StartupYard

Everything here is led by Founders, for Founders. We believe capital is a commodity, experience and inner purpose are not. We want to help our Founders succeed in building extraordinary companies. We’re an experienced team of operators who have started dozens of companies by shaping people's lives. We are on our journey to create a better society by creating impactful companies.

We invest from day-zero to seed, backing founders from all over Europe. We are fortunate to have been on the zero to one journey with portfolio companies who have raised in excess of $1Bn in follow-on funding from some of the world's best VCs.

Our mission is to leverage Mallorca’s strategic position to foster a new generation of successful entrepreneurs, providing capital, strategic guidance, and support for early-stage startups across Europe. With years of experience across multiple fields, Max Ventures is lucky to work alongside industry leaders, game-changing founders, non-profit organisations, and more that enhance our ability to bring the absolute best to the community. Together, we foster growth and tackle challenges to boost the startup ecosystem here in Mallorca.

We believe that to unlock the profound potentials of AI, a collaborative approach is needed. With our Venture Studio, we are orchestrating the category leaders of tomorrow. How we build After years of research in the field, we have cultivated an integrative approach to building AI ventures. Including all relevant stakeholders during each step of the way. From ideation up until Series A, our process ensures that you as a Founder is best equipped to build a venture that will form a lasting impact. ‍The 5 pillars on which we build AI ventures To bring AI from research into practice, there are five key challenges that need to be overcome. We have cultivated a setup that enables you as a Founder to master these challenges, in order to build the category leading venture of tomorrow. 1. Team We are the leading employer for AI in Europe, attracting both junior and senior as well as generalist and specalist talent from all over the world and thus enable you to assemble a strong team from day one. On average, our ventures see 50+ applicants per engineering hire We ensure that you can assemble diverse teams from around the world Our hiring processes include cross-interviewing with experts and onsite days to help qualify candidates 2. Validation We believe that even the greatest ideas require a very strong initial go to market. This is why we push you in getting a commercial signal from the market fast and provide sparring in validating your product and technical angle. We connect you with external experts, potential costumers and open doors to win the first pilot projects Get proof and sparring from our engineering team to validate your venture case from a technical perspective Our validation process challenges you to answer the right questions and the right time 3. Financing Setting you up for a strong scaling phase, we will invest in the pre-seed and seed rounds of your venture - and connect you with strong other investors. Pre-Seed and Seed round investments by Merantix Use our network to approach the right investors for your deeptech venture Fundraising prep and coaching through us and external experts 4. Network Your Founders journey starts at Merantix, and our community will follow you far beyond that. Exchange with our Founder community to navigate hard times, build resilience, and develop leadership skills Receive mentoring and invest in your personal growth during our bi-annual Founders Retreats Establish your personal network and enter Berlin’s leading network of visionary entrepreneurs 5. Collaboration At the core of our venture studio principle lies collaboration. We believe that by sharing and collaborating we can unlock the real potentials of AI. Open research agreements between our ventures - meaning we share code, contracts and know-how Access our proprietary tech-stack for rapid prototyping and co-work with any experts in our network Engage on our AI Campus Berlin for inspiration, co-creation, talent acquisition and more

We designed a unique VC model to serve student-founders. Wonder why? Student-entrepreneurs see the world through a unique lens. They are the most exposed to cutting-edge technology, innovations, and societal change. That’s why game-changing companies are consistently emerging from universities: Snapchat, Facebook, and Figma to list a few. Some people will argue you need 3 years of experience to start a company. They are wrong. With enough hard work and perseverance, you can start building a startup that will have an impact, today. If 25% of US-based unicorns are started at university, why couldn’t this be the same in the UK & EU? That’s why we exist, to select, support, and invest in high-potential founders. 10-100k investment: We know that small investments can make big differences. We help you get your product off the ground and set up your company. 12 weeks of intense support: We have our yearly accelerators, and hackathons. There’s no magic recipe but there some things you should know…We help you build your team, quickly test your ideas and create your company on solid ground. 80+ exports & mentors: A network is key when creating a successful company. We are building Initiator with the help of incredible experts, entrepreneurs and investors. Our network becomes yours.

We have a unique setup that combines venture creation and tech investments within a single organization. This advantage enables us to identify new research and deep tech opportunities with both commercial and impact potential, all within Chalmers’ entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are experts in starting up companies based on deep tech and research in the most effective manner possible. This process allows us to cultivate our own high-quality deal flow in which we invest and become active owners. Throughout the entire journey, we function as investors and venture builders until exit. Profits are reinvested through our evergreen model and allocated to Chalmers to support new, groundbreaking research. Our investment processWe identify market potential in research-based tech We match the team We invest in and startup the company We attract competent capital with external VCs We have active ownership until exit Our deal flow criteriaDeep tech / research based tech University spinouts Global commercial and impact potential Our process: from lab to market We use our long experience to create conditions required for a growth company to start up correctly and with the right structural capital. We are then involved in the startup through competence and capital until exit. Simply put: we take groundbreaking research from lab to market. IDENTIFY: We attract, seek out and evaluate research and technology ideas. The technologies with the greatest potential are matched with entrepreneurs. SHAPE AND START: Create the basic conditions to shape companies correctly and build structural capital. We are involved in starting up the companies and provides additional benefits during that first critical period. VALIDATE & VERIFY: Validating business model, working for paying customers and unlocking the business model. Find the right proof points to validate and verify the company’s unique idea to both the market and investors. SCALE: Becoming sustainable growth companies reaching out to an international market. Chalmers Ventures works with its skills as active owners, provides professional governance and syndicates the right growth capital. EXIT: Chalmers Ventures pursues a positive exit strategy at what it feels is the right time. We can focus our resources on those companies with the greatest potential and positive impact on the portfolio.