diff --git a/lib/manager/maven/extract.ts b/lib/manager/maven/extract.ts
index 4484dad38a4cbe76548a08d4abfc6a69676ffb59..d8328124d7afea5622a484fb65248609078d11cb 100644
--- a/lib/manager/maven/extract.ts
+++ b/lib/manager/maven/extract.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import is from '@sindresorhus/is';
 import { basename, dirname, normalize, join } from 'path';
 import { XmlDocument, XmlElement } from 'xmldoc';
 import { isValid } from '../../versioning/maven';
@@ -14,10 +15,16 @@ export function parsePom(raw: string): XmlDocument | null {
   } catch (e) {
     return null;
   }
-  const { name, attr } = project;
+  const { name, attr, children } = project;
   if (name !== 'project') return null;
-  if (attr.xmlns !== 'http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0') return null;
-  return project;
+  if (attr.xmlns === 'http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0') return project;
+  if (
+    is.nonEmptyArray(children) &&
+    children.some((c: any) => c.name === 'modelVersion' && c.val === '4.0.0')
+  ) {
+    return project;
+  }
+  return null;
 }
 
 export function containsPlaceholder(str: string): boolean {
diff --git a/test/manager/maven/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap b/test/manager/maven/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap
index 29929e446dd7334f3859946b497e474baa2b7ea0..05e299a0d329812271b862ef19eee0b23c065cfb 100644
--- a/test/manager/maven/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap
+++ b/test/manager/maven/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap
@@ -165,3 +165,12 @@ Object {
   "packageFile": null,
 }
 `;
+
+exports[`manager/maven/extract extractDependencies tries minimum manifests 1`] = `
+Object {
+  "datasource": "maven",
+  "deps": Array [],
+  "mavenProps": Object {},
+  "packageFile": null,
+}
+`;
diff --git a/test/manager/maven/_fixtures/minimum.pom.xml b/test/manager/maven/_fixtures/minimum.pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ab3fb49d84b3a88b00632d08d2580f52981e151d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/manager/maven/_fixtures/minimum.pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+<project>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+  <groupId>com.mycompany.app</groupId>
+  <artifactId>my-app</artifactId>
+  <version>1</version>
+</project>
diff --git a/test/manager/maven/extract.spec.ts b/test/manager/maven/extract.spec.ts
index 3447194b61758d0e2b8ebd85f546d7c0872dea07..b209b002591e7f3f49c213eea3b404a6a37f4407 100644
--- a/test/manager/maven/extract.spec.ts
+++ b/test/manager/maven/extract.spec.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@ import { readFileSync } from 'fs';
 import { resolve } from 'path';
 import { extractPackage } from '../../../lib/manager/maven/extract';
 
+const minimumContent = readFileSync(
+  resolve(__dirname, `./_fixtures/minimum.pom.xml`),
+  'utf8'
+);
+
 const simpleContent = readFileSync(
   resolve(__dirname, `./_fixtures/simple.pom.xml`),
   'utf8'
@@ -21,5 +26,9 @@ describe('manager/maven/extract', () => {
       const res = extractPackage(simpleContent);
       expect(res).toMatchSnapshot();
     });
+    it('tries minimum manifests', () => {
+      const res = extractPackage(minimumContent);
+      expect(res).toMatchSnapshot();
+    });
   });
 });