Title: Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Company: Leitmotif
Location: Los Gatos, California, United States
Jens Wiese, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Leitmotif, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Business Owners for dedication, achievements and leadership in Venture Capital Investment.
Mr. Wiese has established himself as a leading expert in the venture capital sector, currently serving as a co-founder and managing partner at Leitmotif since 2023. In this capacity, he oversees the firm’s operations alongside his co-founder, sharing responsibilities for investment decisions, identifying new opportunities, supporting portfolio companies, facilitating introductions within his extensive network and spearheading fundraising efforts. Under Mr. Wiese’s leadership, Leitmotif has distinguished itself as an independent venture capital fund with robust backing from major industrial organizations, most notably the Volkswagen Group, Europe’s largest industrial entity.
Leitmotif specializes in hard-technology investments, focusing on companies that develop physical products across decarbonization, climate technology, robotics and industrial artificial intelligence (AI). Approximately 70% of the fund’s business is based in the United States, with the remaining 30% in Europe. Mr. Wiese is particularly proud of Leitmotif’s unique approach to bridging the U.S. innovation ecosystem with Europe’s industrial heritage through strategic collaborations among multiple industrial players.
In addition to his primary role at Leitmotif, Mr. Wiese has been an investor and board member at multiple companies since 2023, including Future, Harbinger, Syre and DeepDrive. He has also been an investor at Redwood Materials since 2023 and at Proxima Fusion since 2024. Previously, Mr. Wiese was a board member at QuantumScape from 2021 to 2024, where he contributed to advancements in next-generation battery technology.
Before his current endeavors in venture capital, Mr. Wiese held several senior leadership positions at Volkswagen AG. From 2020 to 2023, he was head of group mergers and acquisitions, investment advisory and partnerships. Between 2018 and 2019, Mr. Wiese served as head of industrial cooperations and partnerships for the German automotive manufacturer, overseeing strategic alliances with key industry partners. Concurrently, from 2016 to 2019, he served as head of group battery strategy, guiding Volkswagen’s battery strategy amid the automotive sector’s shift toward electrification. Between 2016 and 2018, Mr. Wiese also served as head of performance improvement.
Notably, during his tenure at Volkswagen AG, Mr. Wiese initiated and established the alliance between Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company, a highly complex and ambitious partnership formed at the highest levels of both organizations. This collaboration stands out as a rare achievement in the automotive industry and remains his most significant professional accomplishment.
Before joining Volkswagen AG, Mr. Wiese was the director and a member of the German management team at AlixPartners GmbH for nearly a decade, starting in 2007. In this role, he led high-impact consulting projects focused on operational restructuring and performance enhancement for major clients across various industries. Mr. Wiese’s earlier career included serving as a principal at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants from 1999 to 2007.
Mr. Wiese’s academic background culminated in a Master of Business Administration in accounting, enterprise valuation and controlling from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Munich, Germany, in 1999. This rigorous education provided him with a strong foundation in financial analysis and strategic management that has underpinned his success. Further enhancing his expertise, Mr. Wiese completed the senior management program on disruptive innovation through Harvard Business School Executive Education in 2023.
Throughout his career, Mr. Wiese has been recognized for outstanding performance and leadership potential. He received top 5% performance honors through the High Potential Program at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants as well as during his tenure as director at AlixPartners GmbH. At Volkswagen AG, Mr. Wiese attained the highest management rank available within the organization.
Mr. Wiese attributes much of his success to his natural curiosity, nurtured by his father, Hans Ulrich, who served as the chief financial officer for one of Germany’s leading research institutions, as a key factor in his ability to grasp scientific advancements relevant to emerging startups. Looking ahead, he is committed to establishing Leitmotif as a preeminent venture capital firm specializing in high-tech investments, with a focus on decarbonization, industrial AI and robotics. Mr. Wiese also remains passionate about fostering transatlantic collaboration between startups and industry leaders, particularly within industrial applications and robotics, and is dedicated to advancing these initiatives through sustained effort and visionary leadership.
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