Hans J. Langer, Founder of EOS

Building the next generation of industrial technology companies.

After building EOS into one of the pioneers of industrial additive manufacturing, I now invest in founders building what comes next, with more than four decades of company-building alongside them, not behind them.

PLAN / ELEV / SECTION
More than capital

What founders actually need

Money is the easy part to raise. The harder part is finding someone who has already stood where you are standing, and built through it.

Company Builder

I have built and scaled technology companies globally, not advised them from the outside.

Industrial Ecosystem

An international network of industry leaders, customers, research institutes and investors, assembled over forty years.

Deep Technology Experience

Four decades inside industrial innovation, not a few years watching from a fund.

Strategic IP

Intellectual property understood as a business advantage, not a compliance exercise.

What I look for

Five things I look for

Real industrial problems

Not a feature. A problem an industry has lived with for years and quietly worked around.

Differentiated technology

Something that could not simply be built by a well-funded competitor in eighteen months.

Strong intellectual property

Protection that holds up under pressure, not paperwork filed to satisfy a checklist.

Global ambition

Founders who think in industries and geographies, not in a single first customer.

Ecosystem potential

A company that gets stronger the more it connects: to partners, to suppliers, to adjacent technologies.

From founder to business angel

A journey, not a career change

EOS

I founded EOS to make an idea most people did not yet believe in, building parts directly from data, layer by layer, into industrial reality.

SCANLAB and TecInvest

In 1990, I founded SCANLAB and served as its CEO until 1994. When SCANLAB became SCANLAB AG in 1999, I became Chairman of its Supervisory Board. In 2016, I founded TecInvest AG, SCANLAB Group's parent company and today's world market leader in laser-based digital manufacturing, first as CEO, then as Chairman of its Supervisory Board from 2017 to 2024. Since 2025, I have served as a member of the board.

Building an industry

A single company was never going to be enough. Through AM Ventures, I began developing new additive manufacturing technologies, such as ceramics with Lithoz, and new applications for them, such as Lithoz into LightForce Orthodontics and polymer printing through Cubicure into ALIGN Technologies.

Building ecosystems

The logical next step was AM Global: industrializing innovative additive manufacturing solutions together with specific industrial world market leaders, such as EOS, MTI, and GE Aviation.

Helping founders

Today that experience is available to founders building the next generation of industrial technology, through Serendipity²Watch.

Abstract network of connected nodes, representing the ecosystem of companies
Building an industry

Not a portfolio. A structure.

Every company here occupies a fixed position in the same plan, load-bearing, and built to carry the others.

Ecosystem diagram drawn as an architectural column grid EOS at the centre of a structural grid, connected to ten companies positioned at grid intersections, with a few direct collaborations shown as dashed connectors. A B C D E 1 2 3 AM Ventures AMCM Lithoz Incus Cubicure Metalpine SCANLAB Raylase SCAPS ALM EOS origin point
Ecosystems in action

Not investments. Collaborations.

ALIGN Technology × Cubicure

Challenge

Precision printing at dental-scale volume.

Technology

Lithography-based polymer printing.

Partnership

Manufacturer and print-technology developer working directly together.

Impact

A new production standard for clear aligners.

GE Aviation × MTI × EOS

Challenge

Certifying metal components for flight.

Technology

Industrial laser powder bed fusion.

Partnership

Aviation manufacturer, metal specialist and machine builder, aligned early.

Impact

Additive parts qualified for serial aerospace production.

LightForce Orthodontics × Lithoz × Incus

Challenge

Fully custom ceramic brackets, one patient at a time.

Technology

Ceramic and ultra-precision resin printing.

Partnership

Two deep-tech specialists supporting one orthodontic innovator.

Impact

Mass customisation without compromising material quality.

Nikon × Boeing × Morf3D × EOS

Challenge

Lightweighting critical structural parts.

Technology

Metal additive manufacturing at aerospace tolerances.

Partnership

Optics, aerospace and additive expertise under one roadmap.

Impact

Weight reduction validated for flight-critical use.

TRUMPF × SCANLAB × EOS

Challenge

Faster, more precise laser beam control.

Technology

Advanced scan-head and laser-source engineering.

Partnership

Two toolmakers and one machine builder, refining the same system.

Impact

Higher throughput across the additive manufacturing process.

Thoughts

Notes from four decades in industry

Entrepreneurship

Why the second company is harder to start than the first.

The first time, you have nothing to protect. The second time, you do, and that changes every decision.

Intellectual Property

Patents are a business strategy, not a filing cabinet.

Most founders treat IP as paperwork. The ones who win treat it as terrain.

Deep Tech

Industries are built by ecosystems, not single companies.

No industrial technology scales alone. It scales because the right partners show up at the right time.

About
Portrait of Dr. Hans J. Langer

In 1989, I founded EOS to bring an idea few people believed in, building physical parts, layer by layer, directly from data, into industrial reality. A year later, I founded SCANLAB, the technology enabler behind laser-based digital manufacturing.

Over three decades, EOS grew into one of the pioneers of industrial additive manufacturing, working with organisations from aerospace to medical technology, while SCANLAB grew into the world's market leader in laser-based digital manufacturing under TecInvest AG, its parent company, which I founded and led as CEO, later chairing its Supervisory Board, on which I remain a member today. Alongside these companies, I have helped build and back others across materials, software, optics and automation.

Today, through Serendipity²Watch, I invest my time, capital and network in founders building what comes after: the next generation of industrial technology companies.

Get in touch

Let's build the future together.

If you are building something real, in an industry that needs rebuilding, I would like to hear about it.

Impressum

Angaben gemäß § 5 DDG

Hans Langer
Robert-Stirling-Ring 1
82152 Krailling / Munich
Germany

E-Mail: hl@serendipity2watch.com

Verantwortlich gemäß § 18 Abs. 2 MStV

Hans Langer
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