Entrepreneurs launch European “venture studio”

Two experienced entrepreneurs are launching an early-stage European "venture studio", which will invest in startups it co-founds as it looks to unearth the hot industrial AI companies of tomorrow.

Founded by Kostas Fetfatsidis, a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur, and Dimitrios Kourtesis, a founder, investor, and engineer, the new entity is called The Flywheel and is billing itself as a “venture studio”.

Based in Thessaloniki, Greece, The Flywheel co-founds startups from scratch, providing co-founding partnership, operational support, and up to €300,000 in initial investment per company.  It will invest in startups across manufacturing and supply chain, defence and security, and energy and sustainability. 

In contrast to traditional early-stage venture capital funds, which typically invest after a startup has been founded, staffed, and acquired its first customers, The Flywheel starts earlier, co-creating startups around the technical or business expertise that founders bring to the table. 

Other venture studios exist in Europe but are usually generalist in their investment strategies.

The. Flywheel is now recruiting for five Founder-in-Residence (FiR) positions, who will research a specific industrial AI venture concept. If successful, The Flywheel invests up to €300,000 in the startup.

It is backed by a diverse group of private investors, including US-based entrepreneurs with European roots, tech founders who have scaled and exited startups, experienced business angels, and European industrial enterprises.

"Europe is a global engine of scientific and technical skill, yet we face a massive chasm between this world-class talent and the scalable, sustainable companies needed to secure our future," said Fetfatsidis. “The Flywheel venture studio is designed to bridge that chasm.” 

“By acting as a co-founder, providing early risk capital, and continued operational support through the growth phases of our ventures, we are building the on-ramp for Europe’s best engineers, operators and researchers to build the next generation of industrial AI champions," said Kourtesis.