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
Active Investments
Previous Investments
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
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
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
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
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
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 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