Mr Arno Held

Arno started his career in the late 1990s as a trained field service engineer with TRUMPF laser technology and later spent seven years in strategy and business development at EOS. In 2015 he co-founded AM Ventures and co-built the world’s first and largest AM-focused venture fund. Over the decade since, he and his team have scouted and analysed more than 3,000 industrial 3D printing startups worldwide, completed 40+ financing rounds and built a portfolio of 22 companies in 7 countries on 3 continents, with four successful exits to date. Today he advises investors, corporates, and founders in advanced manufacturing through Held Holding. His Springer essential on applied AI in additive manufacturing (2026, in German only) is written from the same double perspective he works in: technologist and investor. What interests him most is the part the numbers don’t show: the point where the technology works but the business doesn’t yet, and he is candid about the expensive lessons behind that judgement. Arno has lived and worked on four continents and holds a degree in industrial engineering and management from the University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe (Germany) and an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland).