WEBVTT

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Foreign.

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Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German

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startup scene with news, interviews and

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live events.

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Welcome to our regular startup news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship

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scenes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This is the deep

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dive of our startup news with me, Chris

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in New York and Joe like

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frolicking around in Germany.

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So this is the second episode, some of you might have listened to

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the highlights and now here you will get even more

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of our monthly news coverage. We

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took a bit of a leaner approach, as

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contradictory to the Christmas season, to the holiday season, but we

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took a bit of a leaner approach in the startup news. Please let us know

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how you like it. And before we go any further, one small milestone worth

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pausing for. This is episode 730 of Startup

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Radio. The number says a lot. A lot of

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conversations, years of conversations, cycles of hype and corrections.

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I mean yeah, I'm still missing super

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fast supermarkets, thousands of founders,

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investors and operators passing through our mics,

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booms, busts, pivots, reinventions across the dark startup

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ecosystem and we're still here, still hoping

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that sometimes our signals beat the noise. So thanks for listening,

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building this brand. Thanks for challenging us and for sticking around.

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Now back to work and Back to the

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December 2025 startup news part two.

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The deep dive part one was a bit about bigger signals, headline

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moves. This now is where we slow things down a bit and we looked at

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what actually changed underneath. We are at more concrete

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deals with a couple of companies and

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you will, yeah, get the last wrap

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up before we start the new year. So I'm

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in the lead. Chris in New York. We move across the ecosystem piece by

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piece. We will look at Europe shifting, AI competitiveness

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debate. Two very concrete signals out of Germany, out of Austria, out of

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Switzerland will hear which categories we see

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are maturing, others are being repriced and

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where founders are adapting faster than the market. Consensus,

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consensus. So before

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we will get into it, you have a little bit of

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housekeeping and all the little

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minutia for us. Yeah, just a tiny note

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guys. Startup Radio experienced a brief publishing interruption

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due to software update at the third party software provider that

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did not go as planned. All content was fully backed up and

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remains intact. Delayed episodes will be released and regular

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publishing has now resumed. Fortunately.

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Quick heads up before we continue. This deep dive

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isn't about hype stories. We're talking execution signals,

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regulatory shifts and where capital is actually getting

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disciplined right now. Stay with us.

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The interesting parts are just ahead.

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Hey guys, welcome back from the ad break. I'm handing over to Chris again

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because he's always been an ecosystem guy, right? Yes.

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And this is the part of the show where we look more into

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general context of the startup world. For example, in

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Europe we found a report at

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Antifa about Europe's AI

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competitiveness and how the debate there shifts from

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ambition to execution. Antifa Outline is outlining a

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couple of scenarios for how Europe could remain competitive in the global AI

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race. They are looking at infrastructure, specialization,

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regulatory leverage and we see that for the D

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ecosystem the re relence the relevance is clear.

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The conversation has moved from whether Europe can compete at all to where

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it can win which parts of the market. And

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one idea is that that could be in particularly in applied

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regulated and industrial AI. The

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ecosystem in Germany has interesting

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details about the Google search trends 2025

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and Stan has an analysis there

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and showing where public curiosity was lying in

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2025. And for founders and operators, these trends

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matter a bit more than just like the trivia and of a

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proxy for mass market sentiment, cultural anxiety and

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emerging demand. And

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when we look at it, I mean a lot of it is political I guess

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in the search trends, but

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we also see

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a lot of searches about dead

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people unfortunately. So probably, yeah, so probably

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a bit less about the start startup world, but a bit more about

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what actually Germans were cur about.

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The German Fintech ecosystem has

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been the topic of a Tech Funding News article

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that analyzes the ecosystem reaching

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651 million euros in funding, highlighting also a

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shift from explosive growth to some kind of operational

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maturity. So we also see here that Fintech

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is becoming more of an execution game, centering on

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margins, centering on compliance, centering on scale economics and a

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bit less the rapid growth stories of the past.

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And Tech Funding News also reports that 2026 is shaping

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up as a pivotal year for German accounting software, driven by

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AI adoption and mandatory E invoicing. That means

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for software as a service founders. In the Dach region,

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regulation is once again acting as a forced innovation catalyst.

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And bit less of a drag hopefully for

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you guys. Moving on from Germany to Austria and moving on from

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Christian to Joe. Yes, there's a new

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electricity law in Austria. Wind and solar sectors

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celebrate a regulatory win. The renewables industry

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are positioned as beneficiary of the new

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electricity market framework. Which market which matters? Because

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climate startups don't scale on tech alone, they scale on the

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market design. For daft founders, this is a reminder that regulatory

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structure can be growth level. However, not only constrained,

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we accelerate Arson attack raises concerns about

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ecosystem security trending topic reports on a

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confirmed arson attack at Vienna's We Accelerate

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Startup Hub While no funding or product implications were

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reported, incidents Highlights Growing A growing

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uncomfortable reality Physical security and

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political polarization are becoming non trivial

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risk factors even in innovation spaces. In

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Switzerland for 30 under 30 highlights Swiss

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startup Talent the coverage spotlights a new cohort

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of Swiss innovators reinforcing Switzerland's steady reputation

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for producing globally competitive founders across deep tech,

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fintech and life science. Let's go a little bit

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into the general news, VCs, news and new funds just in case

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you're looking for money. Hero Capital launches its

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third European scale up Fund Hero Capital announced The launch of

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Hero 3 spelled H I

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R O a new European focus scale Up Fund while

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adding Sir Nick Clack as general partner.

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Forbes published its Midas Europe list spotlighting capital

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concentration. Forbes released its annual list for Europe

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highlighting the venture capitalists currently exerting the most

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influence across the European startup ecosystem. For startup

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founders, the list is less about prestige and more about

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pattern recognition. Capital networks and follow on power

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are becoming increasingly concentrated among a smaller and

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smaller group of repeat actors. The

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Deep Tech News Chris, you want to flux it in.

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Because Flux 2 was presented as a new image generation

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model reinforcing that European AI progress

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is increasingly becoming more about shipping

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as productized systems. And for founders this is

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also so like an execution signal. You can say we see that

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distribution and integration layers are now

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where winners separate themselves from

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labs. Aleph Alpha Co. We've talked about

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a couple of times here too is part of a coverage of Handel's

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Blood handle. Blood is framing an inflection point at

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Aleph Alpha and reminder that sovereign AI in Europe is now in the

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hard phase. Product procurement cycles and

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durable economics are the main topics there and

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the founders here. The takeaway is that AI credibility more

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comes from actual delivery of operational systems and

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not just from positioning as

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exemplified by Aleph Alpha in that

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report in the Defense Tech News.

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Well we can only say keep in mind that we had the top news with

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Quantum Systems and their dual use potential 3 billion

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valuation and

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so more about that in the upcoming

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episodes. I think we also have nothing big

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about the biotech news for

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for now there will be more in funding and the mergers and acquisition sections of

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the show. So we will move on to fintech with you.

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Yes Mundu the Fintech News Mondo secures

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100 million debt facility by JP Morgan

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payments this is a maturity signal. Non

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dilutive capital is back for fintechs that look like

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infrastructure not experiments for Berlin and the dark fintech

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scene. This is about unit Economics and credit worthiness.

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Exactly the start of signal late stage partners

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care about We Fox we talked about the former

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unicorn. Quite frequently profit profitability

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becomes the headline handels. But reports we Fox, aiming to be

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profitable this year. So 2025 I would

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assume an inflection that matters because Insuretech has been a

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graveyard of growth first stories for dark founders. This

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is a category wide signal. Sorry it's late

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Here distribution models are being judged on

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underwriting quality and operational discipline, not

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funding optics. Bitpanda

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expands into Asia Pacific bitpanda's

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APEC expansion signals a crypto platform moving from

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regional dominance into international positioning for

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Austria and the Dach crypto ecosystem. It's a clean marker

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of compliance area crypto scaling where distribution follows

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licenses and institutional trust. We don't have

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expert green tech news here, but Chris had a lot of

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general news, right? Yeah. Let's move on to the general news. And

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to move about a former guest of ours. Swiss Pod

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Hits a Hyperloop Speed Record Moneycap

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here reports that Swisspod is breaking the hyperloop

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speed record on a major US test track for Switzerland

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and Dark Deep Tech. It's a credibility milestone. We with

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the hardware ventures only get funded long term if they can keep

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converting ambition into performance. And that is something we see here.

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Next topic. Interesting. If they would not be already

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listed and would still be considered a startup, this would have made the

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number one topic of our news overall because we're talking about

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Auto Eins Auto 1. They are expanding

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the inventory funding to 1.6 billion euros,

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underlining the capital intensity behind Europe's largest

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used car marketplace. All of this

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also kind of a reminder that the marketplace scale is ultimately a

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balance sheet story, not just a growth one. We see that

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here and we see that access to structured financing can also

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be a bit of a competitive moat.

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Manager magazine reports a sharp directional signal in

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Germany's EV market. BYD

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is gaining while Tesla loses momentum.

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So we see that the competitive advantage here is increasingly

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about manufacturing cadence, coming up with pricing, strategy,

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distribution and in the end also winning market share as

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BYD does. And we also see, yeah, that

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the brand brand narrative of Tesla has become a rather

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toxic one. Let's say Flixbus

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company in Munich that by now also already owns the famous

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Greyhound buses or Greyhound Greyhound bus brand in the US

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is pushing expansion into Australia.

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That's a report by Munich Startup that shows that platform

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economics and international replication actually can be a

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thing. And we also see it's kind of a

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disciplined global rollout and not just like okay Here's a new market

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and a hyped up story. Flix Train

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is a part of coverage of Fund scene

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who or which reports that Flix Train is positioning themselves

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around around a high frequency network

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signaling escalating competitive pressure in German

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rail. Also regulatory and Capex

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Chessboard story here where we see that

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strategy, your own strategy is always kind of constrained by

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network access and political economics as is

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part of the German rail system and regulatory

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systems. And Hunderth Blood is reporting that Amazon

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has inaugurated a new German headquarter while expanding their local

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footprint. Even though there is increasing

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regulatory scrutiny and political debate around the

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e commerce giant or website giant or Amazon

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AWS giant, Germany still remains a core

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operational market for global tech giants like Amazon

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and the country is reinforcing its role as a

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logistics, talent and enterprise hub within Europe. More details about that

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at Handels but and now we are talking about creative. Destruction,

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yes good or shrimpetter we do have

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insolvency, layoffs and other bad news. Not all companies here

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are leaving the market. Starting with Flink, they

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reportedly according to Vivo Virtual, they report

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Flink the quick delivery is requiring close to 90 million

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euros. Another data point in the

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post hype normalization of quick commerce. For Berlin,

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it's less about delivery and more about whether last mile

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economics can be financed under sober terms.

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Zushi bikes insolvency D2C reality check

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reporting frames Sushi Bikes as

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insolvent, another reminder that consumer hardware brands live

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and die by working capital. German startups Insolvency

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highlights the fragility between showcase growth

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stories. MSN reports on the solvency of

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Dusseldorf based flagship startup, a case

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that surprised many observers. For Dach ecosystem, this

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means this serves a reminder that visibility and narrative

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momentum do not replace financial

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resilience, especially in a market that has turned decisively

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towards fundamentals and selects cuts. Staff

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aggregator Unwind continues.

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Huntersblatt reports Seller X halving its

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workforce aligning with broader aggregator correction that's been

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unfolding since Cheap Capital ended. Chris,

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you want to do some fundings above 90 million

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euros US dollars? Answer with frankly yes, that's

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my minimum requirement obviously.

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Transcript reports Immatics placing

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$125ameaningful scale signal and

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biotech financing. This is the kind of

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transaction for dark life sciences that keeps pipelines alive. We

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can definitely say here and

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more about that is in the show notes. As is the case with all of

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our stories, you can always find additional articles or the in

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depth coverage from one of our colleague or from

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one of our competitor competitors websites.

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Lime home raised 75 million euros to exc

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accelerate the expansion of its tech enabled hospitality

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platform, combining real estate operations with standardized

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digital processes.

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Mirelo closed an unusually large 41 million

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dollar seed round backed by Index Ventures and

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A16Z, positioning itself in the fast

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moving intersection of generative video

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and audio. So we also see

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here that investors are willing to fund AI

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creation platforms at scale, even at very early stages.

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Let's see if the name of the next startup makes

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our audience smile. Disco

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Pharmaceuticals

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Fin SME is reporting about the fact that

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the company, obviously with our favorite name of the year,

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is closing a 36 million euro seed round.

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It's a company that works in biotech and

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showing that seed money here can still be pretty large. 36

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million euros proving it

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lifi leafy li fi

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is raising $29 million

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reinforcing the infrastructure built out in crypto,

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especially routing and liquidity layers that are

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sitting beneath consumer brands.

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Fin SME is also reporting that Asaya

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Assaia is closing a 26

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million euro Series B rounding round. They are

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using that money to scale their AI platform for airport and

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airline operations, focusing on turnaround efficiency and emission

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reduction. Corinthis

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raised an additional $25 million, reinforcing the

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pattern that industrial AI with measurable efficiency

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gains continues to attract repeat capital even

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as broader AI narratives probably might cool.

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Gravis robotics closed a 23 million dollar funding

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round to scale its autonomous robotics platform

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beyond their home markets. So here we also see that there

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the investor appetite is still continuing for

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applied robotics with a clear use in

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industrial spaces.

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Spryker is securing additional funding, reinforcing

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their investor belief or reinforcing investor belief in

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modular B2B commerce infrastructure.

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Even though we sometimes see that consumer e commerce is a bit

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cooling, but the signal here

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enterprise grade platforms with deep integrations are still

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able to attract capital.

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Hamburg Startups reports that four people's return from

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insolvency into the holiday period

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is showing an execution heavy story in a month dominated by

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mega rounds. We see here that resilience isn't

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branding but restructuring under pressure and re entering the market

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with tighter economics. More about this at Hamburg

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Startups and now talking about companies that go together M and

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A News. Yes,

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German lidar specialist Plick fail to be acquired by

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senstar strengthening sensor

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portfolio, Electronic Net website

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and multiple industry sources Reporter Plickfeld Game Behind Munich

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based 3D LiDAR pioneer has entered into

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definitive acquisition agreement with Senstar

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Technologies Corporation with Blick Fed set to become a

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Senstar subsidiary while continuing to

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operate under its existing name and leadership a move

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expected to close in early 2026. The combination

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brings high precision 3D lidar sensors, notably

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the QB Protect platform, into Senstar's

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broader parameter security and situational

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awareness ecosystem, expanding its addressable market

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across security, industrial automation, transport and

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infrastructure application and enhancing global go

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to market reach. The deal underscores how advanced sensor

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integration and real time 3D perception are

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strategic differentiators in physical security and

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industrial AI stacks at scale. Chris,

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that. That was, that was quite a bit. We are almost done for the month.

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I just have one question. How is New York between

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Christmas and New Year's Eve? Any traditions you brought forth

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with you from Germany? Yeah, I will. Yeah. Well

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my tradition is to mind my own business.

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So yeah, I will stay home

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a lot. I will watch silly shows and that's probably it.

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The only thing I'm going to do is probably go to the gym and then

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the rest of the time I will hibernate under a blanket. It

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maybe. Yeah, hibernation. How about you?

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I mean, I guess it's very different with two kids, right? Oh

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yeah, it's. It's different. You don't get time off, you don't get anything.

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You're basically, you're very happy. When the holidays are over

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you can send them back to kindergarten and school.

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Nice. I know I'm speaking for all the, all the parents here.

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So this is it for our today's show, right? Yeah, this is for the year

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2025. Thank you very much. Looking forward

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to see and hear you guys next year again. Thank

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you. Bye bye. Bye.

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That's all folks. Find more news, streams,

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00:23:34.420 --> 00:23:35.540
events and

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00:23:35.540 --> 00:23:39.860
interviews@www.startuprad.IO.

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00:23:40.260 --> 00:23:42.420
remember, sharing is caring.

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Sam.