Table of Contents
Introduction: Why German Business Angel Day 2024 Matters
Spotlight on Innovation: Startups Driving Change
Inzipio: Revolutionizing Surgical Planning with AI
Carbon Instead: Transforming Construction with Biochar
Cavigen: Next-Gen Drug Development Tools
Key Investment Trends in 2024
Breaking Down Startup Challenges and Opportunities
Networking and Partnerships: The Event’s Core Value
Quotes from Industry Leaders
Conclusion: Why German Business Angel Day 2024 Sets the Standard
Introduction: Why German Business Angel Day 2024 Matters
The German Business Angel Day 2024, held in Mainz, showcased groundbreaking startups and emerging trends in entrepreneurship and investment. This premier event highlighted the latest technologies and strategies reshaping industries, from medical innovations to sustainable construction and drug development.
Spotlight on Innovation: Startups Driving Change
Inzipio: Revolutionizing Surgical Planning with AI
Inzipio, a spin-off from RWTH Aachen University, is automating surgical planning for reconstructive procedures. By replacing manual, outsourced planning with AI-driven solutions, Inzipio’s platform ensures faster, more precise results. According to Thomas Roth, CEO of Inzipio, “Our technology enables surgeons to plan whenever and wherever they want, cutting delays and improving outcomes.” With a granted EU and US patent and a strong prototype, Inzipio’s impact on head and neck surgery is only the beginning.
Carbon Instead: Transforming Construction with Biochar
The construction industry accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. Carbon Instead addresses this challenge by integrating biochar—a negative emission technology—into construction materials. CEO Julia Roth explains, “Our patented process enhances biochar’s reactivity, making it functional for use in construction while locking away carbon for decades.” With successful pilot projects, Carbon Instead is paving the way for sustainable infrastructure.
Cavigen: Next-Gen Drug Development Tools
Cavigen is redefining in vitro testing for pharmaceuticals by improving oxygen sensing in 3D cell cultures. Current methods, which often lack precision, contribute to prolonged drug development timelines and side effects. Cavigen’s innovative micro-cavity technology allows researchers to simulate human physiological conditions, significantly enhancing accuracy. CEO Christoph Grün highlights, “Our high-throughput system scales experiments while reducing time and costs.”
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Key Investment Trends in 2024
German Business Angel Day 2024 revealed significant trends:
AI and Automation: Solutions like Inzipio’s AI planning software are transforming industries.
Sustainability: Startups like Carbon Instead demonstrate the importance of eco-friendly technologies.
Precision Medicine: Innovations in biotech, such as Cavigen’s micro-cavities, are enabling personalized healthcare.
Breaking Down Startup Challenges and Opportunities
Funding Rounds and Investment Readiness
Securing funding remains a critical challenge. Inzipio is raising €2 million, with commitments for half of that amount. Similarly, Carbon Instead seeks strategic investors from the construction and chemistry sectors, while Cavigen’s seed round aims for €500,000 to finalize its product.
Scalability and Market Penetration
Startups like Carbon Instead emphasize licensing models, ensuring scalability without direct manufacturing involvement. Inzipio and Cavigen leverage academic networks for credibility and market entry.
Networking and Partnerships: The Event’s Core Value
The German Business Angel Day isn’t just about pitches. It’s a nexus for networking, fostering partnerships with investors, industry leaders, and potential collaborators. Events like these accelerate innovation by connecting stakeholders across sectors.
Quotes from Founders
“Our goal is to make surgical planning faster and more precise, transforming patient outcomes.” – Thomas Roth, CEO, Inzipio
“Biochar offers a dual benefit—sustainability and functionality in construction materials.” – Julia Roth, CEO, Carbon Instead
“High-throughput systems like ours are the future of precision drug development.” – Christoph Grün, CEO, Cavigen
Conclusion: Why German Business Angel Day 2024 Sets the Standard
The 2024 edition of German Business Angel Day underscored the dynamic landscape of startups and investments. With a focus on innovation, sustainability, and precision, the event showcased why Germany remains at the forefront of entrepreneurial excellence. Startups like Inzipio, Carbon Instead, and Cavigen exemplify the transformative potential of collaboration between academia, industry, and investors.
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Automated Transcript
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:00]:
Startuprad.io Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews and live events. Hello and welcome back everybody. This is Joe From Startup Rate IO, your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, also known as the Authority on GSA Day, German, Swiss and Austrian startups, Our journey at the business Angel Day 2024 in the lovely city of Mainz continues. In this episode we'll explore innovative ideas and transformative discussions that emerged during this event, from key investment trends to breakthrough technologies. Get ready to hear firsthand from industry leaders and rising stars in the startup scene. Don't miss out on this inspiring and innovative episode. And please, please keep in mind that is also a live recorded version on site. So the interviews were taken on site.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:10]:
There may be a little bit background noise, but we did our best to really delete this. Happy to get your feedback, go down here in the show notes and leave us feedback in the feedback form. Thank you and have a good day. Hello and welcome to another interview from the business Angel Summit 2024. I would like to welcome Thomas Roth from what specific challenges in surgical planning does Incipio address and who are your primary target customers?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:01:41]:
There are more than 6 million surgeries every year that require pre operative surgical planning. Surgical planning is necessary when it comes to designing transplants or implants. Patients specifically, such as facial reconstructions after tumor removal. That's actually where we are starting. We will then scale from head and neck surgery into orthopedics because there's many interesting cases there. These kinds of surgeries take place in hospitals, university hospitals, rather big hospitals where they have the capabilities of treating the patients like that and the decision makers are usually the surgeons in the hospitals for the better patient treatment.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:21]:
You have one example, a skull on your booth. Could you elaborate a little bit more on the specific example, what is happening there and how your tool helps?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:02:33]:
Imagine you have a patient that has a bone tumor in the lower jaw or mid face. These kind of bone tumors have to be removed and the resulting gap in the jaw has to be closed of course so that the patient can chew and speak again properly and therefore a transplant from the own patient's body is used, for example parts of the pelvic crest, the fibular bone or the scapula and these bones have to be not removed, but parts of them will be taken and installed in the facial area to close the defect. That's the medical gold standard and we're not changing that, we are changing the planning and designing of these transplants today. This is a very cumbersome and Manual process. Surgeons have no tools or time to take care of that. So today this is a very outsourced process. They have to outsource the planning to engineers out of the clinics, which costs a lot of time, takes a lot of their. Takes a lot of their time.
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:03:32]:
It takes a lot of their time, costs a lot of money and leads to delays of several hours in worst.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:03:37]:
Cases, in extreme cases, and basically somebody external is planning for the surgeon and then the surgeon starts the surgery and then at one point they realize, oh, that was a mistake in planning. Does this happen?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:03:53]:
It might be possible. Usually they detect misplanning or imperfections before that, because the surgeons usually check the results of the external engineers before they continue. However, it still is a pain in the ass for them because if there's anything incorrectly planned, they have to set up another video call to discuss the changes and tell them what to do differently. So again, they have to have the second or third web meeting, which again takes their time. These engineers only work from 9 to 5 and during that time the surgeon is in the operating room, so they don't really have time for that. With our automated solution, they can do it whenever they want and wherever they want within seconds.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:37]:
Could you elaborate on the current development stage of Incipio and any significant milestones achieved to date?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:04:45]:
Yes, of course. Insipio is a spin off of the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. That's where the idea was born. We have started with an idea and a patent application and what we have achieved so far is our patent is granted in the EU and the US for our novel technology. We have a very strong prototype that is almost completed and ready for use and we are working on the certification of our software as a medical device. Our company is already ISO certified and we already have a very strong and interdisciplinary team set up.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:18]:
We may add, Germany is pretty strong in engineering, but your school is one of the premier institutions for engineering.
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:05:24]:
That's right.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:26]:
What are your current funding status and are you seeking additional investments or partnerships to extend your solution?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:05:34]:
INCIPIO is currently raising 2 million euro and we already have commitments of roughly 1 million. We are about to close the financing round in the next couple of weeks and with that we will get the market certification. Entering the market and growing our team. And what was the rest?
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:54]:
Partnerships.
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:05:55]:
Oh yeah. And we are always interested in partnerships. We are currently looking for investments mainly, but we are always interested in partnerships at clinics. Let me start it again. We are always looking for partnerships. We are well connected in the medical world because of our Spin off situation. We are well connected in Germany, Austria, Switzerland especially, but also further abroad. We're interested in speaking to additional renowned surgeons in top hospitals around the world that are interested in medical innovation.
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:06:26]:
We are also interested in partnerships with medical device manufacturers and collaboration partners, but mainly looking to close our fundraising at this point.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:06:35]:
What strategies are you employing to integrate into existing surgical workflows and how are you approaching customer acquisition?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:06:45]:
We have chosen a very lean setup of our technology. Surgeons can use our technology in the web browser, so it doesn't have to be integrated in the IT systems of the hospital, nor does it have to be installed on every computer in the hospital. Only a few decision makers and planners in the clinic will use our technology and we have the direct connection to them. So it's a very smart and easy approach to get installed or get into the hospitals.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:11]:
What approach do you use for customer acquisition?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:07:16]:
One of the biggest advantages of incipio is that we are the spin off of the university hospital and our co founder, Professor Ari Modaba, is a key opinion leader and head and neck surgeon. So that brings a lot of credibility and we don't have to do cold calls. Mainly we always get the doors opened through Ali, through our network and that helps a lot when reaching out to users in the clinics.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:41]:
What KPIs are you monitoring to assess the effectiveness of Incipio and what outcomes have you observed so far?
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:07:50]:
I'm not sure if this question is relevant because we are pre revenue, pre market. We have some internal KPIs, of course, we have some KPIs established in our company. For example, we are following an agile development approach in our IT and tech team. So we're doing Sprint planning and detailed Sprint reviews after two weeks, seeing whether our time scheduling and forecasts worked out. And we are getting better and better in accuracy and precision. And of course we have some financial KPIs and controlling KPIs that we are following.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:26]:
Great, thank you very much. It was a pleasure talking to you.
Thomas Roth | CEO & Co-Founder Inzipio [00:08:29]:
Thank you. It was my pleasure to talk to you. Thank you. It was my pleasure.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:38]:
Hello and welcome to another interview from the business Angel Summit 2024. Hi, can you introduce yourself?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:08:47]:
Hi, my name is Julia and I'm from Carbon and Stench.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:50]:
What problem does your startup solve and who is your target customer?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:08:55]:
Our startup really solves the question. Today. The concrete industry is quite CO2 intensive in their production. So if you produce cement today, globally that's about 8% of the global CO2 emissions. One of the main problems in terms of climate change and we work with a negative emission technology where we treat this negative emission technology so that it can actually be included into for example.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:09:25]:
Concrete instead of bodies you're cementing carbon dioxide.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:09:33]:
We are working with biochar and biochar is one of the recognized negative emission technologies by the ipcc. And we developed a patented process where you can actually treat the biochar so that it gains for example reactivity and is better usable really for the, for the guys in the instruction construction industry.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:09:56]:
And it basically absorbs more carbon dioxide than it produces.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:10:03]:
No, actually the storing process happens really at the beginning. So the process in General, you have CO2 in the air. Plants take up the CO2. For example, the trees they grow, they build themselves basically out of carbon and release the oxygen back in the air. And once, for example, biomass is not used anymore. For example, if a tree is like the leaves are cut, they fall down, if usually they degrade or today they get incinerated often. And we work with a process called pyrolysis, takes this waste biomass basically and basically fixates the carbon in a solid form. And this is a negative emission material.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:10:59]:
And what we do, there are a lot of really cool people doing this, a lot of good plants, plant technologies. And we are really treating this carbon so that it can be used in the construction way in a, in a way that actually has a functional benefit.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:11:19]:
What is your current stage of development and what milestones have you achieved so far?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:11:27]:
So so far we have patented our process. We have found partners in the industry to really scale the process. The first patent process that we have and now we're on the verge of scaling the second and third.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:11:48]:
In terms of. You're at the Business angel summit. In terms of funding, what would you say is your current stage?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:11:56]:
So far we have funded with turnover and grants and we have just got the first Business angel round set up. Now we're really looking for partners or business angels that want to come to us but have some additional know how. So we're really looking for, for business angels from the industry like construction industry, cement industry, anything in that direction would be really cool.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:26]:
Somebody with knowledge in chemistry would also be welcome.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:12:29]:
We do have a couple chemists on board already. But if you, if you are from that area, you always welcome to have a chance.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:37]:
In terms of VC terminology, are we talking about seed or pre seed?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:12:43]:
I'd say we probably kind of in the middle. Like with the first product we are already in the market and we with the second, we're still a bit in the scaling process.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:56]:
And the prototyping, what is your go to market strategy and how you're acquiring customers or users.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:13:06]:
So we really have a licensing model so that we are not going to be the people really producing the materials. There a lot of great people that can do this already. We're really enabling the people along the supply chain to do this. Ah yes, we're really lucky. We have a couple of very good industry partners and of course they themselves are quite well connected. And we have some people and team which are really good connected in the construction industry as well.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:13:44]:
What key metrics or KPIs are you tracking and what results have you observed so far? So what does your startup have to do better?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:13:55]:
Yeah, for us really the key is functionality. So for us to have a solution which is really good is really that we can outperform conventional material.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:09]:
Do you have like any metrics that you can, that you can quote here, for example?
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:14:14]:
We're always looking at reactivity. We're always looking at of course the standard things like compressive strength, flexural strength, but also metrics which are a bit more delicate, like for example durability. And of course CO2 footprint is one of the main things as well.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:34]:
Can you give us a rough idea? You're better like 2 times, 5 times, 50 times.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:14:42]:
We're still working on this, but it looks like we, we will probably be a bit better than, than the one I can, I can tell a bit more once the patent is released next year.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:54]:
Okay, so you cannot tell due to patent restrictions. Aki, thank you very much. It was a pleasure having you.
Julia Roth | CEO & Founder Carbon Instead [00:15:00]:
Thank you so much.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:15:01]:
I'm bringing you another interview from the Business Angel Summit Germany 2024. Hey, can you introduce yourself briefly?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:15:09]:
Hi, my name is Christoph Gruen, I'm CEO of Cavachen. We are spin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and we're aiming to revolutionize oxygen sensing in 3D cell cultures.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:15:23]:
How do undetected side effects during drug development impact the pharmaceutical industry? And how does Cavigen aim to address this issue?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:15:34]:
So if you're looking at the drug development at the moment, most of the cell cultures are done under ambient atmosphere, so far away from the human conditions with the results that the results of your experiments are not direct transferable to the patients, so side effects can occur. And with every side effect, the time to market is longer for the drugs. This means, for example, up to $45 million. This can lead to up to 200,000 of deaths due to side effects in Europe alone. So this is a high impact that you have good in vitro models for your drug testing.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:15]:
What specific challenges in in vitro testing does Cavigen address and who are your primary customers?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:16:24]:
So you need in drug development in vitro model that's close to the human body. Not only that you have 3D cell cultures, but you need the right oxygen concentration. For example, in the heart you have around 5% of oxygen. Current methods are done under ambient atmosphere with around 20% of oxygen. So you need to adjust the setting to the human conditions. And this can capture solve with our products.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:52]:
And you're already holding something in your hand. Can you show that?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:16:55]:
Yeah, we are using. Yeah, you can't maybe can't see it. These are micro cavities. They are around 300 micrometers in diameter. And these micro cavities are out of an oxygen sensitive polymer film. We thermoform it to these cavities. And now you can culture your cells in this tiny little micro cavities and measure oxygen in the direct microenvironment of the cells. And with our technology you can get up to 15,000 of microcavities in such a plate, which means you can do high throughput experiments and create a lot of results on a single plate.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:17:42]:
Could you elaborate on the current development stage of Cavigen and any significant milestones achieved to date?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:17:50]:
Over the last four years we've done our proof of concept of this technology. We created first prototypes and now in the seed round we are looking for investment to bring the idea from the prototype phase to the market.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:07]:
What is your current funding status and are you seeking additional investments or partnerships?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:18:14]:
At the moment we are funded by the Helmholtz association with a funding program and we are in a seed financing route and looking for up to €500,000 for the first round. To bring this idea to market, we need investment for sales and for software development.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:34]:
What strategies are you employing to to integrate Cavigen's technology into existing drug development workflows? And how are you approaching customer acquisition?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:18:46]:
We can integrate our technology directly in the drug development process because you can do your current methods like microscopy as well in our microblades. So we add additional information in the ongoing process. This means customer can easily integrate our system in the process. And in the end with our method you have one system from the beginning of generating spheroids and organisms to the end to the results. With our system you can start by generating the spheres and organoids, adjust to a physiological oxygen level, do your experiments under conditions that are transferable to humans, and also do your ongoing methods like Microscopy or other assays and in the end get results that are next level because you have done it under physiological conditions.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:42]:
What key performance indicators KPIs are you monitoring to assess the effectiveness of cavigen solution? And what outcomes have you observed so far?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:19:54]:
So far we can see that you can significantly reduce your time of experiments because as I mentioned, with one system you can do the whole process from generating the cell cultures to the results. This is one thing, reducing the time of your experiments. And you can also do high throughput experiments. As I mentioned, 15,000 spheres on one blade. Current systems mostly can do like 100 to 400.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:20:20]:
So you're significant, scaling up the process.
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:20:23]:
Scaling up the process, reducing time, reducing money because you are saving time and you don't need so much cells for your experiments. You have higher number of data, you can do more statistics, get better results with a higher impact.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:20:42]:
Do you have a rough idea how much faster the process is with you?
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:20:47]:
It's hard to say in general because it depends on every single process, on the application, on your organ type. But what we can say is that we can provide a solution for different applications. Because of our process, we can adjust the size of the micro cavities to the specific need. So with this in mind, it's hard to say, okay, we can reduce it five times because every process is different. And if you're looking to spheres or organoids, yeah, you have great difference. But with our system we can cover the whole thing, starting with small spheroids, up to bigger or larger organoids. So yeah, you have to look at a specific experiment.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:21:28]:
Great. Thank you very much.
Christoph Grün | CEO & Co-Founder [00:21:30]:
Welcome. Thank you for the interview.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:21:32]:
My pleasure. That's all folks. Find more news streams, events and interviews@www.startuprad.IO. remember, sharing is car.
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