WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.150 --> 00:00:00.400
Welcome to

2
00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:09.280
startuprad.io,

3
00:00:09.280 --> 00:00:12.800
your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German

4
00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:16.480
startup scene with news, interviews, and

5
00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:17.840
live events.

6
00:00:20.240 --> 00:00:23.760
Hello and welcome everybody. Before we start,

7
00:00:24.080 --> 00:00:26.960
one important note here. For this January-February

8
00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:30.800
2026 briefing, we reviewed more than

9
00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:35.780
15 thousand raw URLs. We

10
00:00:36.260 --> 00:00:39.820
have been looking at funding news, investor updates, and

11
00:00:39.820 --> 00:00:43.140
ecosystem reports across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

12
00:00:43.620 --> 00:00:47.380
We are now deliberately omitting the vast majority

13
00:00:47.380 --> 00:00:51.020
of them. Startup Radio now focuses on signal over

14
00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:54.820
noise. We're not here to repeat every small seed

15
00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:58.030
round, every accelerated press release, or every

16
00:00:58.190 --> 00:01:01.790
incremental product update. We focus on structural

17
00:01:01.870 --> 00:01:05.190
capital movements, sector shifts, institutional

18
00:01:05.190 --> 00:01:08.910
participation, and companies that move the DACH

19
00:01:08.910 --> 00:01:12.710
ecosystem forward. This format is now

20
00:01:12.710 --> 00:01:16.390
the only highlights. We drop part 2 of

21
00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:20.150
what we used to do in our news, the deep dive. We are here for

22
00:01:20.150 --> 00:01:23.990
you to see the bigger picture. We may share some

23
00:01:23.990 --> 00:01:27.130
of the content of the deep dive on our social media

24
00:01:27.290 --> 00:01:30.930
channels. Um, note we are now only

25
00:01:30.930 --> 00:01:34.090
active on LinkedIn, X, TikTok, and

26
00:01:34.330 --> 00:01:38.010
YouTube. All other channels are on pause for now.

27
00:01:38.570 --> 00:01:41.970
For now, you can expect one structured news wrap-up

28
00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:45.890
with 5 to 10 news items each month with Chris and

29
00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:49.730
me. We take a July and August break, meet again

30
00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:53.410
in the very late August, do a summer wrap-up which

31
00:01:53.410 --> 00:01:57.090
usually goes live sometime early September, and then

32
00:01:57.090 --> 00:02:00.310
September through December, we stay with monthly news.

33
00:02:00.630 --> 00:02:04.070
Around December 22nd, we close the year with our annual

34
00:02:04.070 --> 00:02:07.590
fintech review, and we are adding quarterly

35
00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:11.350
strategic reviews to provide you a product, capital, and sector

36
00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:15.150
analysis. That's what I will do. We also filter

37
00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:18.990
aggressive, so do you— don't have to. Now let's

38
00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:22.830
have a look at what January and February are really telling us. Chris is

39
00:02:22.830 --> 00:02:26.590
joining us not today, not from New York, but

40
00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:29.790
from Washington, DC due to the State of the Union, right,

41
00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:33.550
Chris? Yes, I'm in the capital. Hello, hello, hello,

42
00:02:34.430 --> 00:02:37.310
hello. Let's dive in with the macro

43
00:02:37.950 --> 00:02:41.630
view. January and February 2026 across the DACH

44
00:02:41.630 --> 00:02:45.190
startup ecosystem— Germany, Austria, and Switzerland— reveal a

45
00:02:45.190 --> 00:02:48.590
much clearer pattern of capital concentration

46
00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:52.590
in enterprise artificial intelligence, sustainability,

47
00:02:52.590 --> 00:02:55.470
compliance software, defense, and dual-use

48
00:02:56.340 --> 00:03:00.020
technology. Think drones, robotics, and industrial automation,

49
00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:03.820
and milestone-driven biotech with multiple

50
00:03:03.820 --> 00:03:07.300
$100 million+ growth stage financing in

51
00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:11.300
Berlin, Mannheim, Munich, and visible participation

52
00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:14.500
from institutional lenders such as the European Investment

53
00:03:14.820 --> 00:03:18.620
Bank, KfW, German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, and

54
00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:22.340
major German commercial banks, signalizing a

55
00:03:22.340 --> 00:03:26.180
selective normalization of growth stage venture capital rather

56
00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:29.980
than broad-based early-stage exuberance. Beyond

57
00:03:29.980 --> 00:03:33.060
the headline rounds, the structural sign is

58
00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:36.860
the re-emergence of scale-stage financing in

59
00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:40.660
sectors aligned with regulation, geopolitics, and

60
00:03:40.660 --> 00:03:43.460
industrial modernization, including

61
00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:46.580
AI-powered enterprise automation,

62
00:03:48.500 --> 00:03:52.340
ESG/CSRD compliance platforms, unmanned systems and

63
00:03:52.580 --> 00:03:55.930
security technology, modular robotics integration

64
00:03:56.090 --> 00:03:59.610
into manufacturing lines, and clinical-stage life

65
00:03:59.610 --> 00:04:02.890
science programs, while consumer applications,

66
00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:06.450
speculative AI frontier narratives, and non-strategic

67
00:04:06.450 --> 00:04:10.010
SaaS categories remain largely absent from major

68
00:04:10.010 --> 00:04:11.050
DACH funding

69
00:04:14.810 --> 00:04:18.010
announcements. And yes,

70
00:04:18.730 --> 00:04:22.320
and, um, we also see, if we look a bit ahead at what

71
00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:26.160
today's episode is going to bring you. Um, geographically, it's going to

72
00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.520
be interesting because we see, well, Berlin is continuing its lead

73
00:04:29.520 --> 00:04:32.840
in enterprise AI and applied software

74
00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:36.920
scale-ups. We see that Munich is

75
00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.560
reinforcing their strengths in robotics, defense tech, deep tech

76
00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:44.360
hardware innovation. Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of

77
00:04:44.520 --> 00:04:48.320
Germany, have more and more visibility in compliance and industrial software as

78
00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:51.840
a service. And Heidelberg, also in that region,

79
00:04:51.840 --> 00:04:55.460
remains relevant in life sciences. It's a um, it's

80
00:04:55.460 --> 00:04:59.220
a beacon for German cancer research as well.

81
00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:02.980
So what we see here is that Germany and the

82
00:05:02.980 --> 00:05:06.740
whole DACH region is really one with a

83
00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:10.580
regional specialization, and those patterns really show us

84
00:05:11.220 --> 00:05:14.980
that Germany is different from other

85
00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:18.260
startup ecosystems in Europe that are much more

86
00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:22.910
centralized. We see institutional,

87
00:05:22.990 --> 00:05:26.430
co-investor visibility in January and February, particularly

88
00:05:26.750 --> 00:05:30.350
through EIB-backed financing structures and

89
00:05:31.310 --> 00:05:35.150
bank participation. That overall indicates a recalibration of

90
00:05:35.390 --> 00:05:39.070
perceived risk in strategic industries, suggesting that

91
00:05:39.070 --> 00:05:42.390
public capital alignment with venture-backed companies is

92
00:05:42.390 --> 00:05:45.710
increasing in defense, security, industrial

93
00:05:47.070 --> 00:05:50.830
modernization categories. All overall showing broader EU policy

94
00:05:50.830 --> 00:05:53.870
priorities. So it's long discussions we see in politics as

95
00:05:54.830 --> 00:05:58.270
a whole, um, especially since the bigger Ukraine

96
00:05:58.750 --> 00:06:02.510
war started. Taken together, first two months of 2026, January and

97
00:06:02.510 --> 00:06:06.310
February, now we see, uh, expansion and growth state venture capital

98
00:06:06.310 --> 00:06:10.110
across the DACH region. So DACH, always Deutschland, Austria,

99
00:06:10.110 --> 00:06:13.790
Switzerland, we always say it. Um, capital is available for

100
00:06:14.070 --> 00:06:17.350
companies with revenue clarity and

101
00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:21.910
regulatory tailwinds, defensible industrial positioning and

102
00:06:22.470 --> 00:06:26.190
institutional credibility, but constrained for speculative,

103
00:06:26.190 --> 00:06:29.990
consumer-facing, or non-strategic categories. What this all means,

104
00:06:29.990 --> 00:06:33.830
um, we will see. So if we are looking

105
00:06:33.830 --> 00:06:37.270
for a headline for the past 2 months, then it is

106
00:06:37.270 --> 00:06:40.720
a disciplined expansion. Okay.

107
00:06:40.880 --> 00:06:44.200
Not hype, not freeze, just discipline.

108
00:06:44.200 --> 00:06:47.760
Um, this episode is supported by our partners. If

109
00:06:47.760 --> 00:06:51.480
you want direct access to founders, investors, and innovation

110
00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:54.120
leaders across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,

111
00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:03.260
visit startuprade.io/become-a-partner. The top signal of Sapiens: 100

112
00:07:03.260 --> 00:07:06.960
million series C round, making it a unicorn in

113
00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:10.000
Mannheim. We may add that Mannheim has been

114
00:07:10.640 --> 00:07:13.920
very important for German, uh, for the German industry in

115
00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:17.920
the past. Not only is it the place very close

116
00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:21.040
by where Carl Benz invented the car, but it was also

117
00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:25.560
the place where the first electric elevator was working

118
00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:29.360
here in Germany. And I spent once there

119
00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:33.080
some time visiting all their entrepreneurship centers,

120
00:07:33.080 --> 00:07:36.830
each one focused on a different, on a

121
00:07:36.830 --> 00:07:40.550
different, um, industry, different vertical, and they are very interesting. And I do

122
00:07:40.550 --> 00:07:43.790
believe they have 9 of them right now. So

123
00:07:43.950 --> 00:07:45.790
let's go to Mannheim, or as

124
00:07:47.470 --> 00:07:50.830
they locally say, Mannheim. Based on Sapiens, secured

125
00:07:52.270 --> 00:07:55.390
a $100 million US dollar Series C funding round

126
00:07:55.630 --> 00:07:59.030
led by Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture

127
00:07:59.030 --> 00:08:02.550
between BlackRock and Temasek, the sovereign wealth fund

128
00:08:02.550 --> 00:08:06.270
of Singapore, reaching unicorn valuation and

129
00:08:06.270 --> 00:08:09.530
positioning sustainability compliance ESG reporting, supply chain

130
00:08:09.530 --> 00:08:13.210
due diligence, and

131
00:08:13.210 --> 00:08:16.890
CSRD-aligned regulatory software as a core enterprise infrastructure

132
00:08:16.890 --> 00:08:20.330
within Germany and across Europe. And CSRD

133
00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:24.250
is Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, of course, from the

134
00:08:24.250 --> 00:08:27.770
European Union. This financing signals that

135
00:08:28.090 --> 00:08:31.730
EU regulatory pressure, including CSRD

136
00:08:31.730 --> 00:08:35.329
requirements and supply chain transparency

137
00:08:35.329 --> 00:08:38.849
mandates, is transforming compliance obligations into

138
00:08:38.849 --> 00:08:42.409
recurring SaaS revenue models, with global institutional

139
00:08:42.409 --> 00:08:45.329
investors backing German compliance technology

140
00:08:45.329 --> 00:08:49.129
as durable enterprise infrastructure rather

141
00:08:49.129 --> 00:08:52.969
than thematic climate exposure. Yeah, so we definitely

142
00:08:53.129 --> 00:08:56.809
see that climate— climate compliance— because you

143
00:08:57.529 --> 00:09:01.169
just said climate compliance used to be a topic that was a bit

144
00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:04.890
like overheard and overlooked, but now I

145
00:09:04.890 --> 00:09:08.650
guess following rules is one of the core strengths of the Germans, I

146
00:09:08.650 --> 00:09:12.450
guess. So now we see it

147
00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:15.970
here. Exactly, that's a competitive mode. Yeah, and a

148
00:09:15.970 --> 00:09:19.750
company like BlackRock definitely legitimizes the

149
00:09:19.750 --> 00:09:23.490
whole category. Uh, signal number 2, Parloa. It's a Berlin-based

150
00:09:23.490 --> 00:09:27.170
company that raised $350 million in a Series D, now standing

151
00:09:27.170 --> 00:09:30.850
at a $3 billion valuation, to scale

152
00:09:31.570 --> 00:09:35.030
enterprise AI agents embedded in contact center

153
00:09:35.030 --> 00:09:38.670
workflows, cost customer relationship management systems and customer support automation

154
00:09:38.670 --> 00:09:42.470
platforms, all these things,

155
00:09:42.470 --> 00:09:46.030
positioning Applied AI as something that they claim

156
00:09:46.270 --> 00:09:49.950
is procurement-ready enterprise infrastructure, helping to

157
00:09:50.270 --> 00:09:51.950
improve ROI and

158
00:09:53.630 --> 00:09:56.910
revenue expansion dynamics. Overall, we see that the company

159
00:09:58.510 --> 00:10:02.150
apparently is pretty promising, and because this whole

160
00:10:02.150 --> 00:10:05.800
round demonstrates that Applied AI integrated

161
00:10:07.640 --> 00:10:11.080
into enterprise software, um, is fundable

162
00:10:11.640 --> 00:10:15.240
at big rounds. And, um, yeah,

163
00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:19.080
showing that deployment depth and operational efficiency, what if you

164
00:10:19.239 --> 00:10:22.840
can prove them, and if you can prove that there are actually gains,

165
00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:26.480
can also mean huge success for your startup. And we

166
00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:30.150
also see that Berlin

167
00:10:30.150 --> 00:10:33.830
is a Yeah, is a, is a

168
00:10:33.910 --> 00:10:36.870
main hub in Europe for AI

169
00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:42.350
tech like this. This isn't really a speculative AI

170
00:10:42.350 --> 00:10:45.749
narrative anymore. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, yeah, this is already like operational.

171
00:10:46.150 --> 00:10:49.750
It does exist. And yeah, yeah. Let me

172
00:10:49.750 --> 00:10:53.030
take over the next big funding. Quantum

173
00:10:53.030 --> 00:10:56.670
Systems, $150 million institutional financing in the Munich

174
00:10:56.670 --> 00:11:00.430
area. Defense and dual-use technology company Quantum

175
00:11:00.430 --> 00:11:04.050
Systems secured over $150 €1

176
00:11:04.050 --> 00:11:07.370
billion, uh, European financing package backed by the European

177
00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:10.930
Investment Bank, Commerzbank, KfW, and Deutsche

178
00:11:10.930 --> 00:11:14.370
Bank, highlighting increasing alignment between venture-backed deep tech

179
00:11:14.450 --> 00:11:18.210
companies and public institutional capital in

180
00:11:18.290 --> 00:11:21.970
unmanned aerial systems and security infrastructure. I think

181
00:11:22.450 --> 00:11:25.890
everybody knows why. Um, the financing reflects geopolitical

182
00:11:25.970 --> 00:11:29.610
realignment and EU security funding priorities,

183
00:11:30.290 --> 00:11:33.410
signaling that defense-adjacent startups and DACH

184
00:11:33.490 --> 00:11:36.770
are transitioning from politically sensitive

185
00:11:36.770 --> 00:11:40.130
ventures to strategically supported industrial

186
00:11:40.450 --> 00:11:43.970
players, with institutional lenders reducing perceived

187
00:11:44.210 --> 00:11:48.010
risk and enabling stage expansion. Yeah, we see

188
00:11:48.010 --> 00:11:51.530
it over and over, defense tech becoming something more normal,

189
00:11:51.530 --> 00:11:55.210
something that makes money, something that becomes more and more important

190
00:11:55.210 --> 00:11:58.690
in especially the dual-use cases.

191
00:11:59.060 --> 00:12:02.660
Yeah, uh, yes. In startup culture as well as in

192
00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:07.380
general industry everywhere. RobCo, Munich-based, a

193
00:12:07.380 --> 00:12:10.820
Munich-based company in robotics, raised $100 million

194
00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:14.500
in the Series C funding. They are, they

195
00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:17.220
also want to expand AI tech, in this

196
00:12:17.860 --> 00:12:21.140
case modular AI-driven industrial automation

197
00:12:21.140 --> 00:12:24.940
systems for manufacturing environments. So they say, well,

198
00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:28.780
we can combine robotic hardware with

199
00:12:28.780 --> 00:12:32.400
software orchestration, all of it tailored to what is a strength

200
00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:36.200
of German industry or German companies, basically the industrial base

201
00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:40.280
and like Mittelstand there, so the medium-sized companies

202
00:12:40.280 --> 00:12:44.000
for whom Germany is famous for. Um, we also see

203
00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:47.760
that this round for RobCo, as I said, based in Munich, is

204
00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:51.600
kind of reinforcing Bavaria's position as a robotics and

205
00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.840
advanced manufacturing hub, showing that physical

206
00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:59.640
automation integrated into production lines is a venture category

207
00:12:59.640 --> 00:13:03.100
in Germany that stays important. And especially

208
00:13:03.100 --> 00:13:06.340
when you can align this with industrial

209
00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:09.100
modernization, long-term enterprise contracts. I mean, it all goes to

210
00:13:09.820 --> 00:13:13.620
the strengths of German

211
00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:15.660
engineering. The software meets the factory

212
00:13:18.140 --> 00:13:21.260
floor. I see. I think it's called Exiva.

213
00:13:22.060 --> 00:13:25.020
Uh, €51 million funding biotech

214
00:13:25.420 --> 00:13:29.020
in Berlin. Heidelberg-based biotech company Exiva raised €51 million

215
00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:32.740
in a Series B funding— €51 million, by the way.

216
00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:36.240
Um, and I've also seen this that you just talked about, and I had €85

217
00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:40.040
million in the back of my mind. Yes, €85

218
00:13:40.040 --> 00:13:43.440
million, $100 million. So, um, that's, that's

219
00:13:43.800 --> 00:13:47.080
not a one-on-one relation anymore. Um, let's go back

220
00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:50.520
to the news. Heidelberg-based biotech company Exiva

221
00:13:51.680 --> 00:13:55.400
raised €51 million in Series B financing

222
00:13:56.280 --> 00:13:59.990
co-led by GM,

223
00:14:00.220 --> 00:14:03.020
GIMV, and EQ2. T Life Science—

224
00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:06.540
sorry— to advance Deraphan,

225
00:14:06.780 --> 00:14:10.460
a treatment targeting agitation in Alzheimer's

226
00:14:10.540 --> 00:14:13.540
disease, reinforcing Germany's continued relevance in

227
00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:17.380
clinical-stage biotech and neuroscience research

228
00:14:17.380 --> 00:14:21.180
within the startup ecosystem. The findings also

229
00:14:21.180 --> 00:14:24.860
signal that European biotech capital remains available

230
00:14:24.860 --> 00:14:28.710
for programs with credible clinical milestones

231
00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:32.550
experienced syndicates, and defined regulatory pathways,

232
00:14:32.550 --> 00:14:36.390
underscoring that life science financing in Germany is

233
00:14:36.390 --> 00:14:39.630
milestone-driven rather than hype-driven. Before

234
00:14:39.790 --> 00:14:43.550
we move into implications for founders and investors, a short message

235
00:14:43.710 --> 00:14:47.150
from our partners. If you would like to be

236
00:14:50.030 --> 00:14:53.430
here, visit startuprate.io/become-a-partner. January and February show

237
00:14:53.430 --> 00:14:56.570
selective growth stage confidence in the

238
00:14:56.890 --> 00:15:00.490
DACH startup ecosystem. Yes, we see that in

239
00:15:00.490 --> 00:15:04.090
enterprise AI, compliance infrastructure, as we said, defense tech,

240
00:15:04.810 --> 00:15:08.370
robotics, and biotech. And that means, yeah, I would

241
00:15:08.370 --> 00:15:12.090
say for startups, built with regulation,

242
00:15:12.170 --> 00:15:15.930
procurement complexity, and geopolitical priorities

243
00:15:15.930 --> 00:15:19.730
create a durable tailwind. Yeah, and for

244
00:15:19.730 --> 00:15:22.850
investors, not just for the startups, we see that like

245
00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:27.880
sector conviction is beating a broad exposure in

246
00:15:27.880 --> 00:15:31.560
this phase. And for the innovation leaders, the

247
00:15:31.920 --> 00:15:35.760
sectors define broad-level discussions in 2026. For all of

248
00:15:35.760 --> 00:15:38.200
this, we've reviewed over 15,000

249
00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:43.080
raw news links. Yeah, and these are the structural signals we can

250
00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:46.920
condense for you. These were the highlights January, February 2026.

251
00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:48.600
Thanks for listening. Thanks guys. Have a

252
00:15:54.900 --> 00:15:58.540
good day. Bye-bye. Folks. Find more

253
00:15:58.540 --> 00:15:58.900
news,

254
00:15:58.900 --> 00:16:03.300
streams,

255
00:16:03.300 --> 00:16:05.970
events, and interviews at www.startuprad.io. Remember, sharing is caring.