STIHL Ventures

STIHL Ventures

STIHL Ventures operates as the corporate venture capital arm of the STIHL Group, the German manufacturer of chainsaws, outdoor power equipment, and professional landscaping tools. The unit invests balance-sheet capital into early-stage technology companies that intersect with STIHL's core industrial domains, combining direct startup investments with a Venture Clienting program called STIHL Startup Access that connects external founders to internal business units for pilot projects and commercial partnerships. Director Benjamin Junghans leads the team from Waiblingen, Germany. The firm targets startups across forestry, professional landscaping, gardening, agriculture, and construction, writing checks from €0.5 million to €3 million at the Seed through Series B stages. Confirmed positions include Dryad, which builds ultra-early wildfire detection and forest-health monitoring networks, and FlyNex, a full-service drone-deployment and asset-management platform. Additional portfolio companies span digitization tools for tradespeople (Plancraft), precision outdoor robotics (TinyMobileRobots), pest detection (Spotta), and subscription-commerce infrastructure (Fairown). The geographic mandate covers Europe and the United States. STIHL Ventures also commits to venture capital funds as a limited partner, naming Speedinvest, HTGF, and Emerald Technology Ventures among its network of co-investors. STIHL Ventures deploys venture capital and manages venture-client engagements in parallel, providing a dual pipeline into the parent company's engineering, procurement, and distribution channels. The team maintains co-investor relationships with regional innovation platforms — including Maschinenraum, NXTGN, and the IPAI applied-AI hub — that extend deal flow beyond pure financial networks. In early 2025, the firm hosted a Startup Spotlight event bringing STIHL operating executives together with portfolio founders to explore AI integration and operational efficiency, demonstrating the embedded nature of its corporate access model. Unlike independent financial venture funds, STIHL Ventures does not raise outside capital or report to external LPs. Its sole backer is the STIHL Group, a family-connected industrial company founded in 1926. The structure removes standard fund-life constraints and aligns investment decisions with the parent's 50-year-plus strategic horizon. The Venture Clienting program — which evaluates startup tools for cost savings and new revenue generation inside STIHL's own operations — functions as both a scouting engine and a built-in customer, making the unit a captive demand partner rather than a pure financial investor.