Week 25: Deep Tech Berlin Agenda, Female Founders Lounge on “Engineering Relationships”, VivaTech 2026

The Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises has approved the Deep Tech Agenda, the city’s innovation policy strategy for the next ten years. To strengthen its technological sovereignty, Berlin must expand its competitiveness and resilience—attributes that this agenda is specifically designed to bolster. Additionally, the focus lies on five key future fields: Artificial Intelligence; Biotechnology; Microelectronics, Photonics & Quantum Technologies; New Materials & Modern Manufacturing Technologies; and Software Technologies. Diverse measures are already underway to actively address current gaps in research, transfer, and scaling.

65 percent of promising startups fail due to conflicts between founders. For 66 percent of investors, the relationship between founders is the most important criterion in investment decisions. After all, if there is no harmony within the team, the company can quickly fall apart, and the invested capital is lost. That is why startup consultant Katja Brunner and business coach Marta Schafstall addressed the topic of ‘Engineering Relationships’ during the latest Female Founders Lounge hosted by Science & Startups. AI experts and founders Alexandra Begue and Deborah Menezes also joined the panel discussion.

HI Managing Director Volker Hofmann spent some exciting days in Paris at VivaTech. Alongside a large number of international start-ups, investors, companies and policy-makers, the German start-up ecosystem was also well represented thanks to Startup Germany. Berlin-based start-ups such as Blueprint Biomed, which had recently won the Science & Startups start-up award, were also in attendance. Work is continuing on expanding the Franco-German start-up ecosystem. We’re already looking forward to next year!