The week's news · new episode 22 Oct 2026
Startuprad.io
Hosted by Startuprad.io
European startups and venture capital, with a German-speaking view.
Follow on Apple PodcastsThe regulars
Investors named as guests in the most episode titles on Startuprad.io.
Every episode 395 · page 1 of 14
- 395Thomas Walther, TU Darmstadt: How Focused Energy Spun Out | E78322 Oct 2026 · 1h 11mEIC Fund▶Show page
About this episode
E 783, Focused Energy & TU Darmstadt: The Spin-Off System German startups from university labs rarely become global companies. Focused Energy, the TU Darmstadt laser fusion spin-off behind a $240M Series A, did. TU Darmstadt VP Thomas Walther explains the system behind it. TU Darmstadt says it has produced close…
- 394Birte Kattelmann-Jagdt, Angel: Green Tech Must Be Cheaper | E78215 Oct 2026 · 57 minTom Steyer▶Show page
About this episode
Business angel Birte Kattelmann-Jagdt screened about 200 German startups and made 10 green tech investments since May 2024. Her rule: being greener is not enough. Your product has to be cheaper, faster and better. Host Jörn "Joe" Menninger asks her what that means for founders and investors in Germany, Austria, and…
- 393E 781, Europe's Scale-Up Gap: Why Strong Hubs Don't Add Up8 Oct 2026 · 24 minEuropean Commission▶Show page
About this episode
Everyone asks where the Silicon Valley of Europe is. Jörn "Joe" Menninger asks a better question: when the capability your company needs sits in another European hub, can you actually use it? Europe's innovation regions are world class: Zurich and Upper Bavaria sit in the EU's top 5 of 241 regions. But when European…
- 392Q3 2026 DACH Review: Isar in Orbit, Helsing $18B, Uber Bid1 Oct 2026 · 27 minDelivery Hero▶Show page
About this episode
The Q3 2026 review for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Germany passed the Strategic Necessity Test; Q3 posed the Ownership Test. In this episode: the public prediction card (1 confirmed at 8/10 confidence, in 11 days) · Helsing $1.8B at $18B · Quantum Systems $1.2B · Proxima Fusion €411M · Isar Aerospace reaches…
- 391E 779, Leapsome: 10 Years to an Agentic HR Platform29 Sept 2026 · 57 minCreandumVisionaries Club▶Show page
About this episode
Leapsome bootstrapped 5 years to a $60M Series A, rebuilt its core as an HRIS in 2024, and now runs EU-hosted AI agents for 2,000+ organizations. Co-CEO Jenny von Podewils explains the 10-year bet. Chapters: 03:52 Five bootstrapped years 12:44 The 2024 HRIS rebuild 17:04 AI agents in production 30:48 The Density Gap:…
- 390E 778, Isar Aerospace, ESA & Europe's Sovereignty Stack24 Sept 2026 · 20 minIn-Q-TelScaleup Europe Fund▶Show page
About this episode
E 778, Isar Aerospace, ESA & Europe's Sovereignty Stack Europe found the money and the customers in September: Isar Aerospace reached orbit, The Exploration Company raised $450M and signed ESA for up to €760M, and Mistral raised €3B. Ownership is the trade-off, according to KfW, more than 3 quarters of Q1 venture…
- 389E 777, AI Agents, Missing APIs and Mittelstand Germany22 Sept 2026 · 30 min▶Show page
About this episode
Code costs fell. Software licences did not. Delia Hallberg of Amadeni AI on what actually makes a Mittelstand Germany company fire a vendor it has used for years, and it is not the price. Part 2 of 2. Horizontal tools stay; everyone needs email and a browser. The exposure sits in rigid vertical products sold to…
- 388E 776, AI Agents Inside a German Mittelstand Company17 Sept 2026 · 31 min▶Show page
About this episode
AI agents are running an IT department at one of the newer German startups, and its co-founder says most companies adding AI to their processes are about to make things worse. Delia Hallberg founded Amadeni AI in January 2026 and builds AI-supported custom software for Mittelstand Germany. Part 1 of 2 is the…
- 387E 775, EDIP, SAFE & the EU Defence Fund: Who Can Sell15 Sept 2026 · 34 minEuropean Union▶Show page
About this episode
Germany has the largest defence budget in the European Union, 90.6 billion euros in 2024, and was not among the 19 member states that applied for SAFE. Austria was not among them either, and the Court's 2021-2027 country breakdown records no EU defence funding for Austria. Switzerland is not on the eligibility list…
- 386E 774, Delaware Flips: Why Europe Loses the Parent11 Sept 2026 · 41 minEuropean Investment Bank▶Show page
About this episode
Only 3.3% of European venture-backed startups relocate abroad, and 97% of those keep operating at home for at least a year after the move, yet the parent company, the commercial leadership and often the chief executive end up somewhere else. Jörn "Joe" Menninger reads the European Investment Bank's January 2026…
- 385E 773, Startup News August 2026: Moss Unicorn, NEURA Robotics, Scalable Capital, Germany, Austria, Switzerland7 Sept 2026 · 31 min▶Show page
About this episode
Startup news Germany, Austria, Switzerland, August 2026. German startups produced their tenth unicorn when Moss hit a one-billion-dollar valuation. NEURA Robotics completed two acquisitions. Scalable Capital shipped the first pension-reform product. DACH startup news from Startuprad.io. H1 2026 venture capital…
- 384Startup News Germany, Austria, Switzerland July 2026: The Structural Rotation3 Sept 2026 · 29 minDelivery HeroEli LillyLakestar▶Show page
About this episode
July 2026 was the month Germany's venture capital market completed its structural rotation from software to hardware. Helsing raised $1.8 billion at an $18 billion valuation, Quantum Systems closed $1.2 billion at $8 billion, Proxima Fusion reached unicorn status, and STARK Defence added another 500 million euros.…
- 383E 771, Europe's SME Credit Gap Is an Underwriting Problem27 Aug 2026 · 54 min▶Show page
About this episode
Europe’s small business credit gap is not a shortage of money. It is a shortage of any cheap way to underwrite borrowers who are all different from each other. Patrick Stäuble founded Teylor in Zurich seven years ago. It lends to small and medium-sized businesses, factors invoices, runs a private debt…
- 382E 770, Unicorn Atlas #5: HappyRobot's $1.2B Address Gap25 Aug 2026 · 27 minEurazeoPrysm Capital▶Show page
About this episode
On 4 August 2026 HappyRobot announced a 150 million dollar Series C at a 1.2 billion dollar post-money valuation, led by Prysm Capital and co-led by Eurazeo. Three days later the Technical University of Munich announced it as its 23rd unicorn. HappyRobot is a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, and…
- 381E 769, Talent Without Recycling: The European Scale-Up Question, Part 513 Aug 2026 · 32 minAtomicoDelivery Hero▶Show page
About this episode
E 769 · Part 5 of The European Scale-Up Question, recorded solo by Joe Menninger in Frankfurt am Main. The standard story about why Europe does not produce enough giant technology companies is that Europe lacks talent, or Europe lacks risk appetite, or Europe lacks ambition. That story is wrong. Europe has 3.5…
- 380E 768, Unicorn Atlas #2: Moss, Berlin's Finance-AI Unicorn Betting on Control, Not Autonomy10 Aug 2026 · 20 minCherry Ventures▶Show page
About this episode
Hello and welcome everybody. This is E 768 of Startuprad.io, recorded solo by Joe Menninger from Frankfurt am Main. Unicorn Atlas entry number two. On 5 August 2026, Berlin fintech Moss closed a €35 million Series C at a €1 billion valuation, becoming Germany's newest unicorn. Portage, the fintech-specialist…
- 379E 767, Unicorn Atlas #1: Helsing, Europe's $18 Billion Defence AI Bet30 Jul 2026 · 35 minCPP InvestmentsTorsten Reil▶Show page
About this episode
Hello and welcome everybody. This is E 767 of Startuprad.io, recorded solo by Joe Menninger from Frankfurt am Main. This is the first entry in a new series, the Unicorn Atlas. Every entry takes one European unicorn and asks who owns it, what it actually makes, whether the headline numbers hold up under primary…
- 378E 766, Germany's New Startup Strategy Is Really a Scaleup Strategy28 Jul 2026 · 24 minFuture Fund▶Show page
About this episode
Germany's new Startup and Scaleup Strategy: 152 measures, DefenceTech, procurement reform, DeepTech financing. Why this is really about the European scaleup gap, and whether Germany can close it. Hello and welcome everybody. This is E 766 of Startuprad.io, recorded solo by Joe Menninger from Frankfurt am Main. A…
- 377Europe's Startup Recovery Never Happened (H1 2026 Review)16 Jul 2026 · 27 min▶Show page
About this episode
Europe's startup ecosystem isn't in a traditional recovery. In this special H1 2026 review, Jörn “Joe” Menninger analyzes why venture capital has undergone a structural rotation rather than returning to the previous cycle's patterns. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io…
- 376Germany's AI Bottleneck May Be Electricity9 Jul 2026 · 25 min▶Show page
About this episode
Could electricity, not chips or talent, be Germany's real AI bottleneck? In this episode, Jörn “Joe” Menninger covers the GreenTech Monitor 2026, the AI-energy nexus, and why data centers are now central to industrial competitiveness. Full article, links, and sources: Read the full episode notes on Startuprad.io…
- 375The Defence Capital Supercycle: Europe's New Venture Capital Infrastructure2 Jul 2026 · 26 min▶Show page
About this episode
More than €1.7 billion of defence-linked capital moved through Europe in a single month. In this news analysis, Jörn "Joe" Menninger examines why defence technology has become the dominant European venture asset class, tracing STARK's €3.5 billion valuation two years after founding, KNDS's preparation for Europe's…
- 374Germany's VC Market After the Correction: Stable Is Not Strong25 Jun 2026 · 22 min▶Show page
About this episode
German venture capital has stabilised after a multi-year correction, but stable is not the same as strong. In this analysis, Jörn "Joe" Menninger unpacks a market that has stopped falling yet remains highly concentrated, with AI, defence technology, biotech, energy infrastructure, and robotics absorbing a growing…
- 373Europe's Scale-Up Gap Isn't Capital, It's Demand18 Jun 2026 · 19 min▶Show page
About this episode
Europe doesn’t just have a capital problem, it has a customer problem. In this scale-up series episode, Joe Menninger argues that even with funding fixed, European startups struggle to scale because institutions buy slowly: fragmented, risk-averse procurement that favors incumbents. Capital keeps startups alive;…
- 372European VC: The IPO Myth and the AI Wrapper Trap17 Jun 2026 · 25 min▶Show page
About this episode
Europe’s venture market has matured, but the IPO dream still misleads founders, and “generative AI wrappers” may soon struggle to raise. Partech partner Simone Riva on where European VC actually works, the costliest founder mistake, and what makes a startup defensible. A clear-eyed read on capital efficiency, exits,…
- 371When to Raise Venture Capital, and When It Destroys Discipline11 Jun 2026 · 44 min▶Show page
About this episode
Capital accelerates everything, including your problems. Partech partner Simone Riva on when European startups should raise venture capital and when it quietly destroys discipline. Using Emma Sleep (≈€950M revenue, minimal funding) and Flix (capital-intensive, global) as bookends, he lays out the decision rules that…
- 370Europe's Scale-Up Gap: Why Capital Isn't the Problem4 Jun 2026 · 21 min▶Show page
About this episode
Europe doesn’t lack startup capital, it lacks the architecture to move capital from innovation to scale. In this scale-up series episode, Joe Menninger explains why the gap bites at Series B and beyond: a thin institutional LP base, too few billion-euro funds (11 vs 137 in the US), and the “dry powder” that can’t…
- 369DACH Startup News, May 2026: Helsing's $18B, SAP's AI Bet & the Orbit Question29 May 2026 · 24 minBlackRock▶Show page
About this episode
May 2026 was the month DACH stopped catching up and started setting the pace. Joe and co-host Chris Fahrenbach, in his final news episode after 11 years, break down Helsing’s $1.2B raise to an $18B valuation, SAP’s €1B+ bet on a 15-month-old AI lab, Isar Aerospace’s orbital attempt, and why Bitpanda is heading to…
- 368Can EU Inc Become Europe's Delaware?21 May 2026 · 42 minNikolaus Bayer▶Show page
About this episode
Building a company across Europe still means sitting on top of 27 different legal systems, so can “EU Inc,” the proposed 28th regime, finally be Europe’s Delaware? Nikolaus Bayer , deputy chairman of Business Angels Deutschland (BAND) and founder of IRIS Analytics (acquired by IBM), weighs the promise against the one…
- 367Aviloo and the Used-EV Battery Trust Problem14 May 2026 · 38 min▶Show page
About this episode
The battery is the most expensive part of an electric car, and for years, the only data on its health came from the manufacturer selling you the warranty. Marcus Berger , CEO of Aviloo, on building the independent, manufacturer-agnostic battery test that now covers 96% of EV models across 15 countries, just as the EU…
- 366Europe's Hidden Growth Tax: Regulatory Fragmentation7 May 2026 · 21 min▶Show page
About this episode
Europe’s single market has 500 million customers, but for startups, scaling across it means re-entering a new legal, tax, and compliance regime in every country. This scale-up series episode names the cost: a “hidden growth tax” of regulatory fragmentation that makes cross-border seed deals close 3–5× slower than in…
Who the show talks about
Firms named in its episodes, and people named in descriptions: talked about, rather than on the show.
