Just in time for summer, we’ve rounded up the hottest ecosystem news from last week in our recap for you.nLook forward to many exclusive stories in our review. We conducted interviews with Katharina Hesseler from Omegga, the chairwoman of the Business Angels Deutschland e.V. (BAND) Katja Ruhnke, and also with Henning Heesen. In our latest podcast episode, founder Nicolas Höflinger talks about his AI startup Voiceline. nAnd financing didn’t fall short this week either: While Quantum Diamonds raised a total of 91 million euros, Proxima Fusion even cracked the three-digit million mark. In a Series A2 financing round, the Munich-based startup raised 411 million euros and is now valued at more than 2.4 billion euros. nDon’t want to miss hot startup news? Then subscribe to our newsletter! Enjoy our weekly recap.
nWomen in Tech – Katharina Hesseler from Omegga: Seven billion male chicks are killed worldwide every year immediately after hatching. Omegga is using AI and spectroscopy to combat this. The technology of the Munich deeptech company determines the sex of fertilized eggs before the seventh day of incubation. Co-founder Katharina Hesseler explains to us why founding is a marathon, why resilience is crucial in the founding process, and how technological innovation can drive social change. (Photo: Omegga GmbH)n
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nProxima Fusion becomes Europe’s most valuable fusion company: The Munich-based startup has raised 411 million euros in a Series A2 financing round and is valued at more than 2.4 billion euros. The funding makes Proxima Fusion the best-funded and highest-valued fusion company in Europe and is intended to advance the construction of the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant. (Photo: Proxima Fusion)n
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n“Brutal focus” saved Voiceline: Voiceline is now one of the most exciting AI startups in B2B sales, but the path there was anything but straightforward. In a conversation at Pitch & People, founder Nicolas Höflinger talks about a painful pivot, laying off much of his team, and the realization that even good technology can fail without clear focus. (Photo: Munich Startup)n
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nThe GmbH gets competition: Startups hope for the new legal form EU Inc.: 62 percent of German tech startups view the planned European legal entity “EU Inc.” positively. This is shown by the results of a new Bitkom survey. These results come shortly before the upcoming trilogue negotiations on the introduction of the new EU-wide uniform corporate form and show what expectations founders and investors have for the initiative. (Photo: AI-generated)n
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nA total of 91 million euros for Quantum Diamonds: In addition to the EU grant of 76 million euros announced recently, a further 15 million euros in fresh equity is flowing into the semiconductor startup Quantum Diamonds. (Photo: QuantumDiamonds GmbH)n
