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Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German
startup scene with news, interviews and
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Hello and welcome everyone to our regular startup news from the startup and tech
entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
We will stick to our system of breaking up the news into two
pieces so you will find two episodes in your podcatches also
this month. You're listening to the top news this month in German, Swiss and
Austrian startups for October 2025. Second
piece of news will be released the upcoming Monday with a deep dive
into the GSA startup scene. Our startup news
today are recorded with me in
Hanover and as we say in German, the mule
always mentions himself first. The donkey.
And Joe is in Frankfurt though. Hey, how are you?
Hey guys. Today's news cut has been
October 27th. As always, all news not included will be in our
next wrap up which will be published November 27th.
Yes, it's already going to be Thanksgiving.
Probably our favorite American holiday. Who knows?
Are you going to eat one of those tofu turkeys again for
Thanksgiving? I had them. They are not great.
And in general, as a vegetarian, I'm not the biggest fan
of these like as if products.
Give me, yeah, give me great vegetables or some
spices, but not like fake burger. Anyway,
story for another day because in Germany there also has been legislation that you can't
call it veggie burger anymore. Anyway, we will be
joining Deutsche Startups at their annual event Startup land on
site November 5th in Cologne. Meet us there. Get
25% discount with Startup Lend
Friends. 25. Startup Lens. Sorry,
I knew I was going to mess it up. Startup lend friends
2 5. Since we published this piece on the day
before Halloween. Enjoy your dick. Trick or treat.
Boohoo. Are you
going to do trick or treating with your kids? Do you have a
costume? Yes, of course. I'm already, I'm
already deep in preparations because first we do trick or treat,
then we go home and we have some like little.
How do you call those? Like, like those little
wooden spikes with
little pumpkins on top or little ghosts on top.
And we make little burgers and put them in and call it Halloween
burgers. How does trick or treat work in your
neighborhood in New. So in my neighborhood in New York, actually in my
building, you can put your name
on a list and because the building has 34 floors and
you can put your name on a list and then the kids, there's an official
list for which apartments kids are allowed to knock on
and so, so they don't like knock on all the
700 apartments in the building. But I, I find it a
bit weird anyway because I mean, if you are a kid who wants to go
trick or treating, do you want to do like 30 floors or do
you want, I mean, you want to walk in the streets and see other people?
I guess that, that would be my question. So basically
the kids are just sticking to their own building. Well, you can
in my building, but I think it's stupid because especially the Upper east side,
a lot of people put a lot of money into the decorations and
the buildings actually look really nice and they have like giant spider webs
outside and witches and all these like inflatable.
We. We actually have three inflatables in our front yard.
One of them is, is a Dragon 22 meter and 70
tall. Another one is a, is a little group of
little pumpkins with a little ghost and a little
cat. And the other one is a very friendly ghost getting
out of a pumpkin and
handcuffed pumpkins. Pumpkins on the stairs.
Well, good. Good for you. Well, I already missed
Eurovision Halloween. There's always Eurovision Halloween in New York
where people dress up as old Eurovision artists. Anyway,
so I think we are ready to talk startups for this month.
Should we go for it? Yes, totally. A quick, quick
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Friday 20 now back to the show. Chris,
you want to give me some highlights? Sure. Let's go.
The mood this month is cautious
optimism with a caffeine kick.
AI keeps vacuuming capital with the markets.
Quietly rewards teams that can actually ship
and sell funding volumes aren't 2021,
Chris. Remember those crazy days when we actually had an additional
unicorn tracker? Because unicorn got.
Almost every month we got a new unicorn. It was totally crazy.
Yeah, I mean it was simpler times, but also,
I mean the way I look at the market, I really wonder how much. I
mean those numbers have always been had an element of fantasy
to it, but my impression is it's getting worse and worse and
like those numbers are inflated. So yeah, the only real
unicorns are you and me.
The winners are punching through especially in AI
infra biotech climate tech will track
it without the froth, just the numbers and the
signals so you can sound smart in your next board call.
A dry smile, a raised eyebrow and we go on Theme
one the funding bar moves higher
and a few teams cleared it with room to spare. Berlin's
workflow AI orchestration crowd showed that
repeatable GTM plus real customer
expansion still opens late stage doors even
with stricter term sheets. Why It Matters
Category leaders are getting global terms again provided
their default alive and not just default
loud. Ironically, the new growth hack is boring
pricing, retention and procurement friendly security
docs theme 2 health and deep
tech put Europe on the big ticket map.
Record class rounds for next gen truck
platforms and neuro robotics remind
everyone that Europe's slab to market pipeline is back
when the transitional pathway is clear and the IP actually
defends why it matters. Patient capital is
returning, but it's allergic to vanity pr.
Platform science with clinical lags is the new vibe.
The twist Moats equal memes final
trends in 2025. Yes, scientists are
cool again and in the back of my of
my mind the theme music for Big Bang Theory plays.
Theme number three Exits and earnings are no
longer taboo at the cool kids table. Translation
European IPO drums are audible again while
profitable category leaders in travel
vertical SaaS are hinting at durable
margins rather than one off quarters. Why It
Matters the story is shifting from potential to performance,
tightening valuation spreads and forcing cleaner metrics
in as once turns out profitability
is fashionable again. Who knew. Chris, I think
that was something you're just hinting handing over to you.
Yeah, the fourth fourth theme we're
seeing is you could give it
the headline of risk being back on the agenda. We see that cyber and
fraud attacks continue to escalate,
especially where operational technology meets information technology.
And we see more and more boards writing checks for
resilience, for identity theft and response drills.
Security here seems to like move away from being just a cost
center and actually also huge sales enabler in
the startup world if companies can prove time to value
and pass enterprise procurement in a week, not
longer. Yeah, so here fear seems to
be a really good sales representative once the incident
maps light up. Theme number five we are seeing
is climate and energy storage is
kind of like graduating into actual like
pipelines, battery analytics, grid orchestration,
carbon heavy industry retrofits
are driving the startup scene industrials
one return on investment within 12 to 24 months which
we see here and that favors software, LED controls,
retrofit friendly sensors and Capex light
deployments. So yeah,
it's theme number six. We're also seeing capital
formation quietly restructuring under the hood. We see
European growth funds co leading with US crossover capital again
but now with a bit more cleaner government's terms, less tolerance for
creative accounting.
And that matters because founders who embrace discipline like board
cadence, data rooms, usage based finesse, price
better and keep more control.
And so here's now the Runway for the rest of today's top news.
Late stage AI and workflow winners. Europe's deep tech
comeback. Credible exit signals Germany's reality
cyber check and real pipelines in climate and industrial tech.
Plus some stealthy climbers in robotics and ag
tech. Yeah, so
there will be receipts in our show notes as always. And
as we said in a few days we'll drop the deep dive, wrap
up with even more startup and tech news.
We are providing the link in the show notes if you haven't subscribed
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Now, before we hit our sponsor, here's your reason to stay
tuned. This month's top news is a cross section of Europe startup future.
From Munich's record breaking biotech round and Berlin's newest AI
unicorns to the rise of defense tech and industrial autonomy.
So we will have a look into where smart money is going in Q4
right now. A 700 million euro bet that makes NPAL
Europe's climate king 308 million euros that just
rewrote biotech history and why investors are suddenly calling Germany
the new AI core. Plus a
few stealth moves in energy optimization, sovereign AI
that could define 2026. And this
one's all signal, no noise for once.
And before we get started. Here's a little ad break.
Welcome back. Let's dive into our top news
for this month. First off, Berlin based NPAL has
secured a massive 700 million euro mil
financing package in October 2025 in order to
accelerate residential solar expansion across
Germany. Huge topic. Renewables are
big in Germany. It's kind of like everyone is kind
of like working on it. Even though my
impression is that politics is not always supporting
people. And as
we see that
npal, which is Europe's largest solar leasing provider,
plans to deploy funds towards battery storage integration,
EV charging infrastructure and smart meter rollouts.
The round now is backed by institutional lenders including BlackRock and
IN ING Diba. It used to be in Deba, now as Ink
bank and it extends NPAL's cumulative funding
beyond 3 billion euros, underscoring investor
confidence obviously in the energy transition
on the European continent. NPAL's
model of subscription based green energy ownership positions it as a
benchmark for climate tech scalability and we see that
competitors like Eins Commerad 1
1.5° and Svea Solar are racing to replicate
kind of what NPAL is doing, a vertically integrated
home energy approach. More about that you can see
on trending topics and we also have an internal link
to the about the energy transition in
Germany. Munich based
Tubules has raised a record breaking
308 million euro Series C also in October to
advance their pipeline of next generation antibody drug
conjugates ADCs to
provide targeted cancer therapy therapy. This round is
led by Novo holdings and EQT Life Sciences with
participation from Mubadala Investment company and Andera Partners.
It marks Europe's largest biotech funding today
date to Buddhist proprietary ADC platform
enables highly selective less toxic cancer treatments
an area that used to be dominated by American and
Swiss companies and now yeah Munich, Germany is playing a bit
of a bigger role also underscoring
investor confidence in the life sciences in Germany as a
whole and positioning Munich as one of
the big cities in Europe alongside Cambridge and
Basel. Former
startup Rate IO guest Energy Robotics has
secured 13.5 million euros in a Series
A round. They want to expand autonomous robot and drone
inspection platform for a autonomous
robot and drone inspection platform across industrial and
energy sites. It's based in Darmstadt so
southern HESP pretty much in the center of Germany and it's PI. It
is pioneering AI driven inspection software and that enables
robots from multiple manufacturers to autonomous to
autonomously navigate, analyze and report
critical data in hazard. Hazardous.
Is that how you pronounce it? Sorry? Hazardous? Yes. For example
they have robots that can walk like dogs on
automated oil or gas drilling platform somewhere in the North
Sea where no human wants to go or needs to go.
Okay. And now the new capital that Energy Robotics could
secure. It's backed by future industry ventures born to grow high
tech. Grunderfah is going to accelerate commercialization across
refineries, power plants and offshore assets. Basically what you said.
Yeah. And it's especially interesting because we see in Germany heavy
industry is undergoing a digital transformation and so
they are really at some interesting operating at some
interesting crossroads Here then.
Germany has officially added three AI unicorns,
N8N, PAA and Deep L.
With Black Forest Labs from Fryborg on track to follow at a
projected 4 billion valuation. So you surely know their
product, the Flux, an AI image
generator. And all of this just underscores that the
Dachau region emerges as a European AI cluster. Super
cluster spanning automation, conversational AI and
language models. Berlin based N8N, it's
valued at $2.5 billion after
180 million euros. Series C.
They power workflow, automation. Paloa revolutionizes
customer service AI and Deep L continues to
dominate global translation markets.
Black Forest Labs, dubbed the quietest unicorn in the
world by Business Insider, is
reportedly negotiating Megaround's high profile partnerships with Meta
and Elon Musk's ventures. So they're
combining privacy centric research with Gen
AI. So we will see.
Do you know what's interesting Chris here? We already talked in
September news about Black Forest
Labs being in officially a unicorn. And
now other media, other blogs, other
posters, other podcast, other news
outlets are picking this up. Yeah, and yeah,
that's it with the top news, but
from my side. But when we move on, you have. Some more about Deep
L. Yes, sticking to
the AI unicorns. Deep L is a US
IPO as Europe's AI translation giant
expands globally. The Cologne based Deep L
is one of Europe's leading AI translation and language
platforms and they reportedly exploring a US
ipo signaling a boat
transatlantic expansion strategy and
investor Appetite for generative AI infrastructure.
Those guys have been founded in 2017
and grown into global benchmark for neural machine
translation. Boasting enterprise clients just
just like Microsoft or siemens and major U.S.
law firms. A U.S. listing would mark one of the
largest European AI I today, setting the
precedent for the Dach region's export of
AI excellence to American capital markets. Industry
analysts view this move as a test of global investor
confidence in European AI competitiveness.
Especially as Deep L's latest valuation
reportedly exceeded 2 billion. Yes. Will it be
US dollars following its 2024 funding round led
by iconic capital for
founders and policymakers, Deep L's trajectory underscores
the growing internationalization of Europe's AI champions
amid an intensifying race for
linguistic in generative AI
domination. Quantum Systems targets
150 million US dollar race at
3 billion US dollar valuation to scale
European defense tech the Munich based
startup Quant is Germany's leading
autonomous drone intelligence startup and they are reported
to seek raising 150 million US dollar
at a 3 billion valuation market
one of Europe's most ambitious defense
check fundraisings this year. The company
specializes in dual use UAV
that combine AI powered reconnaissance with
military grade reliability. Actually, I
do have some friends and military grade reliability doesn't
always means what it sounds like. Used by clients including
NATO and Ukraine's armed forces for battlefield
intelligence and infrastructure monitoring, the
planned round follows a surge invest and
investments into AI driven defense platforms
as Europe seeks strategic independence
amid global geopolitical instability.
Quantum systems scaling push underscores a
wider dark trend where dual use robotics and autonomous systems
are redefining the intersection between national security,
deep tech and venture capital. Its success
could set a new benchmark for European defense innovation,
balancing sovereign capability with private sector
agility. That will be a great dream. Our former
guest Atalytics expand Series a with
Microsoft's M12 to scale AI
driven energy optimization Offenbach based
atalytics, a former Solarbrate IO guest has announced a Series
A extension led by Microsoft's M12
venture fund or is it M1,2? I don't know. Aiming to
accelerate deployment of its AI powered energy
optimization platform for industrial and commercial
sites. The investment highlights the growing convergence
of energy management and AI, particularly
in Europe's decarbonization and efficiency sector
at Lytic software suite enables predictive load management,
real time process optimization and
carbon intensity reduction across critical
infrastructure from data centers to manufacturing facilities.
The backing from M12 strengthens
Germany's standing in industrial AI and cleantech innovation
while positioning analytics as a strategic partner in Europe's transition
toward autonomous energy operations. The deal
reinforces investors focus on climate tech SaaS
that bridges digital and physical energy systems,
an area increasingly viewed as the backbone of
Europe's net zero ecosystem.
Also, Nexus AI raises 30 million to
build Europe's Switzerland for LLMs
Interesting term here. Founded by the creators of NordVPN,
privacy focused startup Nexus AI has secured 30
million to develop a European alternative to US
dominated large language model hosting platforms. Based in Europe and
built on privacy first architecture, Nexus AI
aims to establish a Switzerland for LLMs a secure, compliant
environment for training and deployment. Deploying large
language models under the EU Data protection
standards gdpr, the platform provides sovereign
AI infrastructure that keep corporate and public
sector data within European jurisdictions, addressing
the rising concerns about model leakage and dependency on
American hyperscalers. The funding round reflects a
surge in AI infrastructure sovereignty investments,
with Europe positioning itself as a global
hub for trustworthy and decentralized
AI hosting for startups and enterprise like Nexus,
AI Vision underscores a strategic pivot from
convenience to compliance driven innovation in the generative
AI stack Guys, sorry for stumbling
a little bit together here with Chris but are both in Germany. It's very close
to 10pm here so we're very tired but we're still working hard for
you guys. Let's follow us on next Monday
for the deep dive. Chris, was a pleasure talking to you and
hosting these with you again. I'm awake as always. I'm super awake.
Bye bye. See you in a couple of days. Bye.
That's all folks. Find more news, streams,
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interviews@www.startuprad.IO.
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