Why an 80-Year-Old Engineering Company Invests Like a Startup
04/22/2026
Rooted in 80 years of filtration technology as the core business
Filtration is the kind of technology you only think about when it stops working. For more than 80 years, MANN+HUMMEL has built its business on getting that balance right — separating what’s useful from what’s harmful across engines, factories, air systems, and water infrastructure. It’s a business grounded in physics, materials science, and long product cycles.
So, why does a company like this invest in early-stage startups?
Because the next breakthroughs in materials, energy systems, and industrial efficiency aren’t always developed inside large corporations.
“Our goal is to invest in companies that could be potential strategic partners for MANN+HUMMEL and help unlock new technologies, new markets and new customers.”
Venture investing is a way to stay close to the technologies shaping the company’s next chapter, particularly in material transformation, energy transition, and digital industrial systems where filtration is becoming smarter and more integrated. At its core, this reflects one of MANN+HUMMEL’s fundamental values: innovation — transforming for the future rather than reacting to it.
The significance of early-stage strategic planning
There’s discipline behind the approach. Long-term strategic and financial results depend on identifying founders who can solve meaningful customer problems and execute. In industrial sectors especially, credibility is earned through delivery, not ambition.
That’s why early-stage exposure matters.
“Early-stage investors by design have their pulse on the otherwise unknown innovators and market disruptors. They have the ability to gauge which venture teams have what is necessary to survive and win.”
For MANN+HUMMEL, venture investing is a way to stay connected to emerging innovators and assess which teams have the capability to execute over time.
Entering the Chinese market: Seizing the opportunity of a global innovation testing ground
Geography plays a role too. China has become one of the most important testing grounds for sustainability, battery innovation, and electrified mobility.
“Investing in founders and ventures based in China is a no-brainer for us since they are tackling mission-critical issues of sustainability, energy and mobility in a market which is one of the largest and most innovative in the world.”
Rather than build that exposure alone, MANN+HUMMEL chose to partner and join CM Venture Capital’s ecosystem.
“We chose to join CM Venture’s high caliber LP community of global multi-nationals after the completion of a thorough search and due diligence and primarily because of our aligned investment focus on material transformation, energy transformation and digital transformation.”
CM Venture team visiting MANN+HUMMEL’s China office
CM Venture stood out for the strength of its GP team, its technical depth and track record, and its robust, user-friendly platform of more than 7,000 curated ventures, accessible in English to its global LP base.
The alignment runs deeper than sector overlap. Both organizations share a disciplined understanding of what drives favorable strategic and financial results over time.
For MANN+HUMMEL, venture investing isn’t a reinvention. It’s an extension of how the company has always operated: careful, technical and long-term, yet willing to adapt when the environment changes.
Filtration may be invisible. The need to evolve is not.
