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Tobias Jahn

Partner

Tobias, an engineer turned investor, brings nearly 20 years of venture capital expertise. Formerly with 3M Ventures and BMW i Ventures, he now drives climate tech and deep-tech innovations at Hitachi Ventures, passionate about partnering with visionary founders.

Tobias Jahn

As an engineer at heart, Tobias combines natural curiosity with business acumen refined over nearly two decades of venture investments. Since 2008, he has been investing in venture-backed tech-companies, driven by the belief that venture investing isn’t about keeping pace with change but leading it.

Tobias began his journey in technical and innovation management at BMW before transitioning to 3M’s Corporate Venture unit, where he worked on investments in energy management, multi-touch displays, collaboration software, and more. After over six years at 3M, he joined BMW i Ventures, advancing from Principal to Managing Director for Europe. During his tenure, the firm evolved its focus from mobility services to autonomous driving, industrial automation, and, ultimately, climate tech.

Now at Hitachi Ventures, Tobias centers his efforts on software and hardware solutions in climate tech, tackling areas such as industrial decarbonization, green molecules, energy transition, resource efficiency, and circularity. His work bridges the needs of corporations on their ESG journeys with the ambition of startups aiming to scale. Tobias is equally passionate about groundbreaking deep-tech innovations—like quantum technology, fusion energy, and space tech—that promise transformative societal impacts in the coming decade.

Tobias holds a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart.

Hitachi Ventures have been a great ally since joining our Series B. They have supported us in building our commercial network in Japan, helped the founders deliver a market leading business strategy, and introduced us to quality follow on investors for our Series C.

Tommy Rickets, CEO
BeZero

Areas of Interest
  • Circularity
  • ClimateTech
  • Decarbonization
  • DeepTech
  • Energy
  • Vertical B2B SaaS Solutions

Perspectives

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Hitachi Ventures raises $400M fund to invest in everything from fusion to AI
February 5, 2025
Firm News

Hitachi Ventures raises $400M fund to invest in everything from fusion to AI

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Hitachi ups startup investment to $1bn as AI wave grows
February 5, 2025
Firm News

Hitachi ups startup investment to $1bn as AI wave grows 

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October 2, 2024
Why We Invested

Cyclic Materials: Circularity of Rare Earth Elements as a Building Block for the Energy Transition

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July 1, 2024
Why We Invested

Let’s biohack this mess — Infinite plastic recycling with Samsara Eco

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Wase: Unlocking the power of waste to make it the fuel of the future
March 27, 2024
Why We Invested

Wase: Unlocking the power of waste to make it the fuel of the future

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March 27, 2024
Why We Invested

Wase zaps microbes to squeeze more biogas from wastewater sludge

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Thea Energy Featured
February 8, 2024
Why We Invested

Thea Energy raises $20M Series A for pixel-inspired fusion power plants

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Makersite Featured
February 1, 2024
Portfolio News

Makersite announces strategic partnership with Hitachi Solutions

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Ascend Featured
September 6, 2023
Portfolio News

Ascend Elements Raises $542 Million to Accelerate Production of U.S.-engineered Lithium-Ion Battery Materials

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Strangeworks Featured Image
March 22, 2023
Why We Invested

Strangeworks Commercial Success In Quantum Computing Drives Ecosystem Expansion, Lands $24M Series A

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Hitachi Ventures invests in BeZero’s 50m Series B led by Quantum Energy Partners to secure leading ratings and risk analytics position in VCM
November 14, 2022
Why We Invested

Hitachi Ventures invests in BeZero’s 50m Series B led by Quantum Energy Partners to secure leading ratings and risk analytics position in VCM

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Ascend Follow-on Featured
October 26, 2022
Portfolio News

Hitachi Ventures is proud to announce its follow-on investment into Ascend Elements

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October 18, 2022
Portfolio News

Hitachi Ventures co-leads Makersite’s 18M Series A to decarbonize global manufacturing sector

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GCV Emerging Leaders 2022
February 10, 2022
Firm News

GCV profiles the industry’s top 50 CVC Emerging Leaders 2022

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Ascend Featured
September 21, 2021
Portfolio News

Hitachi Ventures investing in Ascend Elements (formerly Battery Resourcers)

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Ascend Elements Logo

Sustainable closed-loop Battery Recycling returning active battery materials back into the supply chain

Developer of a battery resources technology designed to provide sustainable, closed-loop battery materials systems. The company’s EV battery recycling to commercial-scale production of lithium carbonate, NMC precursor (pCAM), and cathode active materials (CAM), Ascend Elements is revolutionizing the production of sustainable lithium-ion battery materials, enabling clients to have a good return on assets to drive recycling and low-cost battery materials economically.

CEO

Mike O’Kronley

Sectors

Environment

Industrial

Stage

Series D

HQ

Massachusettes

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Galina Sagan
Jan Marchewski

BeZero Logo

Global ratings agency and risk analytics for the global voluntary carbon market (VCM)

BeZero is the carbon ratings agency. Its ratings and risk products equip world-leading organisations with the knowledge, tools and confidence to make better climate decisions. Its aim is to scale investment in environmental markets that deliver a sustainable future.

CEO

Tommy Ricketts

Sectors

Environment

Stage

Series B

HQ

London

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Galina Sagan
Jan Marchewski

Cyclic Materials Logo

Creating a Circular Economy for Rare Earth Elements

Cyclic Materials creates a circular supply chain for rare earth elements and other materials critical to supporting the energy transition. They provide solutions for recycling of magnet-containing products made from critical minerals, enabling the creation of a domestic supply chain for REEs through an economic and sustainable magnet recycling process.

CEO

Ahmad Ghahreman

Sectors

Environment

Stage

Series B

HQ

Ontario

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Jan Marchewski
Elena Ballesteros

Equiem Logo

Smart building management and tenant engagement platform

Equiem enables real estate owners and operators to create responsive, human-centric working and living environments, by integrating building operation tools, flexible space management and community engagement into one smart building management platform. Manage your property end-to-end with the Equiem One ecosystem, delivering efficiency, experience and intelligence by connecting everyone in a building and across portfolios.

CEO

Gabrielle McMillan

Sectors

Digital

Industrial

Stage

Series B

HQ

Melbourne

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn

Makersite Logo

AI & Data Platform powering sustainable product and supply chain decisions.

Makersite is a pioneering Product Lifecycle Intelligence platform that helps product teams to manage product sustainability, supply chain risk, cost, and compliance in real-time, all in one place. Makersite combines manufacturers’ product and supply chain data, held within multiple systems, with our own data foundation made up of 140 material, process and supplier databases to create a digital twin of their products and their supply chain, allowing teams to collaborate more effectively so that they can design, source and manufacture better products up to 50x faster than traditional methods. With a global workforce and a customer base including Microsoft, Schaeffler, Cummins and Vestas, Makersite’s goal is simple: Make better products, faster.

CEO

Neil D’Souza

Sectors

Environment

Stage

Series A

HQ

Stuttgart, Germany

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Galina Sagan
Jan Marchewski

Samsara Eco

Enzymatic plastic recycling plastics back to their original chemical building blocks.

Revolutionary enzymatic technology platform designed to infinitely recycle plastic waste. Samsara’s tech is capable of breaking down plastic into its core molecules in minutes, regardless of color, type and state. The monomers can then be reused again as virgin equivalent inputs in new plastics or upcycled to more valuable commodities.

CEO

Paul Riley

Sectors

Environment

Stage

Series A

HQ

Sydney

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Jan Marchewski

Strangeworks makes the power of quantum computing accessible to everyone all in one place.

Strangeworks democratizes access to Quantum Computing and allows custom IP development. The team develop a hybrid compute platform delivering fully-managed quantum computing services by giving unified access to any quantum machine on the market and benchmark algorithms.

CEO

Whurley

Sectors

Digital

Stage

Series A

HQ

Texas

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn

Developer of a fusion energy system intended to create a limitless source of zero-emission power for a sustainable future with an improved stellarator approach.

Thea is a planar coil stellarator design revolutionizing fusion through arrays of planar magnets that enable new ways of designing, manufacturing, and dynamically controlling stellarators to achieve commercial fusion in a cost-competitive way.

CEO

Brian Berzin

Sectors

Environment

Stage

Series A

HQ

Texas

Deal Team

Wolfgang Seibold
Tobias Jahn
Elena Ballesteros
Tobias Graf

Tibo Energy Logo

Tibo manages network congestion, saves energy costs and reduces emissions with smart grid management

AI-driven, cloud-native Energy Management System (EMS) for commercial and industrial sites. Their platform—powered by an engine called “Alice”—simulates and optimises local energy use across solar, batteries, EV chargers, and more, enabling real-time flexibility, cost savings, and smooth electrification even amid grid constraints.

CEO

Remco Eikhout

Sectors

Digital

Environment

Stage

Seed

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Elena Ballesteros
Edoardo Stazio
Eduardo Stazio

Next-generation tech to enhance methane production by breaking down diverse waste(water) streams.

WASE’s Electro-Methanogenic Reactor, using proprietary membrane-less electrode technology with a biofilm, efficiently breaks down diverse waste streams. It’s applicable to wastewater treatment and the Anaerobic digestion sector, generating net energy and producing methane-rich biogas.

CEO

Thomas Fudge

Sectors

Environment

Stage

Seed

HQ

Bristol

Deal Team

Tobias Jahn
Elena Ballesteros
Grace Mathis

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