futurepresent steps out of stealth with $300M to bet on AI beyond software
What's the deal? German-US venture firm futurepresent has emerged from stealth with a $300M debut fund, after quietly investing for more than a year. The four-partner firm has already backed 14 companies across the US and Europe, using a barbell strategy that combines pre-seed and seed bets with concentrated growth investments.
The team includes Thomas LuekeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (formerly Cherry Ventures), Johnson YangDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (formerly General Catalyst), Jan RettelDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (former public tech hedge fund manager), and David MeiborgDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (formerly First Momentum VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →). Venture partner Remy A. LazaroviciDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, employee number one at Celonis, rounds out the team.
Why now? AI investment is accelerating across every layer of the industry. futurepresent is betting that the current moment — when AI is moving from software into physical systems and complex enterprise workflows — is when founder-aligned, focused capital matters most.
What could go wrong? A four-person team managing $300M across 14 portfolio companies, spanning two continents and three investment themes, is an ambitious scope. Small partnerships can offer founders more attention, but limited bandwidth can become a liability as portfolios grow and companies scale. First-time fund managers also face a harder fundraising environment for follow-on vehicles if early bets don't perform.
The signal: futurepresent's thesis maps onto a broader shift in where sophisticated capital is flowing: away from horizontal software and toward AI that operates in the physical world, transforms regulated industries, and powers infrastructure for the next generation of managed services.
Its portfolio reflects this — General Intuition is building spatial reasoning models for robotics; SkalarDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is automating tax and audit for SMEs; IsidorDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is building data pipelines for reinforcement learning.
The firm's transatlantic positioning is deliberate: bridging the US and European ecosystems is increasingly a differentiator for investors, as founders building global companies seek VCs that can open doors on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sources:
futurepresent
Tech.eu
Tech Funding News
Axios
Seb Johnson's LinkedIn post
Thomas Lueke's LinkedIn post
Image credit:
futurepresent
J.V.
