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Industrial AI Moats & Regulated Tech: DACH 2026 Signals · Deep Tech Germany – AI, Robotics & Frontier Innovation by Startuprad.io™

• 0:00
  Foreign.
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  Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German
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  startup scene with news, interviews and
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  live events.
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  Welcome to our regular startup news from the startup and tech entrepreneurship
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  scenes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This is the deep
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  dive of our startup news with me, Chris
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  in New York and Joe like
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  frolicking around in Germany.
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  So this is the second episode, some of you might have listened to
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  the highlights and now here you will get even more
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  of our monthly news coverage. We
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  took a bit of a leaner approach, as
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  contradictory to the Christmas season, to the holiday season, but we
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  took a bit of a leaner approach in the startup news. Please let us know
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  how you like it. And before we go any further, one small milestone worth
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  pausing for. This is episode 730 of Startup
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  Radio. The number says a lot. A lot of
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  conversations, years of conversations, cycles of hype and corrections.
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  I mean yeah, I'm still missing super
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  fast supermarkets, thousands of founders,
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  investors and operators passing through our mics,
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  booms, busts, pivots, reinventions across the dark startup
• 1:31
  ecosystem and we're still here, still hoping
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  that sometimes our signals beat the noise. So thanks for listening,
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  building this brand. Thanks for challenging us and for sticking around.
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  Now back to work and Back to the
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  December 2025 startup news part two.
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  The deep dive part one was a bit about bigger signals, headline
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  moves. This now is where we slow things down a bit and we looked at
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  what actually changed underneath. We are at more concrete
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  deals with a couple of companies and
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  you will, yeah, get the last wrap
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  up before we start the new year. So I'm
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  in the lead. Chris in New York. We move across the ecosystem piece by
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  piece. We will look at Europe shifting, AI competitiveness
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  debate. Two very concrete signals out of Germany, out of Austria, out of
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  Switzerland will hear which categories we see
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  are maturing, others are being repriced and
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  where founders are adapting faster than the market. Consensus,
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  consensus. So before
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  we will get into it, you have a little bit of
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  housekeeping and all the little
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  minutia for us. Yeah, just a tiny note
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  guys. Startup Radio experienced a brief publishing interruption
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  due to software update at the third party software provider that
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  did not go as planned. All content was fully backed up and
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  remains intact. Delayed episodes will be released and regular
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  publishing has now resumed. Fortunately.
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  Quick heads up before we continue. This deep dive
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  isn't about hype stories. We're talking execution signals,
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  regulatory shifts and where capital is actually getting
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  disciplined right now. Stay with us.
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  The interesting parts are just ahead.
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  Hey guys, welcome back from the ad break. I'm handing over to Chris again
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  because he's always been an ecosystem guy, right? Yes.
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  And this is the part of the show where we look more into
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  general context of the startup world. For example, in
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  Europe we found a report at
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  Antifa about Europe's AI
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  competitiveness and how the debate there shifts from
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  ambition to execution. Antifa Outline is outlining a
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  couple of scenarios for how Europe could remain competitive in the global AI
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  race. They are looking at infrastructure, specialization,
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  regulatory leverage and we see that for the D
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  ecosystem the re relence the relevance is clear.
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  The conversation has moved from whether Europe can compete at all to where
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  it can win which parts of the market. And
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  one idea is that that could be in particularly in applied
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  regulated and industrial AI. The
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  ecosystem in Germany has interesting
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  details about the Google search trends 2025
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  and Stan has an analysis there
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  and showing where public curiosity was lying in
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  2025. And for founders and operators, these trends
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  matter a bit more than just like the trivia and of a
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  proxy for mass market sentiment, cultural anxiety and
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  emerging demand. And
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  when we look at it, I mean a lot of it is political I guess
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  in the search trends, but
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  we also see
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  a lot of searches about dead
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  people unfortunately. So probably, yeah, so probably
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  a bit less about the start startup world, but a bit more about
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  what actually Germans were cur about.
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  The German Fintech ecosystem has
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  been the topic of a Tech Funding News article
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  that analyzes the ecosystem reaching
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  651 million euros in funding, highlighting also a
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  shift from explosive growth to some kind of operational
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  maturity. So we also see here that Fintech
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  is becoming more of an execution game, centering on
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  margins, centering on compliance, centering on scale economics and a
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  bit less the rapid growth stories of the past.
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  And Tech Funding News also reports that 2026 is shaping
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  up as a pivotal year for German accounting software, driven by
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  AI adoption and mandatory E invoicing. That means
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  for software as a service founders. In the Dach region,
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  regulation is once again acting as a forced innovation catalyst.
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  And bit less of a drag hopefully for
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  you guys. Moving on from Germany to Austria and moving on from
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  Christian to Joe. Yes, there's a new
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  electricity law in Austria. Wind and solar sectors
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  celebrate a regulatory win. The renewables industry
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  are positioned as beneficiary of the new
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  electricity market framework. Which market which matters? Because
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  climate startups don't scale on tech alone, they scale on the
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  market design. For daft founders, this is a reminder that regulatory
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  structure can be growth level. However, not only constrained,
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  we accelerate Arson attack raises concerns about
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  ecosystem security trending topic reports on a
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  confirmed arson attack at Vienna's We Accelerate
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  Startup Hub While no funding or product implications were
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  reported, incidents Highlights Growing A growing
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  uncomfortable reality Physical security and
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  political polarization are becoming non trivial
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  risk factors even in innovation spaces. In
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  Switzerland for 30 under 30 highlights Swiss
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  startup Talent the coverage spotlights a new cohort
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  of Swiss innovators reinforcing Switzerland's steady reputation
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  for producing globally competitive founders across deep tech,
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  fintech and life science. Let's go a little bit
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  into the general news, VCs, news and new funds just in case
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  you're looking for money. Hero Capital launches its
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  third European scale up Fund Hero Capital announced The launch of
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  Hero 3 spelled H I
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  R O a new European focus scale Up Fund while
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  adding Sir Nick Clack as general partner.
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  Forbes published its Midas Europe list spotlighting capital
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  concentration. Forbes released its annual list for Europe
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  highlighting the venture capitalists currently exerting the most
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  influence across the European startup ecosystem. For startup
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  founders, the list is less about prestige and more about
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  pattern recognition. Capital networks and follow on power
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  are becoming increasingly concentrated among a smaller and
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  smaller group of repeat actors. The
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  Deep Tech News Chris, you want to flux it in.
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  Because Flux 2 was presented as a new image generation
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  model reinforcing that European AI progress
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  is increasingly becoming more about shipping
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  as productized systems. And for founders this is
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  also so like an execution signal. You can say we see that
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  distribution and integration layers are now
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  where winners separate themselves from
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  labs. Aleph Alpha Co. We've talked about
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  a couple of times here too is part of a coverage of Handel's
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  Blood handle. Blood is framing an inflection point at
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  Aleph Alpha and reminder that sovereign AI in Europe is now in the
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  hard phase. Product procurement cycles and
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  durable economics are the main topics there and
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  the founders here. The takeaway is that AI credibility more
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  comes from actual delivery of operational systems and
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  not just from positioning as
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  exemplified by Aleph Alpha in that
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  report in the Defense Tech News.
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  Well we can only say keep in mind that we had the top news with
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  Quantum Systems and their dual use potential 3 billion
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  valuation and
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  so more about that in the upcoming
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  episodes. I think we also have nothing big
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  about the biotech news for
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  for now there will be more in funding and the mergers and acquisition sections of
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  the show. So we will move on to fintech with you.
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  Yes Mundu the Fintech News Mondo secures
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  100 million debt facility by JP Morgan
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  payments this is a maturity signal. Non
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  dilutive capital is back for fintechs that look like
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  infrastructure not experiments for Berlin and the dark fintech
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  scene. This is about unit Economics and credit worthiness.
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  Exactly the start of signal late stage partners
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  care about We Fox we talked about the former
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  unicorn. Quite frequently profit profitability
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  becomes the headline handels. But reports we Fox, aiming to be
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  profitable this year. So 2025 I would
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  assume an inflection that matters because Insuretech has been a
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  graveyard of growth first stories for dark founders. This
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  is a category wide signal. Sorry it's late
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  Here distribution models are being judged on
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  underwriting quality and operational discipline, not
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  funding optics. Bitpanda
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  expands into Asia Pacific bitpanda's
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  APEC expansion signals a crypto platform moving from
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  regional dominance into international positioning for
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  Austria and the Dach crypto ecosystem. It's a clean marker
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  of compliance area crypto scaling where distribution follows
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  licenses and institutional trust. We don't have
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  expert green tech news here, but Chris had a lot of
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  general news, right? Yeah. Let's move on to the general news. And
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  to move about a former guest of ours. Swiss Pod
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  Hits a Hyperloop Speed Record Moneycap
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  here reports that Swisspod is breaking the hyperloop
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  speed record on a major US test track for Switzerland
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  and Dark Deep Tech. It's a credibility milestone. We with
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  the hardware ventures only get funded long term if they can keep
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  converting ambition into performance. And that is something we see here.
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  Next topic. Interesting. If they would not be already
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  listed and would still be considered a startup, this would have made the
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  number one topic of our news overall because we're talking about
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  Auto Eins Auto 1. They are expanding
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  the inventory funding to 1.6 billion euros,
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  underlining the capital intensity behind Europe's largest
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  used car marketplace. All of this
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  also kind of a reminder that the marketplace scale is ultimately a
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  balance sheet story, not just a growth one. We see that
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  here and we see that access to structured financing can also
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  be a bit of a competitive moat.
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  Manager magazine reports a sharp directional signal in
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  Germany's EV market. BYD
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  is gaining while Tesla loses momentum.
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  So we see that the competitive advantage here is increasingly
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  about manufacturing cadence, coming up with pricing, strategy,
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  distribution and in the end also winning market share as
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  BYD does. And we also see, yeah, that
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  the brand brand narrative of Tesla has become a rather
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  toxic one. Let's say Flixbus
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  company in Munich that by now also already owns the famous
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  Greyhound buses or Greyhound Greyhound bus brand in the US
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  is pushing expansion into Australia.
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  That's a report by Munich Startup that shows that platform
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  economics and international replication actually can be a
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  thing. And we also see it's kind of a
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  disciplined global rollout and not just like okay Here's a new market
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  and a hyped up story. Flix Train
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  is a part of coverage of Fund scene
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  who or which reports that Flix Train is positioning themselves
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  around around a high frequency network
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  signaling escalating competitive pressure in German
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  rail. Also regulatory and Capex
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  Chessboard story here where we see that
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  strategy, your own strategy is always kind of constrained by
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  network access and political economics as is
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  part of the German rail system and regulatory
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  systems. And Hunderth Blood is reporting that Amazon
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  has inaugurated a new German headquarter while expanding their local
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  footprint. Even though there is increasing
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  regulatory scrutiny and political debate around the
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  e commerce giant or website giant or Amazon
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  AWS giant, Germany still remains a core
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  operational market for global tech giants like Amazon
• 15:03
  and the country is reinforcing its role as a
• 15:06
  logistics, talent and enterprise hub within Europe. More details about that
• 15:10
  at Handels but and now we are talking about creative. Destruction,
• 15:15
  yes good or shrimpetter we do have
• 15:18
  insolvency, layoffs and other bad news. Not all companies here
• 15:22
  are leaving the market. Starting with Flink, they
• 15:26
  reportedly according to Vivo Virtual, they report
• 15:29
  Flink the quick delivery is requiring close to 90 million
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  euros. Another data point in the
• 15:36
  post hype normalization of quick commerce. For Berlin,
• 15:40
  it's less about delivery and more about whether last mile
• 15:43
  economics can be financed under sober terms.
• 15:47
  Zushi bikes insolvency D2C reality check
• 15:51
  reporting frames Sushi Bikes as
• 15:54
  insolvent, another reminder that consumer hardware brands live
• 15:58
  and die by working capital. German startups Insolvency
• 16:01
  highlights the fragility between showcase growth
• 16:05
  stories. MSN reports on the solvency of
• 16:09
  Dusseldorf based flagship startup, a case
• 16:12
  that surprised many observers. For Dach ecosystem, this
• 16:16
  means this serves a reminder that visibility and narrative
• 16:20
  momentum do not replace financial
• 16:23
  resilience, especially in a market that has turned decisively
• 16:27
  towards fundamentals and selects cuts. Staff
• 16:31
  aggregator Unwind continues.
• 16:34
  Huntersblatt reports Seller X halving its
• 16:37
  workforce aligning with broader aggregator correction that's been
• 16:41
  unfolding since Cheap Capital ended. Chris,
• 16:45
  you want to do some fundings above 90 million
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  euros US dollars? Answer with frankly yes, that's
• 16:52
  my minimum requirement obviously.
• 16:56
  Transcript reports Immatics placing
• 17:00
  $125ameaningful scale signal and
• 17:04
  biotech financing. This is the kind of
• 17:07
  transaction for dark life sciences that keeps pipelines alive. We
• 17:11
  can definitely say here and
• 17:15
  more about that is in the show notes. As is the case with all of
• 17:19
  our stories, you can always find additional articles or the in
• 17:22
  depth coverage from one of our colleague or from
• 17:26
  one of our competitor competitors websites.
• 17:29
  Lime home raised 75 million euros to exc
• 17:33
  accelerate the expansion of its tech enabled hospitality
• 17:37
  platform, combining real estate operations with standardized
• 17:41
  digital processes.
• 17:44
  Mirelo closed an unusually large 41 million
• 17:48
  dollar seed round backed by Index Ventures and
• 17:51
  A16Z, positioning itself in the fast
• 17:55
  moving intersection of generative video
• 17:58
  and audio. So we also see
• 18:02
  here that investors are willing to fund AI
• 18:06
  creation platforms at scale, even at very early stages.
• 18:10
  Let's see if the name of the next startup makes
• 18:14
  our audience smile. Disco
• 18:16
  Pharmaceuticals
• 18:20
  Fin SME is reporting about the fact that
• 18:24
  the company, obviously with our favorite name of the year,
• 18:28
  is closing a 36 million euro seed round.
• 18:33
  It's a company that works in biotech and
• 18:36
  showing that seed money here can still be pretty large. 36
• 18:41
  million euros proving it
• 18:44
  lifi leafy li fi
• 18:49
  is raising $29 million
• 18:52
  reinforcing the infrastructure built out in crypto,
• 18:55
  especially routing and liquidity layers that are
• 18:59
  sitting beneath consumer brands.
• 19:03
  Fin SME is also reporting that Asaya
• 19:06
  Assaia is closing a 26
• 19:10
  million euro Series B rounding round. They are
• 19:13
  using that money to scale their AI platform for airport and
• 19:17
  airline operations, focusing on turnaround efficiency and emission
• 19:22
  reduction. Corinthis
• 19:26
  raised an additional $25 million, reinforcing the
• 19:30
  pattern that industrial AI with measurable efficiency
• 19:33
  gains continues to attract repeat capital even
• 19:37
  as broader AI narratives probably might cool.
• 19:41
  Gravis robotics closed a 23 million dollar funding
• 19:45
  round to scale its autonomous robotics platform
• 19:49
  beyond their home markets. So here we also see that there
• 19:53
  the investor appetite is still continuing for
• 19:56
  applied robotics with a clear use in
• 19:59
  industrial spaces.
• 20:03
  Spryker is securing additional funding, reinforcing
• 20:07
  their investor belief or reinforcing investor belief in
• 20:11
  modular B2B commerce infrastructure.
• 20:14
  Even though we sometimes see that consumer e commerce is a bit
• 20:18
  cooling, but the signal here
• 20:22
  enterprise grade platforms with deep integrations are still
• 20:26
  able to attract capital.
• 20:30
  Hamburg Startups reports that four people's return from
• 20:34
  insolvency into the holiday period
• 20:38
  is showing an execution heavy story in a month dominated by
• 20:41
  mega rounds. We see here that resilience isn't
• 20:45
  branding but restructuring under pressure and re entering the market
• 20:48
  with tighter economics. More about this at Hamburg
• 20:52
  Startups and now talking about companies that go together M and
• 20:56
  A News. Yes,
• 20:59
  German lidar specialist Plick fail to be acquired by
• 21:03
  senstar strengthening sensor
• 21:06
  portfolio, Electronic Net website
• 21:10
  and multiple industry sources Reporter Plickfeld Game Behind Munich
• 21:14
  based 3D LiDAR pioneer has entered into
• 21:17
  definitive acquisition agreement with Senstar
• 21:21
  Technologies Corporation with Blick Fed set to become a
• 21:24
  Senstar subsidiary while continuing to
• 21:28
  operate under its existing name and leadership a move
• 21:31
  expected to close in early 2026. The combination
• 21:35
  brings high precision 3D lidar sensors, notably
• 21:39
  the QB Protect platform, into Senstar's
• 21:42
  broader parameter security and situational
• 21:46
  awareness ecosystem, expanding its addressable market
• 21:49
  across security, industrial automation, transport and
• 21:52
  infrastructure application and enhancing global go
• 21:56
  to market reach. The deal underscores how advanced sensor
• 22:00
  integration and real time 3D perception are
• 22:03
  strategic differentiators in physical security and
• 22:07
  industrial AI stacks at scale. Chris,
• 22:12
  that. That was, that was quite a bit. We are almost done for the month.
• 22:15
  I just have one question. How is New York between
• 22:19
  Christmas and New Year's Eve? Any traditions you brought forth
• 22:23
  with you from Germany? Yeah, I will. Yeah. Well
• 22:27
  my tradition is to mind my own business.
• 22:35
  So yeah, I will stay home
• 22:38
  a lot. I will watch silly shows and that's probably it.
• 22:42
  The only thing I'm going to do is probably go to the gym and then
• 22:45
  the rest of the time I will hibernate under a blanket. It
• 22:49
  maybe. Yeah, hibernation. How about you?
• 22:53
  I mean, I guess it's very different with two kids, right? Oh
• 22:56
  yeah, it's. It's different. You don't get time off, you don't get anything.
• 23:00
  You're basically, you're very happy. When the holidays are over
• 23:04
  you can send them back to kindergarten and school.
• 23:08
  Nice. I know I'm speaking for all the, all the parents here.
• 23:12
  So this is it for our today's show, right? Yeah, this is for the year
• 23:16
  2025. Thank you very much. Looking forward
• 23:19
  to see and hear you guys next year again. Thank
• 23:23
  you. Bye bye. Bye.
• 23:30
  That's all folks. Find more news, streams,
• 23:34
  events and
• 23:35
  interviews@www.startuprad.IO.
• 23:40
  remember, sharing is caring.
• 23:43
  Sam.