Jungheinrich founds Uplift Ventures: new subsidiary drives innovative business models forward
Jungheinrich has founded the subsidiary Uplift Ventures. The subsidiary is now responsible for the Group's international venturing activities.
Corporate venturing unit opens up access to new fields of innovation for Jungheinrich
Focus on start-ups within logistics, artificial intelligence, robotics and sustainability
Uplift Ventures starts 2025 with team building and first projects
Hamburg – Jungheinrich has founded the subsidiary Uplift Ventures. The subsidiary is now responsible for the Group's international venturing activities. The task of Uplift Ventures is to build innovative growing companies and to invest in attractive start-ups. Jungheinrich is thus opening up business areas beyond its core business that show particularly high growth potential. The Group is also expanding into new markets as well as customer groups and is driving the digital transformation in logistics forward.
"With Uplift Ventures, we are strengthening Jungheinrich's innovative power and opening up new and forward-looking business areas," says Dr Lars Brzoska, Chairman of the Board of Management of Jungheinrich AG. "By founding our corporate venturing unit, we are intensifying the execution of our long-term innovation strategy. We deliberately established Uplift Ventures as an independent company outside the Group. That way, we give the unit maximum entrepreneurial freedom and agility to consistently rethink innovative business models, with the industrial experience and financial strength of Jungheinrich behind it."
Areas of focus for Uplift Ventures include AI-based optimisation of supply chains and material flows, robotics, autonomous logistics systems, sustainable energy solutions, digital platforms, and solutions related to the circular economy and sustainability. The company is managed by the two managing directors, Christina Mayer and Kerk Wichmann, who started the company operationally in the first quarter of 2025. "We are now taking off and driving the first venture projects with Uplift Ventures in a focused manner. Disruptive thinking and a high speed of implementation are crucial for success here," explains Christina Mayer. "Our goal is to identify new potential at a very early stage, to scale attractive business models outside of today's core business and thus contribute to Jungheinrich's long-term success," adds Kerk Wichmann.
Jungheinrich's existing partnership with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) will be intensified and further expanded in the future through Uplift Ventures. Additional fund investments will follow.
