applications across health care, manufacturing, and tech bio . For the most current list of active investments, Merantix’s website is the primary source.

The broader Merantix platform

Merantix Capital sits inside the larger Merantix group, which positions itself as Europe’s largest AI platform . This integrated structure is a core part of the firm’s value proposition for portfolio companies.

Three platform components stand out:

• Merantix Momentum — an AI solutions business that collaborates with portfolio companies on commercial projects and implementation .
• The AI Campus in Berlin — a physical hub where incubated startups develop their ideas before formal founding .
• Strategic partner access — portfolio companies benefit from relationships with KPMG (professional services, market access) and Jungheinrich (industrial AI applications), among others .

By combining direct venture investment with an in-house studio and a services arm, Merantix offers portfolio companies more than just capital, aiming to provide the talent, networks, and operational support needed to scale AI-native businesses in Europe’s industrial economy.