Why AI-First Startups Are Winning Europe’s Industrial Tech Battle
From applied AI to radical accountability: What top founders need to scale industrial innovation in the DACH region and beyond.
🧲 Intro
Let’s face it: industrial tech is about as sexy as spreadsheets — until a startup automates a 20-year-old workflow and unlocks €500M in new margin.
That’s exactly where AI is heading.
In this episode of Startuprad.io, we sat down with Marton Sarkadi Nagy, Partner at Visionaries Club, to uncover how Europe’s industrial backbone is quietly becoming the world’s best proving ground for applied AI — and how the next wave of unicorns might not look like what Silicon Valley expected.
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🧠 The Visionaries Thesis: Why Industrial Tech Is the Next VC Frontier
Visionaries Club is no typical VC. With over €600M AUM, its LPs include:
Founders of unicorns like Miro, UiPath, and Checkout.com
Family-owned industrial giants rooted in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
Their thesis?
"The biggest opportunity in Europe lies at the intersection of outdated industrial processes and founder-led AI innovation."
These aren’t buzzwords. They’re battle-tested strategies.
Take procurement, back-office operations, or legacy ERP systems like SAP. These spaces are bloated, under-automated, and ripe for agentic AI to step in. That’s where Visionaries Club sees the next Stripe, Snowflake, or UiPath emerging.
🧬 Radical Accountability and Founder DNA
Marton doesn’t believe in investor magic. He believes in founders who build cultures of radical accountability and execute relentlessly.
What defines a "genre-defining" founder?
⏱ Urgency: They don’t waste time. Ever.
💡 Clarity: They prioritize well under pressure.
🔥 Obsession: Their product-market insight is personal.
“When I sit with these founders,” Marton says, “I often feel like I’m wasting their time. That’s how I know they’re the real deal.”
This isn’t theory. It’s how Visionaries Club filters deals and doubles down on industrial AI use cases most VCs overlook.
⚙️ The Death of SaaS (as We Know It)
We’ve entered the SaaS 2.0 era — and Marton is one of the few investors openly saying it.
"Back-office AI automation will replace traditional SaaS faster than most people think."
What’s changing:
SaaS 1.0: Single-use dashboards, human workflows
SaaS 2.0: AI agents processing tasks autonomously
Winners: Startups that simplify agent orchestration, not just speed
This aligns perfectly with Europe’s economic structure:
80% of the economy is still run by family-owned businesses using decades-old software stacks.
📖 Want to go deeper?
Read our full breakdown of SaaS transformation here →
(internal link to original blog post)
🌍 Why Europe Could Dominate Applied AI
The U.S. may dominate foundation models, but Europe has something else: context.
With legacy systems deeply embedded in operations, European AI startups are learning to build for:
Complex workflows
Offline-to-online transitions
Compliance-heavy industries
Marton argues that startups combining AI capabilities with contextual industrial expertise will create long-term defensibility. The founders who understand how a manufacturing CFO or head of procurement thinks — and who can plug into SAP, not fight it — will win.
📌 Learn More
💥 Read the full blog post → How Europe’s Visionaries Are Using AI to Disrupt Industrial Tech
💡 Future link: Radical Accountability in Startup Culture
🧠 Future link: How Applied AI Is Killing SaaS Dashboards
📈 Future link: B2B Startup Strategies for Industrial Scaleups
🔗 External Links
💬 What Do You Think?
What’s the biggest bottleneck in industrial tech startups right now?
Is it selling to legacy enterprises, AI regulation, or founder skill gaps?
👇 Comment below or reply to this post — we’d love to hear from you.
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👨💼 About the Author
Jörn “Joe” Menninger is the founder and host of Startuprad.io — one of Europe’s top startup podcasts that scored as a global Top 20 Podcast in Entrepreneurship. He’s been featured in Forbes, Tech.eu, Geektime, and more for his insights into startups, venture capital, and innovation. With over 15 years of experience in management consulting, digital strategy, and startup scouting, Joe works at the intersection of tech, entrepreneurship, and business transformation—helping founders, investors, and corporates turn bold ideas into real-world impact.Follow his work on LinkedIn