Post by UVC Partners

What makes a standout industrial leader under 30? Our Principal Amanda Birkenholz judged this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe Manufacturing & Industry category. She studied Engineering and Production Technology before moving into venture – and that engineering lens shaped how she read every nominee. 🏭 ➡️ Swipe through to see the 4 criteria she applied to the 2026 cohort. Beyond Amanda's lens, plenty to like across M&I and the AI category this year, including nextract energy (Mariia Semenenko), Plato (Matthias Heinrich), SEAL Robotics (Marie-Elisabeth Makohl), roboa (Pascal Auf der Maur, Nicolas Aymon, Betim Djambazi, Alexander Kübler), SatEnlight (Matteo Vismara), Focalx (Isabella Merrild Agdestein), THEKER Robotics (Carla Gómez Cano, JiaQiang Ye Zhu) and Lio (formerly askLio) (Vladimir Keil). Special shout-out to our portfolio founders Lorenz Hetzel and Gyri Reiersen of Tanso, Forbes M&I 2025 honorees, now serving 300+ industrial customers across 40+ countries. They are the live proof of what Amanda was looking for this year: factory-wide thinking, scalable across sites, AI-enabled, real market underneath. Congrats to every 2026 honoree! 🎉