Hannover Messe is a place where industrial ambition meets operational reality. As the world’s leading industrial trade fair, it brings together technologies and companies spanning energy, manufacturing, supply chains, and smart infrastructure, from early innovation to large scale industrial deployment.
In 2026, the emphasis is firmly on how technologies such as industrial AI, automation, digital infrastructure, and energy systems are being translated into production-ready solutions.
The focus this year is less on experimentation and more on what works on the factory floor, across supply chains, and within critical industrial systems.
At Momenta, we invest where deep domain expertise meets real operational constraints. The most enduring industrial companies are not built in isolation, but through close engagement with customers, infrastructure, and the realities of deployment. Hannover Messe is one of the few global forums where those realities are visible in practice.
Within the broader scope of Hannover Messe, Momenta’s focus is specific.
In 2026, we will be in Hannover meeting founders, operators, and partners building and deploying software driven industrial technology in real environments, particularly teams navigating the transition from early traction to enterprise scale.
We’re primarily meeting software first industrial startups at a critical execution stage:
Pre Seed to Series A
In market or approaching first enterprise deployments
Working through pilots, early rollouts, or stalled enterprise conversations
This is the point where many industrial startups either gain traction or lose momentum.
We’re also meeting a select group of industrial corporates exploring emerging technologies and looking for partners to translate innovation into operational use.
Founding Partners Ken Forster and Sandra Mueller will attend this year alongside Partner Jerry O’Gorman and Principal Partner Miroslav Kriz, and Associate Partner, Kate Kovalenko.
“We value Hannover Messe because it connects founders, operators, and industrial partners around a shared question: how do new technologies perform once they leave the lab and enter live industrial environments?”- Ken Forster, Founding Partner, Momenta
Several Momenta portfolio companies will also be on the ground, including:
AICA, Aperio, CrateDB, HighByte, Fixposition, Litmus, Minds.ai, Phantasma Labs, and Xage.
These companies represent technologies already being deployed across industrial environments from AI and data infrastructure to cybersecurity and connected operations.
As always, our goal in Hannover is not just to observe emerging trends, but to engage in grounded discussions about what it takes to build and scale industrial technology in practice.
Event: Hannover Messe
Where: Hannover Exhibition Grounds, Hannover, Germany
When: April 20–24, 2026
More information: Hannover Messe
If you are:
building a software first industrial company,
entering or scaling enterprise deployments, or
working through pilots or early customer rollouts
we’re scheduling meetings throughout the week in Hannover.
Momenta is the leading Industrial Impact® venture capital firm, accelerating innovators across energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and the supply chain. Our team of deep industry operators has helped scale industry leaders and innovators to improve critical industries, the environment, and people's quality of life for over a decade. PitchBook named Momenta among the world's top ten digital industry venture funds for both 2023 and 2024 in its Global Manager Performance Score League Tables, one of just two European-headquartered VCs to achieve a Top 10 ranking. For more information, please visit: www.momenta.vc.
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