We build companies that actually work
mantro is a venture building platform. We take breakthrough technologies and build them into companies that scale.
We're not advisors. Not a fund. Not an accelerator. We're a fully integrated system that combines technology sourcing, professional venture building, and direct capital investment — because none of these works alone.
We call it the Golden Triangle.
We go all in
Most who call themselves venture builders today have retreated into consulting: they recommend what to do and leave the risk to someone else. The comfortable path. We take the harder one — we build ourselves, invest our own capital, and put our name on the line.
When others step back, we step up.
We build new business with corporates
When a corporation has a strategic opportunity, an underused technology, or an innovation initiative that needs to become a real business — we take it out of their organization and build it independently.
mantro takes full ownership and runs the company. The corporate funds the build and keeps strategic influence. When it works, they acquire a proven business. We bring the entrepreneurial speed, structure, and 20 years of venture building expertise.
We create independent deep tech companies
When breakthrough technology — from corporate R&D or research institutions — deserves to become its own company, we structure the carve-out, build the venture thesis, assemble the founding team, and co-invest directly.
We can also lead the first round
mantro operates its own venture capital arm. When a venture fits our investment thesis, we can lead the first financing round ourselves.
This makes us fundamentally different from every other venture builder: we don't hand off to investors — we are one. And because we syndicate on an eye-to-eye level with other funds, our ventures get warm introductions into a curated investor network — not cold outreach.
mantro by the numbers
35+
ventures launched
5
successful exits
€1B+
in enterprise value created
400+
technology projects delivered in our first era — the foundation for everything we do today
80+
team members
20+
years of venture building
Entrepreneurial. Technical. Pragmatic.
We build things. We ship things. We found things. Every engagement is designed to produce a real outcome — a company, a product, a business unit — not a report.
80+ people
60% with technology backgrounds. Engineers, product managers, venture architects, designers, data scientists, AI specialists — and the founders who've done this before.
Global reach
We operate from Munich (HQ), Zagreb, Trnava and New York. Our core delivery — technology, venture architecture, execution — runs from Munich, Zagreb, and Trnava. Local offices focus on commercial relationships, partnerships, and market development.
The managing partners
mantro is run by four managing partners — the founders and senior leaders who built the firm and still build alongside the teams. No distance, no hierarchy games — the people who set the direction are the ones in the room when the work gets done.
We don't sell advice. We build companies — and we back them with our own capital.
Manfred Tropper
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Manfred connects what belongs together at mantro: technology, entrepreneurship, and capital — and he has spent more than 20 years uniting those three forces into one system. He started as a software architect on enterprise projects and still thinks in systems, data, and AI. As founder and CEO he has built 35+ ventures and successfully exited several. At mantro he owns due diligence and portfolio management: he helps decide which technologies and ventures get built, stays in close contact with leading research hubs, and runs the portfolio with a steady hand. As Managing Partner at Talos he brings the capital and the investor network that turn the best opportunities into real companies — eye to eye with other funds, not cold outreach.
The biggest opportunities emerge where science, technology, and global markets meet.
Prof. Dr. Markus Ortmann
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Markus grew up around entrepreneurship — in his parents' family business. He started out as a software developer, and one question has driven him ever since: how do you create the best possible product with the most viable business model? He's the advocate of the user — the kind who climbs deep down the rabbit hole until he truly understands the people behind the application. That standard shapes mantro's Digital Product & Technology Development: he builds the best possible products and pushes the teams to achieve the unthinkable. Above all, Markus is mantro's big-picture visionary: he thinks in ecosystems and across borders, connects academia and the startup world, and builds the international landscape mantro grows in — from Bavaria and far beyond. He passes on what he knows, to our own teams and as a lecturer for young founders at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology.
Any day without technology — without building something incredible — is a day lost.
Benjamin Schüdzig
Co-Founder, Managing Partner & CTO
Benjamin started his first company at 14 and has lived at the forefront of technology and innovation ever since. He sets the technological standard for our teams. A strategic thinker and entrepreneur at heart, he knows that great technology and defensible tech IP are core to any success — yet without strong business execution, even the best technology is worthless. That conviction shapes mantro's Digital Product & Technology Development: he loves stepping in as interim CTO to take ventures to the next level, embeds business thinking and domain-driven development in his tech teams, and mentors tech startups toward better technology decisions. At mantro, he leads the operational backbone.
Speed and structure aren't opposites. Done right, they're the same discipline.
Dr. Matthias Kramer
Managing Partner
Although Matthias wasn't there at the founding, he's just as load-bearing a part of mantro's leadership as the other three. He's the strategic mind behind our venture execution: he builds and runs scalable organizations and makes sure strong early-stage ideas become successfully scaled companies. He bridges corporate strategy and venture mindset and makes deep tech ventures executable in the first place. He knows how innovation really works inside large organizations — and how it turns into new business units that actually scale. Across all mantro venture activities, he's the go-to for setting up the perfectly fitting target operating model. That shapes mantro's Venture Building & Scaling, Process Innovation & Business Scaling, and Corporate Business Creation. His PhD in business economics and innovation management is the foundation for it.
Hub & venture leadership
Across our locations and activities, a wider team runs the day-to-day — and is the face of mantro with partners, at events, and in the local ecosystems.
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Daniel FeileHead of Venture Studio, US-OperationsRuns mantro's Venture Studio: he hunts the opportunities, builds the teams, and takes early ideas all the way to independent, scaling companies. From the US, he's also building our presence in the American market.
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Julian BubeckHead of Tech Transfer, ASIA-OperationsLeads tech transfer and our research hub: he turns deep tech from research into market-ready early-stage ventures. He also owns our business development in Asia, connecting research, production, and new markets.
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Robert SlachtaManaging Director, Tech Hub TrnavaLeads our Trnava tech hub. His focus: AI and well-crafted frontends that truly land with the user — real user experience. He's a core part of the beautiful things mantro brings to life, and leads his team as a peer.
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Filip StojanacManaging Director, Tech Hub ZagrebLeads our Zagreb tech hub and takes ownership of our products. A software architect at the bleeding edge, he makes the decisive technology calls and connects business with tech — turning great engineering into products that hold up in the market.
What we value
We believe the best work happens when smart people trust each other. No politics. No ego. No theater. Just build.
Get in touch
If you want to stress-test an idea, unblock an initiative, or simply see whether we're the right partner, let's talk. You can book a straight-to-the-point session with our CEO Manni, or leave us a message.
30-minute call. No strings attached.
