Ventech

Thrilled to share that I’ll be speaking at SaaStock Europe this October in Dublin! I’ll be breaking down one of my most meaningful SaaS #exits alongside the founder I backed from Series A all the way to M&A – sharing the lessons, stumbles, and turning points that made it possible. Join me and 4,500+ founders, execs, and investors at the biggest AI & SaaS gathering in Europe. Let’s connect, learn, and build what’s next. See you in Dublin! 🇮🇪 #SaaStock #SaaStockEurope2025 Ventech

🧭 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 – 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫? 6 months since I shared my 2025 predictions, and only a few weeks before the summer break, it felt like the perfect time to see how they’re holding up! 3️⃣ 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐋𝐌𝐬. ✅ 𝐇𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭! Deepseek’s major announcement and Manu’s impressive demo confirmed the speed and ambition of Chinese LLM players. Hardware progress remains constrained by export restrictions, but local adoption is accelerating. 1️⃣ 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐋𝐋𝐌𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐌𝐌𝐬. ✅ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥. Mistral has just launched an AI model focusing on audio, while OpenAI’s Sora and Veo 3 showcased strong multimodality, creating visuals, audio, and sounds. Startups are rushing to build on top, validating the trend. 2️⃣ 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞. ✅ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝. Despite setbacks like Northvolt, VC-backed energy innovation is active, with Sunfire (€500M) and Enpal (€430M) among the largest recent raises in hydrogen, solar, and energy systems. Energy storage and grid optimization remain hot verticals. 4️⃣ 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐒 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬. 🕒 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅. While Chime and CoreWeave’s successful IPOs signaled reopening, many like Vinted and Klarna rescheduled amid continued US policy uncertainty. The pendulum is swinging, but not fully back yet. 5️⃣ 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐕𝐂 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 🕒 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈! Early signals are there, but large-scale consolidation hasn’t happened yet. 🤩 Not too bad on my predictions this time, for once! And I still have 5+ months left for these last two predictions to be confirmed! ❓ What about you? Which predictions did you get right or wrong this year? What’s surprising you most in this market? To my partners : let’s compare notes over coffee before we all disappear for August ;) Stephan Wirries Jean Bourcereau Claire Houry Tero Mennander Christian Claussen Nicolas Barthalon Joel Uddén Yakun Wang #VentureCapital #Startups #AI #Energy #Predictions #2025

💡Timeless content is always worth revisiting. Here are our three most recent Startup Masterclass episodes with Startup Insider. Some food for thought in summer for German speakers. 🏖️ 1️⃣ What makes a business plan really convincing? 🎯Key contents: - Why long-term financial models are crucial for #investor communication - Bottom-up vs. top-down: strategic financial planning thinking - Backward planning of financing rounds - Typical blind spots in business plans and how to avoid them 🎧 Tune in to this episode: https://lnkd.in/eTzQJpiH 📖 Read the article: https://lnkd.in/et4zJz6T 2️⃣ What are the warning signs (red flags) in founders and founding teams?  🎧 Tune in to this episode: https://lnkd.in/ef33S7pk 📖 Read the article: https://lnkd.in/e6NvEium 3️⃣ How does a due diligence process work? VCs explain! 🎧 Tune in to this episode: https://lnkd.in/ehT7Cnij 📖 Read the article: https://lnkd.in/eu6j3WC5 Stephan Wirries, Nicolas Barthalon, Christian Claussen, Ben Bieler, Jan Thomas, 7Learnings, Passion.io, einwert, DRIMCO GmbH, OKAPI:Orbits, CREDOXYS, Prewave, amberSearch, Codasip, TrustYou, The Customization Group, Speexx, French Tech Berlin, La French Tech Munich, Yakun WANG #podcast #germantech #VC #startupmasterclass #insights #startups #fundraising #foundingteam #duediligence #businessplan

🚀 We’re proud to see Botify, one of our portfolio companies, recognized as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Search Engine Optimization Solutions, Q3 2025.🌟 From its early days as a French startup to becoming a global leader trusted by some of the most prestigious US brands, Botify has always sat at the edge of the next market disruption. Today, Botify grasps the market opportunity of both the agentic world and the new decentralized search world created by Le Chat, ChatGPT, Perplexity and several others. This recognition highlights Botify’s relentless commitment to innovation, with top scores across 11 key criteria, including Vision, AI-Integrated SEO, Technical SEO, Automation, and International SEO. 👏👏Congratulations to the entire Botify team for shaping the future of search! Adrien Menard, Thomas Grange, Claire Houry #Ventech #Ventechportfolios #SEO #AI #SearchInnovation #GlobalTech #PortfolioSuccess #GEO

🌞French Tech’s solar momentum is undeniable! 🔋Recently, Charles and Constantin from our impact fund AFI Ventures talked to Les Echos about the solar energy market in France and what is at stake. Across rooftops, parking lots, and industrial sites, solar panels are already becoming a familiar sight. But the real value doesn't stop at just selling hardware. It also resides in solving operational complexity, integrating storage, and managing intermittence. As both of them shared in the piece: 👉 France is already late in this game but is gradually catching up. The opportunity isn’t just in putting panels up, it’s in everything that makes solar adoption work at scale: #storage, energy management systems (#EMS), #infrastructures, flexibility solutions. 👉There are already many players in the solar sector. The real challenge for all of them is to differentiate themselves from the competition on a national and regional scale. At AFI Ventures, we’ve backed startups like Enrise (Paul Astrup), Moonwatt (Zukui Hu), Tilt Energy (Romain Serres), Bohr Energie, Highcast, Nepsis Energy, and more. A big thank you to Camille Wong for the interview! ❤️ ⚡For French readers, read in Les Echos: https://lnkd.in/e33iJiF8 Solarock, Murfy, Ensol, Beem Energy, Sunology, Eiffel Investment Group, Laure Crémieux, Ondine Suavet, mylight150, Sarah Laznowski, Audrey Soussan, Romain Garrigue #CleanEnergy #FrenchTech #SolarPower #EnergyTransition #Solar #VentureCapital #Photovoltaic #AFIVentures #Ventech

[📰 JUNE NEWSLETTER 📰] 📩 Subscribe to stay updated: link in the comment ⬇️ What you can find this month: 🔍 Focus on Enrise's investment rationale: We're proud to back the team at Enrise — reimagining solar deployment through a decentralized, service-oriented model. With 80+ sites secured, a €4B+ underserved market, and proprietary tech boosting efficiency by 30%, they’re scaling impact fast. €8M raised alongside SET Ventures, Bpifrance, and others. 🔥 Portfolio News: Prolong collaborated with The North Face to power its after-sales services across Europe Sirona Technologies is scaling its DAC machines, increasing capture capacity by 300 tons of CO₂ per year Ed.ai is now being tested within Stanford University’s Math Department as it begins its US expansion and many more news... Charles Audrey Yakun Constantin Sarah Romain Ventech

Collaborating with two strong, reliable partners like Ventech & YPOG is great, and hosting a party together tops it off. Last week, we had our 𝑩𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑩𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒛𝒆 party on a rooftop with a diverse crowd of 90 interesting and fun people. ✨✨ I thrive when I can connect people who could spark something new. And that's what made the evening so joyful. 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺. All of them came together for a sun-downer🍹🌇 BIG THANKS to the Ventech team Stephan Wirries, Yakun Wang, Christian Claussen, Claire Houry, Ben Bieler and the YPOG team Johannes Janning, Benjamin Ullrich, Kristina Klein, Barbara Hasse, Sandra Meyer. And of course Naomi for the great organization 🙏🏼🙏🏼 torq.partners #berlinsummerbreeze #ventech #ypog #torqpartners #letthesummerbegin

🚀 Das Münchner Startup DRIMCO GmbH hat 5 Mio. US-Dollar in einer Pre-Series A Runde eingesammelt, angeführt von Ventech und BayernCapital. Mit ihrer KI-basierten Plattform geht DRIMCO die Anforderungsanalyse für die industrielle Fertigung und das Ingenieurwesen an. Das bedeutet: Nie wieder zeitraubende manuelle Auswertung von Tausenden Anforderungen in Ausschreibungen! DRIMCOs KI-Agenten, wie GPTender, optimieren den gesamten Prozess von der Angebotserstellung bis zur Projektabwicklung. Die Startbase schickt Glückwünsche zur erfolgreichen Runde: https://lnkd.in/etRGMwRP #StartupNews #Finanzierungsrunde #KI #Industrie40 #Drimco #Innovation

Munich-based DRIMCO GmbH, an innovator in AI-based requirement analysis, announced the closure of its €4.2 million pre-Series A funding round to transform industrial operations through its product; DRIM 🇩🇪 🚀 The round was led by pan-European VC firm Ventech and Bayern Kapital Dr Pankaj Gupta, PhD, Dr Bernt Andrassy and Costin Cozan, Managing Directors and Founders said: “The investment will further accelerate the AI evolution of DRIM and multi-AI action agents, e.g., GPTender – an industry-tailored AI Requirement Agent that extracts key product configurations revolutionising requirements understanding. It also enables interactive chat with tender documents, to query requirements, standards, and compliance details directly from the knowledge base created by DRIM.” https://lnkd.in/dyuHA-5w

Munich-based DRIMCO GmbH has raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round led by Ventech and Bayern Capital. The funding will help scale its product, DRIM – The Next Generation Requirements AI, aimed at transforming industrial operations.  DRIMCO GmbH offers enterprise software that streamlines and digitizes the industrial quotation process through its flagship product, DRIM.  Pankaj Gupta, PhD | Bernt Andrassy | Costin Cozan | Christian Claussen | 🔗 Read full article link in comment #DRIMCO #funding #eustartups #news