Altavo concludes Series A2 for the development of its Artificial Voice

Altavo, a medtech startup in AI-based voice rehabilitation, successfully closed a Series A2 financing round on January 12, 2026. A European consortium led by Novalis Biotech and Beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen is investing € 3m into the development of Altavo’s innovative Artificial Voice.

Altavo’s Artificial Voice is designed to help voiceless people, for example after laryngectomy or during mechanical ventilation, regain their own, natural sounding voice. The “silent speech” technology developed for this purpose in collaboration with researchers at Dresden University of Technology, is based on non-invasive radar sensing and the latest AI algorithms. 

In addition to the lead investors Novalis Biotech (Ghent, Belgium) and Beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen, participants in the current round include TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), TUDAG TU Dresden AG, Ostwerk GmbH and individual private investors.

The current Series A2 will finance company development, clinical work, as well as development of the commercial product. Altavo’s technology has the potential to improve the quality of life of voiceless people and opens fundamentally new possibilities in silent human-machine interaction.

“We are grateful for the strong backing of our existing European group of investors, and are glad to welcome new investors to the round. With the A2 round we are excellently positioned for the next steps on the path to an Artificial Voice for voiceless people.”  
Rudolf von Bünau, CEO and co-founder, Altavo 

“Altavo’s development and clinical progress and the experienced leadership convinced us to join the A2 round – co-leading the round together with bm-t, the Thuringia state investment agency.” 
Jaroslav Belotserkovsky, Investment Manager, Novalis Biotech  

“Altavo remains a prime example for the translation of academic research in a startup company and for successful public funding in the central German region, across state boundaries. We are glad to be able to accompany the Altavo team in realizing their ambitious vision.” 
Michael Thiele, Investment Manager, bm | t beteiligungsmanagement thüringen gmbh and Sören Schuster, CEO, TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen 

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About Altavo 
Altavo GmbH is a Dresden based medical device startup founded in February 2021. Based on non-invasive radar sensing and artificial intelligence, Altavo is developing prosthetics to improve the rehabilitation of aphonic and severely voice impaired patients. At its Dresden and Jena locations, Altavo currently employs a team of 16 with many years of experience in the fields of AI / data science, speech technology, radio frequency engineering, medical devices, and speech therapy.  

Altavo is partnering with the Chair of Speech Technology and Cognitive Systems and the Chair of Radio Frequency Engineering at Dresden University of Technology. The collaboration is supported by a grant from the state of Saxony and co-financed by the European Union in the project “B3 / MUSIK” within the SEMECO Cluster for Future. 

Media Contact: 
Rudolf von Bünau
rudolf.vonbuenau@altavo.eu 

About Novalis Biotech 
Novalis Biotech (Ghent, Belgium) is an early-stage venture capital investor in technologies that revolutionize healthcare. The company’s core competence lies in digitalization in the life sciences with a focus on bioinformatics, genomics and diagnostics. Novalis strongly believes in applying innovative enabling technology to advance the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of a disease.  

For more information, please visit  www.noval.is 

About bm | t beteiligungsmanagement thüringen  
bm | t, based in Erfurt, is a subsidiary of Thüringer Aufbaubank and the leading address for investments in Thuringia. bm | t currently manages twelve funds with a total volume of around EUR 445 million, which are to be invested in innovative companies in almost all sectors and in all phases of corporate development – both in the start-up and growth phases or in company succession situations. 

Further information can be found at www.bm-t.com 

Media Contact:  
Michael Thiele
michael.thiele@bm-t.com 

About TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen 
TGFS is an equity investor for knowledge-based, technology-oriented start-ups in the federal state of Saxony. It is the leading start-up investor in Saxony and provides teams in the seed and start-up phases with venture capital and management support. Moreover, an investment by TGFS opens up access to further international investors from the fund’s network. 

The fund was first launched in 2008 by Saxony’s Government (including ERDF funding) and Saxon financial institutions and has since supported over 100 start-ups in what is now the third fund generation.  

Media Contact:  
Sören Schuster
ph. +49 172 2001097
soeren.schuster@cfh.de 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. 

Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.

Media Contact:  
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager
ph. +49 228 82300 121
t.jacob@htgf.de 

About Ostwerk 
Ostwerk GmbH is a Berlin-based investment company founded in 2024 and a wholly owned subsidiary of Sparda-Bank Berlin eG. As a partnership-driven investor, Ostwerk supports early-stage companies that are committed to creating sustainable regional impact in Eastern Germany. The firm combines financial investment with strategic support and a strong values and network-based approach to foster long-term economic and social development With operations across all six eastern German states, Ostwerk targets purpose-driven startups seeking capital to grow and to scale. 

Media Contact:  
Johannes Ulrich and Franz Neumann (Managing Directors)
hallo@ost-werk.de
www.ost-werk.de 

Cancilico Raises €2.5M to Scale AI-Powered Bone Marrow Diagnostics  

Cancilico, an AI diagnostics startup specializing in blood cancer, announced today the successful closing of its €2.5 million Seed financing round. The investment was led by a strong consortium including High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, GEDAD GmbH (investment vehicle of Ehninger family), and ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft (Roland Oetker).

The funding will accelerate Cancilico’s mission to establish its AI-based diagnostic software MyeloAID as a routine tool to improve the standard of care for blood cancer patients worldwide and to accelerate digital biomarker development in hematological malignancies.

MyeloAID aims to become the game-changer in the diagnosis of hematological malignancies by using advanced artificial intelligence to analyze bone marrow samples with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The underlying data model of Cancilico’s AI-diagnosis is based on a large validated data set of various malignancies as well as data from healthy individuals. Partnerships with hematopathology centers further enhance the data model and cooperation with pharma partners show initial results for accelerated development of biomarkers and therapeutic options for hematological malignancies.

Especially in times when we face a shortage of trained hematologists, such supporting technologies are urgently needed to ensure clinical availability and precision medicine. A unique feature of MyeloAID is the design as a platform-independent solution. The technology can be implemented on any standard imaging microscope or scanner, allowing laboratories to upgrade their current diagnostic capabilities without replacing existing hardware infrastructure. Further, the AI-diagnosis is already available and used as a RUO variant via Smart In Media’s PathoZoom® Scan & LiveView Suite.

“We are convinced to invest in a winning team and a superior technology that has already gained commercial traction with its ‘Research Use Only’ data models,” said Dr. Jörg Traub, Principal at HTGF. “The team combines entrepreneurial spirit with deep technical and clinical knowledge. Cancilico has established a convincing AI model using training data that includes not only diseased patient samples but also healthy datasets, allowing for better and faster classification.”

The experienced and multidisciplinary team including CEO Markus Badstübner, CMO Dr. Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr. Jan Eckardt, Dr. Karsten Wendt, and Angel Investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger, operates at the intersection of data science and clinical hematology.

“We are facing a global shortage of hematologists, yet the complexity of diagnostic cases is rising,” said Markus Badstübner, CEO and Co-Founder of Cancilico. “Our goal is to democratize access to expert-level diagnostics. This investment allows us to navigate the FDA and CE-IVDR regulatory landscapes and bring a tool to market that integrates seamlessly with existing lab hardware to improve patient outcomes without heavy capital expenditure.”

“Bone marrow analysis is one of the most complex and time-intensive disciplines in hematology,” added Dr. Moritz Middeke, CMO and Co-Founder. “By training our AI on a diverse range of healthy and pathological datasets, we developed a tool that acts as a highly skilled ‘digital colleague’. This funding is a crucial step toward bringing this technology to the labs, where it will help to make faster, more accurate diagnoses for blood cancer patients.”

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About Cancilico 
Cancilico is a Dresden-based health-tech startup founded in 2023 as a spin-off of the EKFZ for Digital Health at TUD Dresden University of Technology and University Hospital Dresden. The company develops AI-driven diagnostic solutions for hematology, aimed at automating and improving the accuracy of blood and bone marrow analysis. Its mission is to bring cutting-edge AI technology into routine hematology labs, improving the state of care for blood cancer patients around the world and the development of digital biomarkers in hematology. The founding team includes Markus Badstübner, Dr. Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr. Jan Eckardt, Dr. Karsten Wendt, and Angel Investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger.

Cancilico is deeply embedded in the Saxon life science ecosystem, engaging with the regional biotech network Biosaxony, and strongly contributing to the SaxoCell and SEMECO Clusters4Future initiatives. Within these clusters, startups such as Cancilico can further develop their strong founding dynamics and combine them with rapid translational pathways.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.
For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.

About TGFS – Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen 
TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen provides technology-oriented founders with equity capital for the seed and start-up phases. The fund was first launched in 2008 by the Free State of Saxony (including ERDF funds) and Saxon financial institutions and has since supported over 100 start-ups. In 2023, TGFS launched its third fund generation. TGFS focuses on young, innovative, technology-oriented companies in the ICT, semiconductor and microsystems technology, medical technology, life sciences, environmental and energy technology, and new media sectors that are based or have operations in Saxony.

For more information, please visit TGFS.de or follow us on LinkedIn.

About ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft 
Holding Gesellschaft of Roland Oetker.  

About GEDAD GmbH 
The investment vehicle of Ehninger family. 

Media contact 
Cancilico GmbH 
Markus Badstübner, CEO & Dr. Moritz Middeke, CMO 
contact@cancilico.com 

High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH 
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager 
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de 

 
CoolSem Technologies Secures Pre-Seed Funding to Advance Wafer-Level Thermal Innovation

CoolSem Technologies, a pioneer in semiconductor thermal management, today announced the closing of its pre-seed financing round.

The investment round is led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), with participation from KBC Focus Fund NV, Brabant Development Agency (BOM), and TTT Green Tech B.V. (SHIFT Invest). Backed by this strong European syndicate of four renowned international investors, the pre-seed round ensures a solid runway.  

The investment will be used to advance CoolSem Technologies’ wafer-level thermal management technology (WaLTIS®) from concept to engineering samples, validated by top-tier customers in RF, power and photonics, supporting qualification activities and real-world performance evidence. 

Chips are now a critical resource, with rising pressure on raw materials and significant inefficiencies in heat management. CoolSem helps to make the semiconductor industry greener by reducing energy waste, extending hardware life, and enabling the reuse of rare materials, three critical levers for a low-carbon, circular economy. 

“Heat is becoming a fundamental limiting factor in semiconductor performance,” said André van Geelen, CEO of CoolSem Technologies. “In RF, photonics, and power, conventional materials and packaging are approaching their physical limits. The pre-seed round enables us to demonstrate our wafer-level technology with early customers and advance towards industry adoption. With HTGF leading the investment and strong partners alongside, we can focus on the next phase of execution.” 

Olaf Joeressen, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF said: “When I first got in touch with CoolSem Technologies I was immediately intrigued by the simplicity and elegance of the approach driven by an outstanding team. I believe the technology has the potential to become an indispensable ingredient to the future thermal design of chips, an area that is more critical to the performance of semiconductor devices than ever before!” 

Rudi Severijns, Investment Director, KBC Focus Fund said: “We were attracted to CoolSem Technologies’ proposition because of its pragmatic and highly compatible approach. The technology integrates seamlessly into existing semiconductor and photonics value chains, enabling rapid experimentation and adoption with minor redesigns at lower cost. Their solution is turning thermal management from a limiting constraint into a scalable design advantage.” 

Ivana Sersic, Senior Investment Manager at the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) said: “We are proud to participate in this pre-seed round backed by an international consortium to enable CoolSem Technologies to validate their unique technology further. CoolSem Technologies is offering a solution to tackle thermal bottlenecks in the semiconductor industry that has the potential to unlock new and more powerful electronic chips having higher system performance, better energy efficiency and extended device lifespans. The team builds on the profound knowledge and expertise in semiconductor chip development concentrated between the regions of Eindhoven, Leuven and Aachen.” 

Julie van den Brink, Investment Associate at SHIFT Invest said: “With its strong impact potential and highly capable and driven team, CoolSem Technologies is well positioned for the road ahead, and we are excited to support them on this journey.” 

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About CoolSem Technologies 
Based in Eindhoven (NL) and founded in 2025, CoolSem Technologies develops wafer-level thermal management technology to reduce thermal resistance and mechanical stress in advanced semiconductor and photonic devices. With its WaLTIS multilayer stack, CoolSem Technologies replaces conventional substrates with an engineered stack designed to enhance heat flow, mechanical stability, and reliability, enabling higher performance and longer lifetime for next-generation devices.
coolsemtechnologies.com 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds  
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.  

Fund investors  in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as  45 companies  and family offices.   

About KBC Focus Fund NV
The KBC Focus Fund is a €50 million venture capital fund dedicated to investing in advanced technology (“Deeptech”) companies with international ambitions. Our primary goal is to accelerate emerging sectors such as nanotechnology, microelectronics, and the Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT). We do this not only by providing capital, but also by leveraging our extensive experience in venture investing and our strong industry network. The fund primarily targets opportunities in Belgium and neighboring countries, home to renowned centers of expertise in these technological domains.  The KBC Focus Fund leverages on the network and expertise of KBC Group and is managed by KBC Securities. KBC Securities has a solid knowledge of the tech ecosystem in Belgium and beyond with experienced teams in the M&A, Corporate Finance and Research & Sales departments. As part of KBC Group, the KBC Focus Fund aims to be long-term partners for entrepreneurs. 
kbcsecurities.com  

 
About Brabant Development Agency
Entrepreneurship is the driver of innovation – from sustainable food sources to a healthy future, climate-neutral energy, and developing promising key technologies. The Brabant Development Agency (BOM) ensures that startups playing a role in these fields receive the right support and funding to get off to a flying start and grow into scaleups, and that companies that aspire to go global can actually do so. Every year BOM works with dozens of companies to create this impact. BOM is an executive body of the Province of Brabant and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. 
bom.nl  

About TTT Green Tech B.V., managed by SHIFT Invest
SHIFT Invest is a leading Dutch impact venture capital fund founded in 2009 and currently investing from its fourth fund. It backs early- and growth-stage companies in food & agriculture, green industries, the energy transition and sustainable mobility & logistics in North-West Europe. Investments (seed, Series A, and growth) focus on bringing meaningful sustainability innovations to market and supporting their commercial success, delivering both environmental and financial returns. Beyond capital, SHIFT supports entrepreneurs with deep expertise, access to an extensive partner-network and strategic guidance. 

SHIFT invests in CoolSem Technologies from the Thematic Technology Transfer GreenTech fund (TTT), a collaboration with TNO, RVO and the Dutch universities of Wageningen (WUR), Eindhoven (TU/e), Twente (UT), Delft (TUD), Groningen (RUG), Nijmegen (RU), and Utrecht (UU). The TTT fund focusses on supporting early-stage companies that bring to market disruptive technologies with a strong impact potential. The aim of the fund is to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy. 
shiftinvest.com 

Playlist and HTGF Portfolio company EGYM Announce Agreement to Merge and $785 Million in New Equity Investments, Bringing Together Global Leaders in Fitness and Wellness Technology

With an aggregate enterprise value of $7.5 billion, the combined company will unite software, connected hardware, consumer platforms, and corporate wellness solutions to create a global destination for wellbeing.

NEW YORK/MUNICH/BONN, January 15, 2026—Playlist, the newly launched parent brand of Mindbody, Booker, and ClassPass, and EGYM, a global innovation leader in smart fitness technology, AI-enabled workout programming, and corporate wellness solutions, today announced a definitive agreement to merge. The transaction includes $785 million in new equity investments and values the combined enterprise at $7.5 billion. The new investment is led by Affinity Partners, with participation from a consortium of existing investors including Vista Equity Partners, Temasek, and L Catterton. This makes the round the largest in the portfolio of HTGF, one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe.

EGYM has been part of the HTGF portfolio since 2011. From the earliest stage, HTGF provided capital, hands-on sparring and network access, supporting EGYM’s evolution from a strong product to a data-driven platform that combines AI-enabled equipment with the Wellpass corporate wellness network. EGYM is one of HTGF’s standout portfolio successes, underscored by its unicorn status in 2024.  

Upon the closing of this deal, Playlist’s suite of brands will operate as they do today, while EGYM will continue its operations as a subsidiary within the Playlist portfolio.  Playlist CEO and ClassPass Founding Chairman Fritz Lanman and EGYM Co-Founder and CEO Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer will be named and serve as Co-Founders of the new Playlist organization. As part of the transaction, Roesch-Schlanderer will also join Monti Saroya, Co-Head of Vista Equity Partners’ Flagship Fund, as Co-Chairman of Playlist.

Playlist powers in-person wellness experiences through AI-driven software and consumer booking platforms, while EGYM transforms healthcare from repair to prevention through smart equipment, hyper-personalized AI training plans, and EGYM Wellpass, an extensive corporate fitness platform which partners with more than 20,000 employers and tens of thousands of fitness locations worldwide. The two complementary organizations, each a leader in their respective regions and categories, will combine their expertise to form an integrated wellness technology platform that gives people the tools they need to take charge of their health and wellbeing.

Together, Playlist and EGYM plan to create new opportunities to advance in-person wellness on a global scale by combining complementary visions, products, geographies, and audiences. In 2025, Playlist and EGYM generated more than $800 million in net revenue while maintaining high-growth momentum and strong profitability. The new equity funding will support increased investment in artificial intelligence to help fitness studios, gyms, and wellness operators run more efficiently and deepen member engagement. The investment will also enable EGYM to further expand its fitness technology and corporate wellness offerings into Playlist’s core geographies, including North America and Asia, where they currently have a limited presence. In parallel, the funding will allow Playlist to further grow its limited to-date presence in Europe through EGYM’s established footprint.

Closing of this transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Executive Commentary

Fritz Lanman, CEO of Playlist:
“This merger represents a pivotal moment for both our companies as we continue to build the infrastructure behind the world’s most meaningful in-person wellness experiences. We’re inspired by what EGYM is doing to accelerate that vision with technology and corporate wellness solutions that power wellbeing at scale. By combining our geographies and complementary product portfolios, we’re uniting multiple layers of wellness—software, connected hardware, consumer booking, and workplace wellbeing—into one global platform.”

Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer, CEO of EGYM:
“Bringing EGYM together with the newly created Playlist under one roof represents a profound opportunity to impact lives through preventative health. We are uniting smart training equipment, club and studio access, management software, corporate wellness, and personalized AI training into one connected ecosystem that will finally prove and scale the true value the fitness industry delivers. Together, we can reduce chronic disease, lower healthcare costs, and make people healthier and happier by shifting the world from repair to prevention.”

HTGF Perspective: From Seed to Global Platform 

Markus Kreßmann, Partner at HTGF, who has supported HTGF’s investment in EGYM since 2014, said: “With this outstanding merger, EGYM’s management is purposefully continuing its longstanding M&A strategy. The result is a global player in fitness & wellness technology—exactly the ambition CEO Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer set out when we invested at seed in 2011. We need more of this entrepreneurial spirit in Germany and Europe.”  

Dr. Ulrich Schmitt, Partner at HTGF, added: “By joining forces Playlist and EGYM are poised for even greater impact in wellness and preventative health. We are very much looking forward to continuing to support the management team with everything that lies ahead.”  

Sebastian Borek, Managing Director at HTGF, commented: “This is exactly why HTGF exists: empowering founders from day one and staying close as they scale globally. EGYM is a standout example, transforming training into data-driven, engaging experiences and connecting millions of employees through corporate wellness. We are proud to have played a part in this success story and look forward to supporting the next chapter.”  

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About Playlist 
Playlist is the parent brand that brings together Mindbody, Booker, and ClassPass—fitness and wellness platforms that power experience-driven businesses across fitness, wellness, lifestyle, and beyond. Through a growing suite of AI-driven SaaS and consumer offerings, Playlist helps people discover and book experiences that bring joy, movement, and meaning to everyday life. Learn more at playlist.com. 

About EGYM 
Since 2010, EGYM has been a global innovation leader in the fitness and health industry with the vision of transforming healthcare “from repair to prevention.” EGYM Wellpass partners with companies to improve employee health by providing access to fitness and health facilities. And EGYM Technology equips those facilities with smart strength equipment and digital training solutions to offer an AI-driven workout experience for exercisers of all skill levels. Corporate customers benefit from reduced healthcare costs and increased productivity, and clubs from a growing membership base that stays engaged. Learn more at egym.com/int 

About Affinity Partners  
Affinity Partners is a Miami-based investment firm founded in 2021 by Jared Kushner. With over $5.7B under management and a team of 30+ professionals, Affinity focuses on growth equity, financial services, and technology investments at scale, with a flexible mandate across industries and geographies.

About Vista Equity Partners 
Vista is a global technology investor that specializes in enterprise software. Vista’s private market strategies seek to deliver differentiated returns through a proprietary and systematic approach to value creation developed and refined over the course of 25 years and 600+ transactions. Today, Vista manages a diversified portfolio of software companies that provide mission-critical solutions to millions of customers around the world. As of June 30, 2025, Vista had more than $100 billion in assets under management. Further information is available at vistaequitypartners.com. Follow Vista on LinkedIn, @Vista Equity Partners, and on X, @Vista_Equity. 

About Temasek  
Temasek is a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, with a net portfolio value of S$434 billion (US$324 billion) as of 31 March 2025. Its Purpose “So Every Generation Prospers” guides it to make a difference for today’s and future generations. Temasek seeks to build a resilient and forward-looking portfolio that will deliver sustainable returns over the long term. It has 13 offices in 9 countries around the world: Beijing, Hanoi, Mumbai, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore in Asia; and Brussels, London, Mexico City, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. outside Asia. For more information on Temasek, please visit www.temasek.com.sg.  

About L Catterton  
L Catterton is a market-leading consumer-focused investment firm, managing approximately $39 billion of equity capital across three multi-product platforms: private equity, credit, and real estate. The firm’s funds have the ability to invest between $5 million and $5 billion, across the capital structure, in well-positioned consumer businesses. Leveraging deep category insight, operational excellence, and a broad network of strategic relationships, L Catterton’s team of more than 200 investment and operating professionals across 18 offices partners with management teams to drive differentiated value creation across its portfolio. Founded in 1989, the firm has made over 300 investments in some of the world’s most iconic consumer brands. For more information about L Catterton, please visit www.lcatterton.com.  

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds  
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed  around 800 startups and  achieved  200  successful exits.  HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.  
Fund investors  in the public-private partnership include the  Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as  45 companies  and family offices.   
For more information, please visit  HTGF.de  or follow us on  LinkedIn.    

Media contact  
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH  
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager   
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121  
t.jacob@htgf.de    

lytra completes pre-seed financing led by HTGF – AI operating system for manufacturing service 

• lytra successfully completes pre-seed financing round led by HTGF 
• The start-up is developing the AI operating system for manufacturing service, which helps manufacturing companies transform their service business into a real revenue driver 
• With the capital, lytra will expand its customer base among medium-sized manufacturing companies in 2026 after successful pilot projects 

The Munich-based startup lytra is off to a highly successful start in 2026: Led by HTGF (High-Tech Gründerfonds) and with the participation of other investors, the startup is completing its pre-seed financing round. With the fresh capital, lytra is continuing to turn its vision of transforming the service business of manufacturing companies into an automated, scalable revenue driver into reality. 

The service business in manufacturing  – a high-growth lever with enormous potential 

The service business offers manufacturing companies a major strategic opportunity: it can contribute up to 50% of revenue and is also characterised by significantly higher margins than new business. At the same time, service is becoming increasingly important in view of the growing complexity of machines and rising customer expectations. To tap this potential in the long term, scalable processes and the effective use of existing product and process knowledge are crucial. The shortage of skilled workers makes this challenge even more difficult. 

This is exactly where lytra comes in with its AI operating system for manufacturing service: various AI agents enable the automation of service processes such as ordering spare parts, planning on-site visits by service technicians or answering technical questions. The AI agents are integrated end-to-end into the customer’s IT systems and are based on existing expert knowledge, so they are fully operational from day one. As a result, service employees can focus on the truly complex cases, and processing times for customers are significantly reduced. 

Becoming a leading partner for the German Mittelstand 

Etienne Fieg, co-founder and CEO of lytra, explains: “The successful completion of the pre-seed financing round marks an important milestone for us. The fresh capital will enable us to become the partner of choice for German SMEs in the manufacturing sector when it comes to providing continued service and after-sales business in engineering in 2026.” 

Timo Bertsch, Investment Manager at HTGF, comments: “The after-sales service business is one of the largest, yet untapped value levers in manufacturing. lytra addresses this structural problem with a clear focus on automation, scalability and securing expert knowledge through AI. The team combines deep industry knowledge with technological excellence and has already demonstrated the potential of its approach in pilot projects. We are very excited to accompany lytra on its journey to transform the manufacturing service industry in a sustainable way.” 

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About lytra 
lytra is an industrial tech company based in Munich that helps mechanical engineering companies transform their after-sales service business into a real revenue driver. With an industry-specific AI operating system for mechanical engineering services, lytra offers its customers a fully integrated platform on which service requests are processed automatically and scalable by AI agents. 

For more information, visit www.lytra.ai or LinkedIn 

Media contact 
lytra GmbH 
Etienne Fieg, Co-Founder & CEO 
etienne@lytra.ai 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing start-ups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports start-ups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Across its funds, HTGF has over 2 billion euros under management. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed more than 770 start-ups and achieved almost 200 successful exits.  

Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.  For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn. 

Medienkontakt 
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH 
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager 
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de 

ICOS Capital invests in Mevaldi B.V., a producer of cost-effective, bio-based chemical building blocks, to support its further industrial scale up and commercial roll-out

Dutch biotech company Mevaldi B.V. announces an investment by ICOS Capital, alongside High-Tech Gründerfonds and ICIG Ventures.

Mevaldi is a biotech company and pioneer in the field of building blocks for sustainable polymers and polyurethanes made from natural biological raw materials. Since 2020, the company has been developing 3MPD: an innovative product derived from sugars and wood residues, produced through a patented bio-thermochemical process. Mevaldi makes materials with high performance, low environmental impact, and a competitive price – with the entire production chain located within Europe. In this way, Mevaldi contributes competitively to the EU’s strategic autonomy, circular economy, and climate objectives.

The financing by ICOS Capital provides Mevaldi with additional resources to accelerate its industrial scale-up and commercial roll-out activities, aimed at providing the market with affordable chemical building blocks for a wide range of sustainable chemicals and applications. Mevaldi fits ICOS Capital’s strategy as it is ready to scale-up in a capital-efficient manner, and accelerates sustainability with breakthrough solutions that are cost-efficient, have clear market traction and proven scalability. ICOS Capital joins Mevaldi with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and ICIG Ventures (ICIG), both from Germany.

HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe. Fund investors include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital, and 45 companies and family offices. HTGF provides capital, expertise and strong networks to support founders in turning innovative ideas into international market leaders. The fund strengthens the technological backbone of Germany and Europe.

ICIG Ventures is the venture capital arm of International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), investing in early-stage ventures in industrial biotechnology, chemistry, materials, energy, and food/agriculture to drive strategic innovation for the larger group’s chemical platforms, focusing on bio-based solutions, advanced materials, and process efficiency.

Peter van Gelderen, General Partner of ICOS, quotes: “We are very pleased to invest in Mevaldi given it’s attractive, CAPEX light scale-up trajectory and relatively straightforward road to multiple markets. With the current consortium of strong industrial partners with existing chemical production facilities where Mevaldi’s green chemical building blocks can be produced at an attractive cost price, already at relatively low scale.”

Roger Ottenheym, CEO Mevaldi, adds: “Next to HTGF and ICIG Ventures, we are proud to bring another strong investor with industrial mindset, and backing from the chemical and bio-based industries, to our shareholder base. We are working to rapidly scale and bring to market several bio-based building blocks that can be applied in existing, as well as new applications. We believe that our sustainable competitive edge and contribution to CO2 emissions reduction, at cost parity with fossil alternatives, will allow us to build a strong market position. We look forward to working with ICOS, providing us with financing, strategic insight, hands-on support and access to their industry network.”

About Mevaldi
Mevaldi is a biotech company and a pioneer in the field of bio-based building blocks for sustainable polymers, polyesters, and polyurethanes. Since 2020, the company has been developing 3MPD: an innovative building block derived from sugars and wood residues, produced through a patented bio-thermochemical process. This results in high-performance materials with low environmental impact and competitive pricing – with the entire production chain located within Europe. In this way, Mevaldi contributes competitively to the EU’s strategic autonomy, circular economy, and climate goals.

For more information, please visit mevaldi.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About ICOS
Capital ICOS Capital is a climate tech venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies with breakthrough technologies for food systems, chemicals, materials, and industrial digitization, aiming to accelerate sustainability and decarbonization. Over almost 20 years, ICOS has built a strong collaborative model, partnering with large corporations to provide hands-on support, access to networks, as well as capital for innovative startups focused on large-scale impact and circularity, targeting significant CO₂ reductions. ICOS supports growth with financing, engineering and production expertise, infrastructure and market access. Learn more by visiting www.icoscapital.com.

About ICIG – International Chemical Investors Group
International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) is a privately owned industrial group with a total turnover of more than €4.6 billion. ICIG focuses on several main platforms: Fine Chemicals under the WeylChem brand, Care Chemicals (Catexel), Chlorovinyls (Vynova), Compounds (Benvic), Hydrocarbons & Solvents (HCS Group), Superabsorbents (Stockhausen Superabsorber) and Enterprises with specialized businesses in industrial drying services, fermentation products, viscose filaments, activated carbon and wood protection chemicals.

Today, the ICIG companies employ more than 7,150 people and operate more than 50 production sites in Europe, the U.S and India.

For more information, please visit ic-investors.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds.

Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed more than 800 startups and achieved almost 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.

For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.

TECregen Raises CHF 10 Million in Seed Financing and Appoints Dr. Bo Rode Hansen as Chairman

• Groundbreaking thymus-rejuvenating biologics are designed to restore immune function and promote lasting immune health throughout all stages of life

TECregen, a biotechnology company pioneering thymus regeneration, today announced the successful completion of a CHF 10 million (∼EUR 10.7 million / USD 12.6 million) seed financing round. The financing was led by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), with participation from LifeSpan Vision Ventures, Carma Fund, EOS BioInnovation, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the JFG Life Sciences Foundation of the University of Basel, and Zurich Cantonal Bank. The investment will accelerate development of TECregen’s groundbreaking thymopoietic biologics, designed to rejuvenate thymic epithelial cells (TECs), restore immune function, and strengthen overall immune resilience.

In addition to announcing its successful seed financing, TECregen has appointed Dr. Bo Rode Hansen, Ph.D., MBA, as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Hansen is a seasoned biotech executive with over two decades of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. He previously served as the CEO of Scandion Oncology A/S and was the founding President of Genevant Sciences, in addition to holding senior leadership roles at Roche and Santaris Pharma. In his role as Chairman, Dr. Hansen will help guide TECregen’s strategic growth and advance its thymus rejuvenation programs.

“I am honored to join TECregen’s Board at such a pivotal time for the company,” said Dr. Bo Rode Hansen, Chairman of TECregen. “The team’s pioneering work in thymus regeneration has the potential to redefine treatment approaches for immune ageing and related disease. I look forward to working with the management team and our investors to accelerate the development and delivery of these transformative therapies to patients who need them most.”

“We welcome Bo as our new Chairman,” commented Filippo Oliveri, co-founder and Board Director of TECregen. “His wealth of industry expertise and proven leadership will be invaluable as we pursue our mission. Backed with the strong investor support, TECregen is well positioned to accelerate its thymus regeneration initiative and deliver innovative immune rejuvenation therapies to patients.”

“TECregen’s innovative approach to thymus regeneration firmly positions the company at the forefront of targeted biologics designed to restore immune function, with a clear trajectory toward the clinic. The ability to modulate and restore thymic function paves the way for new therapeutic opportunities across immunology, oncology, and rare diseases. We are enthusiastic to support TECregen as it advances toward clinical development,” remarked Dr. Philipp Müller, Investment Manager at BIVF.

TECregen’s groundbreaking approach places the company at the forefront of targeted biologics for immune restoration, with significant potential across multiple indications. Backed by strong investor support and the leadership of Dr. Bo Rode Hansen as Chairman, TECregen is well positioned to accelerate the development of its thymus rejuvenation programs and deliver innovative immune therapies to patients in need.

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About TECregen
TECregen is pioneering thymus rejuvenation to address conditions driven by impaired T-cell responses. The company’s innovative approach focuses on revitalizing and expanding thymic epithelial cells (TECs) to replenish T cells and achieve durable improvements in immune function. By developing a pipeline of differentiated thymopoietic biologics, TECregen aims to strengthen immune recovery following transplantation or cytotoxic therapy, promote immune health, and enhance immune surveillance against cancer, ushering in a new era of immunotherapy.

Gregor Haidl and Dr. Nik Raupp Appointed Partners at HTGF

HTGF, one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, has appointed Gregor Haidl and Dr. Nik Raupp as Partners, effective January 1, 2026. With these appointments, HTGF strategically strengthens its investment expertise in two core areas: Industrial & Deep Tech as well as Life Sciences & Chemistry.

Over the past years, both investment professionals have significantly driven deal flow in their respective sectors, closely supported portfolio companies, and advanced key strategic initiatives. Their promotion to Partner underscores HTGF’s ambition to support founding teams not only with capital, but as hands-on sparring partners with deep technical expertise, entrepreneurial understanding, and access to a strong industrial network. The goal is to help build tomorrow’s market leaders shaping Europe’s industrial and technological future.

Gregor Haidl: Driving Industrial Software and AI as Catalysts for Transformation

Gregor Haidl has been with HTGF since 2017 and is responsible for investments in Industrial, Climate, and Deep Tech. His focus is on complex B2B software and AI solutions for R&D, automation, and energy. Trained as a mechanical engineer at TU Munich and a graduate of the UnternehmerTUM “Manage & More” program, Gregor brings extensive international experience, including time at BMW Brilliance Automotive in China.

In 2023, he co-founded HTGF’s Munich office and has since closely integrated it into the regional startup and innovation ecosystem. Since 2025, Gregor has served as Head of HTGF Munich. His portfolio includes startups such as Neural Concept (AI-driven product design and engineering), SimScale (cloud-native simulation software), and viboo (intelligent building automation).

“What motivates me is the question of how complex technologies turn into commercially successful products and scalable companies. Especially at the early stage, there is no playbook. This makes strong product management practices and close support on the path to first product–market fit all the more critical. As a Partner, I want to continue to help founders turn strong technical ideas into globally competitive champions.”
Gregor Haidl, Partner at HTGF

“Gregor combines deep technical expertise with a genuine founder mindset. He has positioned our Munich office exceptionally well and is a key driver of the fund’s strategic development.”
Romy Schnelle, Managing Director at HTGF

Dr. Nik Raupp: Chemistry Expertise for Sustainable Innovation

Dr. Nik Raupp leads the expansion of HTGF’s activities in Chemistry and Industrial Biotechnology, with a focus on sustainable innovations, advanced materials, and circular economy solutions. He began his career in consulting and earned a PhD on venture capital financing of biotech companies in Japan. Before joining HTGF in 2021, he worked for BASF in Hong Kong, among other roles.

Nik is also a key contact for fund investors from the chemical industry and is closely involved in HTGF’s fundraising activities. His investments include EEDEN (chemical textile recycling), COLIPI (biotechnology-based oil alternatives), and Nebula Biocides (novel disinfection technologies). He has played a central role in sharpening HTGF’s profile as a leading investor in chemistry.

“Chemistry technologies often require a long runway before they are ready for industrial deployment. That is exactly what excites me. Working with founders to bridge the gap between lab, industrial application, and capital markets creates real and sustainable impact.”
Dr. Nik Raupp, Partner at HTGF

“Nik joined us as an experienced industry expert and quickly built a strong, forward-looking portfolio. He is our face in the chemical industry, a trusted partner for our investors, and a true team player.”
Dr. Achim Plum, Managing Director at HTGF

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. 
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.  
For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.   

Media contact 
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH 
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager  
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de   

HTGF Portfolio Company Neural Concept Closes $100M Funding Round Led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives to Scale AI-Native Engineering

• New capital accelerates Neural Concept’s ability to deliver transformative technologies and enterprise-wide AI impact across advanced industrial workflows.
• Platform delivers CAD-native, physics-aware AI and deep reasoning for engineering, saving customers $50 million annually, reducing late-stage redesigns by 30-50% and accelerating time to market by up to two years.
• The company has generated a fourfold increase in enterprise revenue over the past 18 months.
• More than 50 global companies are actively relying on the platform, including General Motors, General Electric Vernova, Leonardo Aerospace, Eaton, Safran, Renault Group and multiple Formula 1 teams.
• HTGF has supported Neural Concept from the seed stage as one of the first institutional investors, participating in every financing round and now significantly in Series C.

Lausanne, Switzerland – December 18, 2025 – Neural Concept, a global AI platform and leader in Engineering Intelligence powering next-generation product development, today announced it raised a $100 million Series C funding round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with existing investors Forestay Capital, Alven, D.E. Shaw Ventures, Aster Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), which has backed Neural Concept since its seed stage and invested in every round to date.

Neural Concept is redefining engineering workflows with CAD-native enterprise AI that understands geometry, constraints and design intent. By helping its customers build and deploy physics-aware design copilots, the platform enables teams to explore millions of design options earlier and avoid costly late-stage changes, accelerating the entire product development cycle, helping companies bring better products to market faster.

Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ investment underscores the surging demand for enterprise AI that drives real-world impact. As engineering teams move from AI experimentation to full-scale deployment, Neural Concept has emerged as the leader in AI-native engineering, combining cutting-edge technology with an enterprise-focused approach, fueling fast, sustained growth across major industries, including automotive, aerospace and defense, energy, semiconductors and consumer electronics.

 “Neural Concept’s technology represents a rare leap forward in enterprise engineering AI,” said Lambert Diacono, Executive Director Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. “As demand accelerates for AI that drives real impact in complex industrial workflows, Neural Concept is emerging as one of the leading companies in the market”, affirmed Christian Resch, Partner, Head of EMEA Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

The team will use the funding to accelerate product development, including unveiling a breakthrough generative CAD capability in early 2026, expand global GTM teams and strengthen its position as the intelligence layer across engineering systems, deepening partnerships with industry leaders such as Nvidia, Siemens, Ansys, Microsoft and AWS.

“We founded Neural Concept with the ambition to enable complete AI-driven design of advanced systems like tomorrow’s cars and spacecrafts,” said Dr. Pierre Baqué, CEO and founder of Neural Concept. “Advances in AI are transforming engineering from a process of trial and error into a data-driven workflow where tradeoffs and constraints can be understood and optimized from the start. This investment enables us to fast-track our progress toward establishing the intelligence layer powering every engineering team, worldwide.”

Neural Concept’s Series C marks the company’s latest funding milestone following its $27 million Series B in 2024.

Early Belief, Ongoing Support: HTGF’s Journey with Neural Concept

Together with Constantia New Business (CNB), HTGF became Neural Concept’s first institutional investor during the seed stage and has supported the company’s evolution from an EPFL spin-off to a global leader in AI-native engineering. With significant participation in the Series C round, HTGF reaffirms its long-term commitment to the founders and their team.

Gregor Haidl, Partner at HTGF, said: “Our investment approach is about backing visionary founders early and stay committed as they scale globally. Neural Concept embodies this perfectly: from seed to Series C, we’ve seen Dr. Pierre Baqué and his team redefine engineering workflows with Artificial Intelligence and deliver real enterprise impact. We look forward to continuing this journey together.”

“Neural Concept’s journey is a prime example of how deep tech and AI can transform entire industries,” said Romy Schnelle, Managing Director at HTGF. “We believed in the team from the very beginning and are proud to have supported them through every stage of growth. Gregor Haidl’s simulation background and product development expertise played a crucial role in recognizing the disruptive potential early. This successful Series C round highlights the strength of their product and the scalability of their business model.”

About Neural Concept
Founded in 2019, Neural Concept provides the leading AI-first engineering platform for product development. By embedding AI natively into design and simulation workflows, Neural Concept empowers engineering teams to compress development cycles from months to days, improve product performance across efficiency, safety, and sustainability, and scale AI adoption without costly, years-long integration. 

The company drives product development across major industries, including automotive, aerospace, energy, consumer electronics, semiconductors and defense, working with the world’s leading global OEMs and component suppliers. Neural Concept was spun out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and is backed by global investors, including Forestay Capital and D. E. Shaw Group. Visit https://www.neuralconcept.com

About Goldman Sachs Alternatives
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the leading investors in alternatives globally, with over $500 billion in assets and more than 30 years of experience. The business invests in the full spectrum of alternatives including private equity, growth equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, sustainability, and hedge funds. Clients access these solutions through direct strategies, customized partnerships, and open-architecture programs.

The business is driven by a focus on partnership and shared success with its clients, seeking to deliver long-term investment performance drawing on its global network and deep expertise across industries and markets.

The alternative investments platform is part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which delivers investment and advisory services across public and private markets for the world’s leading institutions, financial advisors and individuals. Goldman Sachs has approximately $3.5 trillion in assets under supervision globally as of September 30, 2025.

Follow us on LinkedIn.

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in the pre-seed and seed phase and can participate significantly in further financing rounds, since 2024 with the HTGF Opportunity growth fund. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and successfully sold shares in 200 companies.  

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital and numerous companies are invested in the HTGF seed funds. Investors in the HTGF Opportunity growth fund include the ERP Special Fund and KfW with the resources of the Zukunftsfonds (“Future Fund”). Further information can be found at HTGF.de or on LinkedIn and on the Zukunftsfonds page. 

Zentio raises 1.4 Million € pre-seed for AI-native production planning 

• Zentio raises €1.4 million in pre-seed funding, led by HTGF and supported by SI Ventures. 
• The AI-first platform structures and centralizes operational and machine data, enabling decision-makers to optimize production in real time, increase productivity, and minimize downtime. 
• Funding will accelerate team growth and technology development, including ML pipelines, mathematical optimization, and agent-based automation. 

Zentio announces a €1.4 million pre-seed funding round, a key step toward realizing the company’s vision of elevating European manufacturing through automation and intelligent decision-making. 

To deliver on this, Zentio enables AI-native production planning in real time. The system structures and centralizes the full range of operational, machine and production data through AI agents, creating a self-learning flywheel effect. This depth of data on shopfloor level provides decision-makers with the clarity and confidence they need to run operations with greater productivity.  

The round was led by HTGF (High Tech Gründerfonds), one of the most active early-stage investors in deep tech, industrial technology, and AI-based innovation. With more than 800 investments in technology-oriented startups, HTGF brings deep industry expertise, a strong industrial and manufacturing network, and extensive experience in building scalable industrial software. 

Additional support came from SIVentures, which brings deep experience in backing early-stage B2B technology startups. Together, the investors provide both strategic and operational support for Zentio’s next phase of growth. 

Why Zentio? 

European manufacturing is at a critical juncture. Every day, industrial companies face thousands of decisions, from small operational adjustments to major strategic shifts. Each choice creates cascading effects across the entire value chain: a change in shift scheduling affects machine utilization, which affects inventory levels, which impacts cash flow and storage costs. 

The reality is that these decisions are deeply interdependent. Yet no single person or existing system can oversee and simulate all these ripple effects in real time. Companies lack the resources to constantly calculate every scenario by hand, and the costs are staggering: millions lost to suboptimal planning, reduced productivity, excessive capital tied up in inventory, missed delivery deadlines, and underutilized capacity. 

European manufacturers need a new approach, one that doesn’t just digitize old processes, but fundamentally transforms how decisions are made.  

As Immo Polewka, co-founder and CCO at Zentio, explains, the best way to bridge this gap is by moving forward: “Our vision is to elevate the standard of decision-making in European manufacturing. By combining operational data with mathematical optimization and agentic automation, companies can plan ahead strategically and respond to disruptions with confidence.” This allows decision-makers to anticipate capacity needs weeks in advance, respond to machine breakdowns or material shortages with the best available options, and adjust shift schedules or machine settings in real time to increase output and minimize idle time. 

How Zentio Will Use the Funding 

The funding round will allow Zentio to strengthen existing partnerships and set the stage for long-term impact across European manufacturing. “Our main focus for the next months is to advance our core mathematical systems and ML pipelines and tie it all together with UX and agents. To achieve this, we’re expanding our team with ambitious engineers who want to join us on our mission to build the first generation of AI-native production planning.” says Christophe Kafrouni, Co-Founder and CTO of Zentio.  

Hendryk Hosemann, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF, adds: “Julian, Immo, and Chris showed us that Excel and other legacy tools still quietly run much of how the world works. Zentio turns messy ERP, MES and spreadsheet data into an AI-native planning layer that factories can trust. Their mix of AI-native thinking and deep manufacturing experience is exactly what we have been looking for in this space, and we are proud to partner with them on this journey.”

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About Zentio 
Zentio is a Berlin-based startup building an AI-powered production planning platform for manufacturing companies. Our mission is to empower factories to turn operational data into strategic advantage — improving productivity, adaptability, and decision quality at scale. Founded by Julian Rose, Immo Polewka and Christophe Kafrouni in 2025, Zentio is currently collaborating with a broad network of pilot customers and strategic partners across Europe to further accelerate their vision of AI-native production planning. 

Media contact Zentio 
Alexander Thiam 
+49 163 784 1991 
alexander.thiam@zentio.io 

About HTGF 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.  
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices. For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.  

Media contact HTGF 
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH 
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager  
+49 228 82300 121 
t.jacob@htgf.de  

About SIVentures 
SIVentures is a venture capital fund based in Leipzig that invests in early-stage technology startups across the DACH region. The fund focuses on B2B business models in the fields of energy, IT infrastructure, AI applications, and related sectors. Beyond providing capital, SIVentures actively supports its portfolio companies with hands-on strategic guidance, access to a broad network, and deep entrepreneurial expertise. 

FION Energy secures €1.4 million pre-seed round for AI-optimised battery systems, led by HTGF and Norrsken 

On average, European industry pays around 50% more for electricity than competitors in the US or China – a burden that puts production sites under pressure. The main reasons are fluctuating feed-in from wind and solar and a lack of flexibility on the consumption side in factories. 

Berlin-based cleantech startup FION Energy has developed a solution and closed a €1.4 million pre-seed funding round – led by HTGF and Norrsken Evolve, with participation from experienced business angels. FION uses battery storage systems to bring more flexibility to industrial energy demand – manufacturer-agnostic and AI-controlled for economically optimised operation. 

The fresh capital will accelerate roll-out, further development of the platform and team expansion in order to reduce energy costs and strengthen industrial sites. 

Industrial battery storage – simple, economical, intelligent 

Most industrial companies want to reduce their energy costs but run into technical complexity and high operational effort. FION offers an end-to-end solution – from site analysis and system sizing to procurement and installation of a turnkey battery system, all the way through to ongoing operations. 

The company’s proprietary AI dispatch engine learns consumption patterns, reads tariffs and market prices and controls the battery autonomously. This smooths load peaks, reduces grid fees and enables price arbitrage – without additional effort for the plant operators. 

The result: up to 50% lower electricity costs. 

Mission and outlook 

FION’s mission is to turn energy into a competitive advantage for industry – and make production in Europe economically attractive again. 

In the long term, FION is building a platform that connects industrial sites into an intelligent, decentralised energy network – where every factory not only consumes energy, but actively manages and markets it. 

Philipp Hamm, Co-Founder & Managing Director of FION Energy: “European industry is losing ground because of high electricity costs. With FION, energy becomes predictable and profitable again – our AI turns battery storage into a real competitive advantage.” 

Anne Umbach, Investment Manager at HTGF: “High energy costs are one of the biggest challenges for industry. FION offers a scalable solution that reduces costs and makes it easy to get started with battery storage. A strong team, a clear market – that’s why we are investing.” 

Rebecka Löthman Rydå, Partner at Norrsken Evolve: “We invested in FION Energy because their team combines deep energy-market expertise with a clear vision: making Europe’s industry greener and more competitive. Their battery and flexibility solutions reduce CO₂ and give industrial companies clear advantages in both cost and security of supply.” 

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About FION Energy 

FION Energy was founded in 2025 in Berlin. The cleantech startup makes industrial battery storage systems economical and easy to use – through manufacturer-independent project development and AI-optimised real-time operation. Target customers are industrial companies with an annual electricity consumption of more than 2 GWh. 
Several battery systems are already installed at industrial customer sites; further projects in Germany and across the EU are in the pipeline. 
Founding team: Philipp Hamm, Johannes Meriläinen, Dmytro Dzifuta 

Contact 
Philipp Hamm – Co-Founder | FION Energy 
Email: philipp@fion-energy.com 
Website: www.fion-energy.com 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of deep tech, industrial tech, climate tech, digital tech, life sciences and chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development on the way to becoming international market leaders. HTGF invests in the pre-seed and seed phase and can make significant follow-on investments in subsequent financing rounds. Since its launch in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF manages more than €2 billion in fund volume. 
The public-private partnership’s fund investors include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices. Further information is available at HTGF.de or on LinkedIn. 

About Norrsken Evolve 
Norrsken Evolve is a pre-seed fund providing capital, world-class in-person sprints, and an outstanding network, to accelerate the founders who are building Europe’s future. 
We invest in founders and visionaries who will redefine how we generate energy, rebuild manufacturing, move goods, construct buildings, produce food, treat our sick, secure our information, protect democracy, and safeguard our societies from climate disruption. 
Europe stands at a defining moment. In the face of unprecedented risks, our economies, industries, and ways of living, must evolve. The founders we back will lead this evolution. 
Norrsken Evolve is part of Norrsken, one of Europe’s largest impact ecosystems founded by Niklas Adalberth, with houses in Stockholm, Barcelona, Brussels and Kigali. The latest Norrsken Evolve fund was 57m euros and backed by leading institutions like EIF, Saminvest and Smartcap. 

SereneDB Secures $2.1M Pre-Seed Funding to Challenge the Status Quo of Search and Analytics 

• Berlin-based database startup SereneDB has raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round from venture funds Entourage and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). 
• The company is challenging the status quo in analytics by building a real-time search & OLAP database to power modern analytical and AI applications. 
• Committed to an open-source development approach, this investment will allow SereneDB to set a new industry standard, empowering data enthusiasts and businesses with faster, deeper, real-time data understanding. 

The database startup SereneDB has closed its pre-seed funding round, raising $2.1 million. The round was led by venture funds Entourage and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF).  

The team is leveraging its expertise from creating the world’s fastest enterprise grade C++ search library to build the engine for next-generation data applications. The company will use the investment to pursue its core mission: building a dedicated database for real-time search and analytics, redefining current industry standards. 

Most search and analytics tools were built to find single, static items, not to analyze fast-changing, complex data. They struggle with real-time updates and deletions and they force teams to stitch together searches, caches and dashboards. The result is slow answers, brittle pipelines and insights that arrive out of date. 

SereneDB brings live data and deep analysis into one system. It fuses a powerful and versatile search engine with modern OLAP execution under the standard PostgreSQL umbrella, handles real-time ingestion with correct updates and deletes, and returns complex results in milliseconds. While people and AI agents can ask better questions on most recent data, companies reduce tooling, cost and operational risk by using simple and standardized SQL tools and APIs. 

This funding advances SereneDB’s commitment to open-source development, giving the data community a voice in shaping the technology while benefiting fairly from its progress. By enabling trustworthy, real-time insights at any point in the data life cycle, SereneDB aims to set a new practical standard for modern analytics. 

Andrey Abramov, Co-Founder at SereneDB, says: “We have grown from a personal project in 2014 into the exceptional team we are today. Our shared purpose has always been to make true real-time analytics a reality. Partnering with Entourage and HTGF gives us the resources to turn this goal into reality, and we appreciate their trust as we deliver on our mission.” 

Pieterjan Bouten, Founder and Managing Partner at Entourage, says: “SereneDB’s team has spent years in the trenches of information retrieval, where breakthroughs are rare. They’ve earned their position with core search technology addressing a critical layer of tech that is often overlooked. Unlocking this data foundation paves the way for a wave of new applications. SereneDB is building that infrastructure, and they have the grit to see it through.” 

Hendryk Hosemann, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF, says: “As AI becomes central to every software product, engineering teams need the ability to query, analyze, and understand live data in real time at scale. SereneDB is redefining AI-memory infrastructure with search and analytics accessible to everyone through PostgreSQL. It’s incredibly rare to find a team that is both able and daring enough to build at this depth, and we’re proud to back them as they redefine what modern databases can deliver.” 

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About SereneDB 
SereneDB is a German company founded in 2025 by Alexander Malandin, Andrey Abramov and Valery Mironov. SereneDB is building the open-sourced distributed, real-time search database bringing search and analytical processing together for fast performance and eliminating data duplication. SereneDB’s mission is to provide an easy-to-use unified search and analytics solution to change the way applications store and retrieve their data. 

For more information, visit www.serenedb.com, check the GitHub repository or follow SereneDB on LinkedIn. 

Media contact  
Alexander Malandin CEO, SereneDB 
T.: +49 152 – 28355 – 280 
m@serenedb.com 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds  
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices. 

For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.  

Media contact  
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH  
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager   
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121  
t.jacob@htgf.de    

About Entourage 
Entourage is an early-stage investment fund founded by Pieterjan Bouten (co-founder of Showpad). It is dedicated to building and funding the next generation of B2B SaaS companies that drive enterprise growth and digital transformation.

Its portfolio includes Aikido (cybersecurity), Lexroom (legal tech), and Conveo (market research). 

Entourage is backed by a network of highly successful (unicorn) SaaS founders, including Jason Lemkin (SaaStr), Stijn Christiaens (Collibra), Matthias Geeroms (Lighthouse), Jan Hollez (Deliverect),… 

Media contact  
Entourage VC 
Evert Beeckman, Co-Founder and Partner at Entourage 
T.: +32 473 66 46 41  
evert@entourage.io  

AILOS Robotics raises €3.5 million seed round to become Europe’s gearbox manufacturer for modern, human-centric robots 

• AILOS Robotics secures €3.5M to bring lighter, safer, and more energy-efficient actuation to next-generation robots. 
• Spin-off from VUB’s BruBotics, supported by QBIC, HTGF, Wallonie Entreprendre, and finance&invest.brussels, uniting Belgian and German deep-tech investors. 
• Funding enables industrialisation and pilot projects around AILOS’ patented R2poweR gearbox for humanoids, cobots, exoskeletons and prosthetic devices. 

AILOS Robotics has raised €3.5 million to industrialize a new class of robotic gearboxes that combine the agility of  quasi-direct drives  with a far higher torque density. This breakthrough enables robots that are lighter, safer, more affordable, and more energy-efficient. 

The seed round is led by QBIC and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), with participation from Wallonie Entreprendre and finance&invest.brussels, reinforcing Europe’s commitment to developing local, strategic component supply for the rapidly growing humanoid and collaborative robotics markets.  

“Modern robots demand a new category of actuation,” said Pablo López García, CEO and co-founder of AILOS Robotics. “We combine quasi-direct drive-like backdrivability with the high torque density of advanced gearing,  finally removing one of the main barriers to agile, lightweight, and safe robots that can operate alongside humans.” 

AILOS is a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and its BruBotics research powerhouse. After a decade of research supported by VLAIO (Flanders) and Innoviris (Brussels), the company has built and validated its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) — the R2poweR gearbox. 

Designed for humanoids, cobots, exoskeletons, and prosthetic devices, the R2poweR architecture: 

• Enables smooth human-friendly interaction (low backdrive torque) 
• Provides extreme torque density for highly loaded joints 
• Reduces robot weight, energy demand, and noise 
• Supports low-cost industrialization and future scalability 
• Is ideally suited for high-volume robotics manufacturing 

AILOS is now moving from lab to factory, and actively engaging: 

• Robot manufacturers — seeking first pilot projects 
• Industrial partners — for joint manufacturing and supply chain scale-up 
• Investors — supporting EU leadership in strategic automation technologies 

“AILOS addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in humanoid and collaborative robotics,” said Cédric Van Nevel, Partner at QBIC. “Europe needs strong hardware manufacturers, and this team has the technology, IP position, and industrial vision to deliver. We are happy to support the founding team in bringing years of academic research to the market.” 

Anne Umbach, Investment Manager at HTGF, said: “AILOS has the potential to become a new European tech champion – despite the challenge of entering the market as a component supplier within an established value chain. Their hardware-level innovation unlocks a unique combination of mechanical parameters, addressing key challenges faced by robot manufacturers in the future markets of cobots and humanoid systems. We’re investing in strong IP and a diverse, ambitious team with a clear technological vision.” 

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About AILOS Robotics 
AILOS Robotics builds the next generation of robotic actuators through its patented R2poweR gearbox — combining quasi-direct drive-like agility with class-leading torque density. Originating from the VUB BruBotics research group and backed by strong EU innovation programs, AILOS delivers the core component for safer, lighter, more sustainable and more affordable robots. 

Website: [www.ailos-robotics.com] 
Press contact: pablo@ailos-robotics.com 

This operation benefits from the support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund 

About QBIC 
Qbic is a sector-agnostic seed and early-stage venture capital fund, focusing on creating impact through the transformation of technological breakthroughs into sustainable business. The fund’s goal is to support young innovative companies that valorize research from Qbic’s knowledge partners. The fund typically participates in the first external investment round of a company and continues to support and invest in these companies throughout their growth. Across 3 funds, Qbic has close to € 200M in AUM. For more information, please visit www.qbic.be. 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds  
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. 

Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices. For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.    

About finance&invest.brussels 
finance&invest.brussels is a Brussels public limited company that supports the creation and growth of businesses in the Brussels-Capital Region. It intervenes at strategic moments in their development by facilitating and complementing the financing chain of microenterprises, self-employed workers, spinoffs, start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs through loans, equity investments and guarantees. Its shareholding combines the Brussels-Capital Region, leading financial institutions and major Brussels corporates, ensuring both a strong public anchor and solid private support. The objective: to stimulate the Brussels economy, foster employment and support the transition towards more sustainable and inclusive economic models. 

About VUB 
Vrije Universiteit Brussel is an internationally oriented university in Brussels, the heart of Europe. By providing excellent research and education on a human scale, VUB wants to make an active and committed contribution to a better society. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel assumes its scientific and social responsibility with love and decisiveness. That’s why VUB launched the platform De Wereld Heeft Je Nodig – The World Needs You, which brings together ideas, actions and projects based on six Ps. The first P stands for People, because that’s what it’s all about: giving people equal opportunities, prosperity, welfare, respect. Peace is about fighting injustice, big and small, in the world. Prosperity combats poverty and inequality. Planet stands for actions on biodiversity, climate, air quality, animal rights… With Partnership, VUB is looking for joint actions to make the world a better place. The sixth and last P is for Poincaré, the French philosopher Henri Poincaré, from whom VUB derives its motto that thinking should submit to nothing except the facts themselves. VUB is an ‘urban engaged university’, strongly anchored in Brussels and Europe and working according to the principles of free research. www.vub.be/dewereldheeftjenodig 

Marble Imaging has raised €5.3 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round, powering its mission to become Europe’s leading source of very high-resolution Earth Observation data and insights. 

• Under the leadership of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Marble has successfully closed its oversubscribed €5.3 million seed round, exceeding initial funding targets. 
• The funding supports Marble in scaling operations, accelerating product and technological developments for its upcoming satellite constellation. The first Marble satellite is scheduled for a 2026 launch. 
• This marks another major milestone for the company founded in August 2023, following more than €10 million in non-dilutive funding and the signing of Marble’s first anchor contract with ESA valued at €3 million. 

“Marble Imaging is addressing a critical European capability gap in the very-high resolution domain and I do not see any other company tackling it faster than Marble does. The need for independent, timely and VHR optical data will only increase in the coming years and I’m happy to support the founders building a European star for a global market”, says Koen Geurts, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF. 

HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe. Its fund investors include numerous corporations and family offices, as well as the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and KfW Capital. 

In addition, Marble has attracted a strong group of further investors who share the mission, including BAB Beteiligungs- und Management-gesellschaft Bremen mbH (BBM), Lightfield Equity, Oslo Venture Company, nwk | nwu Beteiligungsgesellschaften der Sparkasse Bremen, Sentris Capital, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund and SpaceFounders. 

The investment will enable Marble to significantly scale its development team and accelerate completion of its intelligence, maritime, and trafficability tools – solutions that already serve early customers and are now being prepared for broad commercial rollout. It will also support the build-out of Marble’s end-to-end data-processing chain and customer data portal, ensuring a seamless experience for initial users. The funding positions Marble to finalize its rapidly growing pipeline of data customers and be fully commercial-ready at the launch of satellite number one. Additionally, it will allow Marble to expand its operational expertise and establish a dedicated operations center for its planned satellite constellation. 

“We’re very happy to welcome a strong European investor consortium that will help drive the growth of our dual-use Earth Observation solutions”, says Robert Hook, Chief Executive Officer of Marble and Co-Founder. “With this round, we can speed up the enhancement of our capabilities to keep pace with rapidly rising demand.” 

The first Marble satellite, which will deliver very high-resolution multispectral data, is scheduled to be launched in Q4 2026. Marble Imaging plans to gradually expand its own constellation to up to 20 satellites by the end of 2028. 

The demand for strong and innovative sovereign solutions from Europe now runs through nearly all major institutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fields of security and climate tech, where the need for timely, very high-resolution Earth Observation data and advanced AI-powered analytics has become immense. 

The company led by Co-founders Robert Hook, Dr. Gopika Suresh, and Alexander Epp has reached another key milestone with the successful closing of the round, attracting not only prominent business angels and institutional investors but also generating strong enthusiasm among leading venture capital firms. 

Earlier, the Marble team had already gained attention by securing more than €10 million in non-dilutive funding for the development and launch of its first satellite – financing obtained through the DLR Small Satellite Payload Competition and ESA InCubed. The company further validated the strong demand for high-quality European data and analytics with its first €3 million anchor contract under ESA’s Copernicus Contributing Missions program. 

Due to being oversubscribed, not all investors could participate in this round but to accelerate the build-out of the constellation, Marble is preparing a Series A – offering a new opportunity to become part of the company’s growing success story. 

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About Marble Imaging
Marble Imaging is a big-data EO company founded in August 2023 in Bremen, Germany, building its constellation of VHR satellites to provide up to hourly EO data and analytics for time critical insights of our planet. The data and derived EO-based analytics will be vital in supporting rapid decision-making with regard to defence, climate security, crises & disaster management, green and sustainable energy transitions, infrastructure and mobility and much more. Marble already offers advanced data analysis services, including object detection for situational intelligence, terrain analytics and trafficability assessment, coastal asset monitoring and land cover classification. 

Press contact: 
Alexander Epp
alex@marble-imaging.de 

For more information, please visit https://www.marble-imaging.de 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds 
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds.  Since  its inception in  2005,  HTGF  has  financed around  800  startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros. Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices. 

For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn. 

About BAB Beteiligungs- und Managementgesellschaft Bremen mbH (BBM) 
In order to promote the innovative strength of the Bremen economy, the Senator for Economics, Ports and Transformation has set up the “EFRE Beteiligungsfonds Bremen II” and commissioned BAB Beteiligungs- und Managementgesellschaft Bremen mbH (BBM) to manage it. The funding is granted in the form of open investments and additional subordinated loans. These include up to 40% funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). BBM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH (BAB). BAB – the promotional bank for Bremen and Bremerhaven – in turn supports the State of Bremen in matters of regional development, as well as structural and economic policy, and supports companies through all stages of their development. In partnership with local banks and Sparkassen, BAB focuses on all economic activities that are in the interest of the federal state of Bremen. 

For more information, please visit www.bab-bremen.de 

About Lightfield Equity GmbH & Co. KG 
Lightfield Equity GmbH & Co. KG is an entrepreneurial-led family office investing its own capital in innovative startups. Lightfield backs ambitious founders with patient, hands-on capital to turn strong technologies and business models into resilient, scalable companies. With a clear, disciplined investment approach and a long-term mindset, Lightfield focuses on real value creation. 

About Oslo Venture Company 
Oslo Venture Company partners with ambitious founders to build and back early stage ventures, combining hands-on strategic support with access to capital. We are entrepreneurs at heart, and our team brings experience in strategy, design, and technology to help founders increase value from day one. Through our curated network of angel investors, we also enable investments into high-potential startups, reflecting our commitment to backing teams and technologies that push industries forward. 

For more information, please visit https://osloventurecompany.com 

About nwk | nwu Beteiligungsgesellschaften der Sparkasse Bremen 
nwk | nwu are two investment companies wholly owned by the Sparkasse Bremen Group. Since 25 years, we have been acquiring minority stakes in companies in Northern Germany and across the country, without a specific industry focus. Currently, nwk | nwu’s portfolio comprises 26 companies. We provide equity capital without time limits, as well as mezzanine capital or a combination thereof, to medium-sized businesses, without any strategic interests. 

For more information, please visit https://www.nwk-nwu.de/ 

About Sentris Capital 
Sentris Capital is an investment firm focused on single- and dual-use technologies in resilience, defence, and aerospace. With a team joint portfolio of more than 20 investments, we actively source and evaluate VC and PE opportunities across these sectors on a pan-European scale. 

For more information, please visit https://www.sentriscapital.com/ 

About Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund 
Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund is Germany’s first gender-focused venture capital fund, investing in the next generation of female-(co-)founded companies driving systemic change. With €45 million in assets under management and 35 investments to date, Auxxo backs Europe’s most promising female-led startups at pre-seed and seed stage – combining alpha and impact to back tomorrow‘s category leaders. Auxxo drives equitable participation of women as founders and investors in venture capital – powered by network, experience, and wholeheartedness. 

For more information visit, please visit https://auxxo.de/ 

About SpaceFounders 
SpaceFounders is an acceleration program – a partnership between the French Space Agency (CNES), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and Bundeswehr University Munich and a platform to connect private and public sector pioneers shaping the future of space. As an investment activity, SpaceFounders is the venture arm of the French Space Agency (CNES). 

For more information visit, please visit https://spacefounders.eu/ 

HTGF portfolio company FMC raises €100 million to set new standards for memory chips 

Semiconductor pioneer FMC has closed one of the largest capital rounds in the European semiconductor sector: A total of around €100 million will flow into the commercialization of its highly innovative memory chip technology. The oversubscribed Series C round comprises €77 million in equity capital, led by HV Capital and the DeepTech & Climate Fund (DTCF), as well as €23 million in public funds. 

HTGF recognized FMC’s potential very early on and became the first institutional investor during the seed phase in 2017, strengthening its commitment in the Series A round in 2018 with the fund’s then-largest single ticket. Since then, HTGF has closely supported the company. FMC demonstrates how deep-tech innovations from Germany can reach international markets and strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty. 

With the fresh capital, FMC will accelerate the commercialization of its DRAM+ and 3D-CACHE+ memory chips and expand its global activities. AI data centers are expected to consume enormous amounts of energy in the future – FMC’s chips can significantly reduce this consumption by optimizing data transfer and increasing compute efficiency. System efficiency and processing speed for energy-intensive AI applications could improve by more than 100%. FMC’s memory chips have the chance to become the new industry standard in the €100+ billion memory chip market. 

Memory chips have become a strategically crucial technology that is currently being dominated exclusively by South Korea, the U.S., and Taiwan, with China rapidly catching up. So far, Europe has not had a significant presence in this critical semiconductor segment. With FMC, a credible player is now emerging in Silicon Saxony with the ambition to close this strategic gap from within Europe. 

Thomas Rückes, CEO of FMC: 
“We are working on the next generation of memory chips and system solutions that are not only more sustainable and energy efficient, but also faster and less expensive than the current industry standard. While bandwidth has so far been the dominant metric of AI compute, energy efficiency is now becoming the key factor for the next generation of AI. Memory chips are the main bottleneck in the AI stack. FMC’s DRAM+ and 3D CACHE+ technology addresses precisely this issue: Faster and more energy efficient than established products. Securing an equity financing of this magnitude emphasizes the significance of our technology, and we are grateful to have earned the trust of leading deep-tech investors for our vision.” 

Yann Fiebig, Partner at HTGF: 
“We are delighted that FMC has secured the resources to bring its highly innovative memory chip technology to global markets. As a seed investor, we have closely supported the company since 2017. FMC shows how German research can give rise to a global tech champion – a pioneering example of deep-tech innovation that strengthens technological sovereignty in Germany and Europe.” 

Romy Schnelle, Managing Director at HTGF: 
“Our mission is clear: Identify future industries early, finance the best technologies, and secure value creation for Germany and Europe. FMC is an excellent example of how deep-tech innovations from Germany can reach global markets. Memory chips are a key technology for the AI era – developing them in Europe is crucial to securing technological sovereignty. This requires strong networks, globally minded collaborations, and the mobilization of private capital through the leverage of public funding.” 

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About FMC 
FMC is a leading semiconductor and memory chip company based in Dresden, founded in 2016 to develop a revolutionary memory chip technology. Based on the thin-film material hafnium oxide, the company has created a new class of memory cells with its DRAM+ chip – more sustainable, faster, and cost-efficient. Thanks to its extremely low power consumption, the technology significantly reduces the energy demand of AI data centers, laying the foundation for their scale-up in Europe and worldwide. FMC is now a fabless company, meaning it designs, develops, and markets its own products while outsourcing production to contract manufacturers (chip foundries). FMC is backed by investors including HV Capital, the DeepTech & Climate Fund (DTCF), Vsquared Ventures, eCAPITAL, Bosch Ventures, Air Liquide Venture Capital, M Ventures (Merck), Verve Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Korean memory chip company SK hynix, semiconductor equipment manufacturer TEL, and other international investors. The company is led by CEO Thomas Rückes.  
For more information, visit ferroelectric-memory.com. 

Media contact FMC 
Torben Gosau, Kekst CNC 
torben.gosau@kekstcnc.com 

About HTGF – High-Tech Gründerfonds  
HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage investors in Germany and Europe, financing startups in the fields of Deep Tech, Industrial Tech, Climate Tech, Digital Tech, Life Sciences and Chemistry. With its experienced investment team, HTGF supports startups in all phases of their development into international market leaders. HTGF invests in pre-seed and seed phases and can participate significantly in later-stage financing rounds. Since its inception in 2005, HTGF has financed around 800 startups and achieved 200 successful exits. HTGF has a fund volume of over 2 billion euros.  
Fund investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital as well as 45 companies and family offices.   
For more information, please visit HTGF.de or follow us on LinkedIn.    

Media contact  
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH  
Tobias Jacob, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager   
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 121  
t.jacob@htgf.de