Austrian Investor Andreas Klinger Raises €15M for New Prototype Fund

Austrian Andreas Klinger has become known not only as the founder and initiator of the EU Inc initiative, but also as an investor. He has now raised 15 million euros for his third venture capital fund and is aiming for a total volume of 20 million euros. The fund is called Prototype and emerged from the rebranding of Remote First Capital, which Klinger founded in 2020 as a so-called solo-GP fund.

With the new structure, Klinger plans to finance between 15 and 20 startups in the pre-founding phase annually. The focus is on European founders working on robotics, automation, and manufacturing. Typical investment sizes range between $200,000 and $400,000 per investment. Klinger, who previously served as CTO at Product Hunt, VP Engineering at CoinList, and in leading positions at AngelList and On Deck, brings both operational experience and an established network in the European tech scene.

“That’s insanity”

The investment philosophy of Prototype Capital deliberately differs from other VCs. “We are not setting up a VC fund in the classical sense,” says Klinger. “Rather, it is a community of extremely ambitious people who want to actively change Europe for the better.” Klinger looks for founders who are “obsessed” with their problem. He also emphasizes that he himself must feel genuine enthusiasm for the respective topic.

Klinger is notably driven by the goal of bringing Europe forward in technology. “Europe invented industry. We are the cradle of precision manufacturing. The world’s second-largest manufacturing hub. Leading in automation and robotics,” writes Klinger. “Europe invented industry. We’re the birthplace of precision manufacturing. The second largest manufacturing hub on the planet. Leaders in automation and robotics. And yet… We sell out our best tech to China. We export our best founders & most of our investment money to the US. That’s insanity.”

And further: “What should we do instead? We should build the next trillion-euro companies in robotics, manufacturing, and automation right here in Europe. We should show young founders what is possible and change the system around them where necessary.” The investor’s motto: he wants to make the first funding round for startups.

Above-average returns across all three funds

Prototype Capital can already boast an impressive performance history. All three funds of the company rank, according to Klinger, in the top one to five percent of their respective cohorts worldwide. The first fund from 2019 achieves a capital return multiple of 4.9 with a distribution rate of 0.95. The Growth Fund from 2022 even shows a multiple of 5.6 with a distribution rate of 2.75. The second main fund, also from 2022, stands at a multiple of 2.4. In 2025 alone, the fund’s portfolio companies have raised over one billion dollars in financing.

Prototype Capital invested in 15 European startups, primarily in the fields of robotics, automation, and physical AI. The outstanding success of the past year was Luma AI, which became the second company in the portfolio to exceed a billion-dollar valuation. The company develops multimodal world models that combine video with other sensors, text, and physics.

European robotics sovereignty as a strategic goal

According to Klinger, the next trillion-euro companies in robotics and manufacturing should be built directly in Europe. The sale of ABB Robotics to the SoftBank Group and the acquisition of Arduino by Qualcomm illustrate the urgency of this issue. Klinger warned several years ago that supply chains that have once migrated do not return, as network effects lock them in place at their new location. Robotics is one of the last areas in which Europe still has deep industrial ecosystems, primarily due to the automotive and machinery industries.

Prototype Capital therefore deliberately invests in the entire vertical supply chain: motors, sensors, power electronics, and manufacturing processes. Klinger calls on founders to get in touch, even if their idea is not yet a finished company – especially in the fields of robotics, automation, energy, and space exploration.