Marie Helene Ametsreiter

Marie-Hélène Ametsreiter is a General Partner at Speedinvest, one of Europe's most active early-stage venture capital funds, where she has been a partner since 2014 and has played a central role in shaping the firm over more than a decade. She heads Speedinvest's Climate Tech & Industrial Tech investment team out of the firm's Munich office, and also leads its Corporate Program, which connects startups with established industrial corporates. Speedinvest backs early-stage (predominantly seed) companies across Europe and operates specialist teams spanning AI & Infra, Climate Tech & Industrial Tech, Deep Tech, Fintech, Health & Bio, Marketplaces & Consumer, and more.

Before venture capital, Marie-Hélène built a deep operating career in industry. She spent sixteen years with the Telekom Austria Group in a range of marketing and general management roles across Western and South-Eastern Europe, including serving as President of the management board of VIPnet, the first private mobile operator in Croatia, and overseeing commercial operations across roughly eight countries. She was recognized as "Manager of the Year" in Croatia for her work as a telecom CEO. She subsequently led the corporate sustainability department at OMV AG — one of Austria's largest listed industrial/energy companies — from 2011, where she was responsible for global sustainability and ESG initiatives across some 30 markets.

She studied Business Administration in Vienna and California (US). Beyond her Speedinvest role, she currently serves on the board of RHI Magnesita (RHIM), an FTSE 250 industrial company, and has been recognized publicly as a leading investor (for example, named Germany's #1 "Top Investor" by XTB in 2023). Her stated passion is connecting entrepreneurs with the knowledge, network, and capital they need to scale industrial and climate technologies.

• Invests primarily at seed / early stage in European startups, leading rounds out of Speedinvest's Munich-based Climate Tech & Industrial Tech practice.
• Focus areas: industrial technology, climate tech, and the digitalization/decarbonization of traditional industry — including AI-driven industrial software, robotics, automation, recycling/circular economy, and energy transition.
• Backs companies "fighting the climate crisis and modernizing industry," which she has described as having "enormous potential" — pairing climate impact with industrial scale.
• Leans on her industrial operating background and Speedinvest's Corporate Program to connect portfolio startups with corporates — a key part of her value-add and a signal of what she looks for (startups that can sell into and transform incumbents).
• In her own words: *"I love connecting entrepreneurs to the knowledge, people, and capital they need to succeed."*
• Helped launch Speedinvest's €80M Climate & Industry Opportunity Fund, dedicated to technology companies tackling the climate crisis (with LPs including NEA).