Christian Reitberger

🔬 Excited to launch 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 interviews on Substack! This series will showcase scientists who transition into founders, spotlighting their journey from academic research to launching startups. 🥼The inaugural interview features Stefan Müller, co-founder and CTO of Ferroelectric Memory Company (FMC). This interview is special as Stefan represents my first VC investment. His journey from lab research to securing support from top investors like M Ventures ,imec.xpand, Bosch Ventures, Air Liquide, TEL Venture Capital, and SK hynix is truly inspiring. 𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔: Persistence Pays Off: Unwavering commitment to research. Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with industry giants. Industry Impact: Revolutionizing semiconductor memory solutions. Read the full interview and subscribe for more inspiring stories. Let's continue transforming scientific research from university labs into startups. 🚀 💡 Calling All Scientist-Founders: Have you made the leap to entrepreneurship? I’d love to connect and explore your journey! #Scientist #Founder #VentureCapital #PhD #Spinoff #Lab #Startup #Research #Univeristy

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The acquisition of Quarero Robotics by an investment vehicle advised TACTICAL MANAGEMENT is a significant step towards to robotics and innovation. Thanks to all parties involved. Quarero Robotics TACTICAL MANAGEMENT #Innovation #PrivateEquity #Management

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A little late with this one, but shared some thoughts with Sifted the other day on what effect recent news around Northvolt, Lilium and Graphcore might have on the European deeptech sector. Link in comments! A lot of the most heavily funded deeptech companies in Europe such as Stegra or Northvolt have been backed by strategic and public investors early on, something a lot less common for traditional software companies. For the state to step in in an attempt to save a company that has missed its targets is a discussion that should be very different from the state or the EU funding opportunities for Europe to increase and maintain resilience of its most important supply chains. Each of those cases is very different and has its own set of reasons to "fail", but one common factor we can takeaway is: Made in Europe does not justify a price premium, the best product wins. We are extremely bullish on all the incredible European deeptech talent working on solutions that compete on both dimensions, performance and price. And that hasn't changed.

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Swiss company Climeworks are a global leading player for direct air capture (DAC) CO2 removal. They are a unicorn company (startup with >€1Bn valuation) having raised $650M equity investment in a single round in Q2-22. Their new 'Mammoth' plant near Reykjavik will process 36KT CO2/yr. Only 4 DAC plants process >1KT anywhere on the planet today. Massive fans suck in & condense CO2. This is dissolved in huge water tanks & pumped underground to dissolve minerals into solid locked-up deposits. Local geothermal heat drives this energy-hungry process. One strength is speed, with >95% of CO2 mineralised in <2 years. It currently costs $1000/T of CO2 captured, which comes from selling carbon-offsets of clients. Demand is high, with 1/3 of Mammoths total lifetime capacity already sold. The order list includes Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, Shopify & Lego. Climeworks aim to quickly reach $300-400/T & will establish a 1MT plant. The US site in question will break ground in 2026. It's proponents argue it is a key part of the toolkit towards climate neutrality & reversing past damage. However, much remains to be done. Work so far is a drop in the ocean vs the c40 billion tons of CO2 released globally each year. Some critics also say it's far easier & more efficient to pinpoint the highest CO2 concentrations by removing CO2 directly at smokestacks. Alexander Novitskiy, Stefano Vittor, Paul Webber, Andrea Mangel Raventos, Francesca Boscolo Bibi, PNO Consultants Ltd (UK)

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#DeepTech: Europe’s next big leap? At the Falling Walls Science Summit last week, I joined Michael Brigl, Bernd Scheifele and Peter Soelkner for a CEO Table focusing on ‘From Science Breakthroughs to Market Success‘. The discussion was centered on bridging the gap between groundbreaking scientific discoveries and their translation into marketable applications—a key challenge for Germany as an innovation hub. Our conversation touched on many key insights from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Consulting Group’s report "From Lab to Leader: Unlocking Europe’s €8 trillion Deep Tech Opportunity," highlighting Europe’s potential to become a global leader in this space. For me, some key takeaways were: 1. A cultural shift is necessary (amongst others, we really need the next generations to see founding a business as a "normal" career option), 2. "Spin-offs" should be included as a true third pillar for universities and institutes next to Research and Teaching, and 3. We need far more ecosystem linkages and cooperation between all relevant stakeholders. Find out more about the future of Deep Tech in BCG’s latest report: https://lnkd.in/d3MvVpwD #FallingWalls #ScienceSummit24 #Innovation 

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20 years in VC. Going from CVC to VC. Here's the story of Rainer Märkle, General Partner at HV Capital. 1/ Engineering roots: His journey began in electrical engineering. Working on exciting projects like mobile and fiber communications. 2/ A twist of fate. By chance, he landed a role at a corporate VC arm of Siemens. Investing in the very tech I helped build. 3/ VC journey: That's where the VC journey began! He discovered a passion for nurturing innovation. So, he knew his mission was to help promising startups. What inspired your VC journey? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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"China is penetrating sectors traditionally dominated by Europe, such as laser manufacturing, sensing, optical components and systems." Europe’s share of the global photonics market has shrunk to 15%, and is declining further. Europe’s already lost the lead in some critical photonics segments, and is losing more. A wake up call is needed with strong measures to promote new photonics innovation, spur entrepreneurship in the space, and foster an environment to best allow companies to scale. https://lnkd.in/eur7HCzs

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Pleased to share some insights into our latest fund SSV II 🛰 🌌 Following the same strategy as its original SpaceTech-focused venture fund, a top-performing fund for its vintage, SSV II aims to build a portfolio of c.30 companies. The Fund has already made nine investments. The 9 companies currently making up the SSV II portfolio are: 💫 Hubble Network – Internet of Things satellite constellation for connecting directly to billions of Bluetooth-enabled devices Delos Insurance Solutions – Space data-powered wildfire home insurance provider ATMOS Space Cargo – Space cargo return service for life sciences Auriga Space – Novel electromagnetic launch system Array Labs- 3D satellite imagery on a global scale Privateer Space - constellation of small SATs for in-Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Ubotica Technologies - Live Earth Intelligence (Space: AI) Renoster - Deep Transparency for nature-based carbon projects constellr - Space data-powered high-precision smart farming services Find out more👀 https://lnkd.in/eS_9w7c3

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Europe unfortunately is a combination of many individual capital markets, some bigger and some smaller, which is keeping the industry's growth modest and never really challenging the US. #vc #funding #startups #privatefunding #privatecapital #investmentstrategies #growth #deeptech #seed #startupcapital

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🔋 Distributed energy storage UNIGRID Battery is pioneering sodium-ion batteries ▶ they've been busy working on cheaper and safer complements to lithium-ion. The first market will be buildings, small campuses, and manufacturers of 'light EVs' - scooters, tuk-tuks, etc - and focusing geographically where the climate is warm, and where lithium-ion batteries are prone to overheating. 🌍 Future applications planned include buildings, data centers, and hospitals. “When produced at the same scale, sodium-ion should be about half of where lithium-iron-phosphate is in terms of cost to produce because the raw materials are a hundred times cheaper,” Darren Tan, co-founder and CEO of Unigrid. Safety scores are 🏹 - They won't catch fire until internal temps reach several hundred degrees Celsius. And rather than building factories, they'll be working with spare capacity at existing battery manufacturing facilities - think a smaller-scale TSMC (they produce chips for Apple & Nvidia). Their $12m Series A was led by Transition VC & Ritz Venture Capital - Union Square Ventures & Foothill Ventures also participated. Here's hoping that Unigrid can make a shorter-term impact on the energy sector! 🏠🛵 #EnergyStorage #Innovation #Climate

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Helios started with a bold mission: extracting oxygen from the Moon🌕 That challenge led to an unexpected breakthrough Now transforming the steel industry here on Earth🌍 Their “Helios Cycle” produces iron with zero direct carbon emissions and only needs: 🔋 Electricity 🧂 Sodium ⚙️ Low-quality iron ore or mining waste With steel production responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions, this innovation could be a game changer for a greener future Plus, nearly half of Helios’ team are women, and a quarter hold PhDs 👩🏻‍🔬 -- 📌PS: Enjoyed this? Repost it to your network, and read my free newsletter for more.  Join 5,000+ VC's and investors to become better at the Climate Tech Game: https://lnkd.in/ektv3C_s #sustainability #steel

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Storage deployment and capacity are lagging behind renewables, with safety being a major concern. Just as we made airplanes and cars safer, leading to their widespread adoption, we urgently need safer battery solutions. Where can we find these safe batteries? Well, UNIGRID Battery is making them!! See below the Unigrid team putting their batteries to the barbecue test! Their batteries offer comparable power output to lithium-ion batteries while being more cost-effective and significantly safer, resistant to thermal runaway. This makes them ideal for applications in buildings, hospitals, and data centers. Darren H. S. Tan Erik Wu Bruis van Vlijmen

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Seraphim Space Ventures II (SSV II): Meet the companies 🛰 🌌 Following the same strategy as its original SpaceTech-focused venture fund, a top-performing fund for its vintage, SSV II aims to build a portfolio of c.30 companies. The Fund has already made nine investments aligned with some of our key themes via a warehouse portfolio. Hubble Network – Internet of Things satellite constellation for connecting directly to billions of Bluetooth-enabled devices Delos Insurance Solutions – Space data-powered wildfire home insurance provider ATMOS Space Cargo – Space cargo return service for life sciences Auriga Space – Novel electromagnetic launch system Array Labs - 3D satellite imagery on a global scale Privateer Space - constellation of small SATs for in-Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Ubotica Technologies - Live Earth Intelligence (Space: AI) Renoster - Deep Transparency for nature-based carbon projects constellr - Space data-powered high-precision smart farming services Take a look at our new page to find out more - https://lnkd.in/dau2tw2d

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🎙Redefining Energy Ep155: VPP & DER #applepodcast https://lnkd.in/eweCntq #spotify https://lnkd.in/d7SYADs What are #VPPs? Virtual Power Plants. What are #DERs? Distributed Energy Resources As electricity demand grows and intermittent #renewable energy on the grid increases, the VPP/DER platforms provide a critical role by shedding demand, sometimes for only a few minutes, to alleviate stress on the grids. VPPs can avoid using polluting peakers via pre-agreed and targeted demand reduction, or shifting consumption via batteries, and even participating in the frequency response market. And system operators are willing to pay a decent price to have access to these resources. That is the mission of Dana Guernsey. Dana is the CEO of Voltus, a leading DER technology platform and virtual power plant operator connecting distributed energy resources to electricity markets. As interconnection queues lengthen and capacity costs explode, are we at the on the dawn of a crazy development of VPPs? Dana explains that while working with for Walmart or a fleet of electric school buses, she can reduce Voltus’s clients power bills by up to 20% while keeping their core services unchanged. Gerard Reid and I are going to talk about technology, heating and cooling management, AI… and lasagna. Take a deep dive into the future.

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Once more an excellent longread by Andreessen Horowitz .... ⚡ 🔌 Decentralizing the Electric grid ... Recommended reading to grasp the dynamics of decentralisation , applied to the energy market in the US (but relevant for EU). 💬 "Critically, to build this decentralized grid demands our most talented entrepreneurs and engineers: We need a “smart grid” with serious innovation across ahead-of-the-meter, behind-the-meter, and grid software technology. Policy and economic tailwinds will accelerate this electricity evolution, but it will fall to the private sector to ensure this decentralized grid works better than the old one."

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Three biggest learnings from a fundraising journey. Shared by Rainer Märkle, General Partner at HV Capital at EUVC 1/ Have a time box with a deadline attached. Have a defined horizon & create a clear plan. Have some urgency to get things done at some point. Execute very transparently and reliably. 2/ Stick to your narrative. But don't do it blindly. Tweak it when necessary. Adapt it. Don't let yourself be surprised by major changes. Keep focusing on delivering according to your strategy & plan. 3/ Fundraising is a marathon with many sprints. There are moments when you'll ask yourself - Why do I do this? Is it gonna work out? But don't get too negative during the down phases. Adapting and pivoting is part of our job. As it is for the founder of a company. How about you? What fundraising lessons have you learned? Join the conversation. 🔽 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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I've recently read an article in the Financial Times by Patrick Temple-West, discussing how electricity providers are becoming the new darlings for AI investors. As demand for AI technologies soars, these companies, which provide critical infrastructure, are gaining their attention. A few years ago, I predicted that as AI models advance, they'll likely follow the path of other technologies: despite improvements in #energy efficiency, overall power consumption will increase. This leads us to draw attention to a new component: electricity infrastructure. It’s not a surprise that #investors are now increasingly turning to this opportunity, as it can support and capitalise on AI’s future growth. Here are some numbers. A recent McKinsey & Company report suggests that the United States will be the fastest-growing market for data centres, with demand expected to rise from 25 GW in 2024 to over 80 GW by 2030. The research estimates that while generative #AI could generate between £2.6 trillion and £4.4 trillion in global economic value, achieving even a quarter of this potential by the decade's end would require an additional 50 to 60 GW of data centre infrastructure in the US alone. As we can see, the impact of AI goes much further than the tech sector.  You can read the full article at the link: https://lnkd.in/dJPD8Mjg

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Concrete production is responsible for about 8% of global emissions. Powerplants emit 15 billion tons of CO2 annually. What reduces GHGs in both these processes at the same time? Blue Planet In this video, the company showcases their process of capturing highly concentrated CO2 emissions from powerplant flue gas pipes (using low energy), then filters and converts it as an ingredient into 44% carbon dioxide rocks (synthetic limestone). These calcium carbonate rocks are then used as aggregate in concrete. (Part of the new #SF Airport terminal is built with it). Blue Planet's circular process not only reduces carbon emissions by capturing them, it also creates the rock that would otherwise need to be transported thousands of miles (by fossil fuels). Further, they utilize concrete waste from near by demolition, break it down, and sell or use the components in their processes (gravel, sand, calcium oxide). This prevents the destruction of hundreds of acres for open mining. Their highly reflective materials and paints are also exciting for reducing heat captured thus reducing HVAC energy requirements and reducing heat-island effect. If you are a growth stage #climatetech investor (post Series D) visiting the bay area, I highly recommend you contact Brent Constantz for a tour of their incredible facilities. Learn more about their groundbreaking solution to combat climate change below. #sustainability #climatechange #concreteproduction

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