This Month in German, Swiss and Austrian Startups - Jan | Feb 2026
- Jörn Menninger
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Welcome to our monthly startup news covering the most important developments from the innovation and tech-entrepreneurship scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
For this January–February 2026 briefing, we reviewed more than 15000 raw startup news links, funding announcements, investor updates and ecosystem reports across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
We are deliberately omitting the vast majority of them.
Startuprad.io focuses on signal over noise.
We are not here to repeat every small seed round, every accelerator press release or every incremental product update. We focus on structural capital movements, sector shifts, institutional participation and companies that move the DACH startup ecosystem forward.
The format is now only the Highlights, we dropped part 2 of our news the “Deep Dive.” We are here for you to see the bigger picture.
We will share much of what we would have aggregated into the deep dive on social media. Note we are now only active on LinkedIn, X, Tiktok and YouTube. All other channels are on pause.
From now on you can expect one structured news wrap-up with 5 to 10 news items each month with Chris and me.
We take a July and August break. We return in early September with a summer wrap-up. From September through December, we stay monthly. Around December 22nd, we close the year with our annual fintech review. And we’re adding quarterly strategic reviews to provide broader capital and sector analysis.
We filter aggressively so you don’t have to.
Now — let’s look at what January and February are really telling us.
Let's talk startups.
Note: You can find all of our 2025 news coverage from our pillar here: https://www.startuprad.io/post/dach-startup-ecosystem-2025-the-ultimate-hub
MACRO OVERVIEW — DACH CAPITAL & SECTOR SIGNALS
January and February 2026 across the DACH startup ecosystem — Germany, Austria and Switzerland — reveal a clear pattern of capital concentration in enterprise artificial intelligence, sustainability compliance software, defense and dual-use technology, robotics and industrial automation, and milestone-driven biotech, with multiple €100 million-plus growth-stage financings in Berlin, Mannheim and Munich and visible participation from institutional lenders such as the European Investment Bank, KfW and major German commercial banks, signaling selective normalization of growth-stage venture capital rather than broad-based early-stage exuberance.
Beyond headline rounds, the structural signal is the re-emergence of scale-stage financing in sectors aligned with regulation, geopolitics and industrial modernization, including AI-powered enterprise automation, ESG and CSRD compliance platforms, unmanned systems and security technology, modular robotics integrated into manufacturing lines, and clinical-stage life sciences programs, while consumer applications, speculative frontier AI narratives and non-strategic SaaS categories remain largely absent from major DACH funding announcements.
Geographically, Berlin continues to lead in enterprise AI and applied software scale-ups, Munich reinforces its dominance in robotics, defense-tech and deep tech hardware innovation, Mannheim and Baden-Württemberg gain visibility in compliance and industrial SaaS, and Heidelberg remains relevant in life sciences, underscoring the regional specialization patterns that define Germany’s startup landscape and differentiate DACH from more centralized European venture ecosystems.
Institutional co-investor visibility in January and February — particularly through EIB-backed financing structures and bank participation — indicates a recalibration of perceived risk in strategic industries, suggesting that public capital alignment with venture-backed companies is increasing in defense, security and industrial modernization categories, reflecting broader EU policy priorities and post-2022 geopolitical realities.
Taken together, the first two months of 2026 show disciplined expansion in growth-stage venture capital across DACH: capital is available for companies with revenue clarity, regulatory tailwinds, defensible industrial positioning and institutional credibility, but remains constrained for speculative, consumer-facing or non-strategic categories.
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Top Signals
osapiens — $100M Series C, Unicorn (Mannheim)
Mannheim-based osapiens secured a $100 million Series C financing round led by Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek, reaching unicorn valuation and positioning sustainability compliance, ESG reporting, supply-chain due diligence and CSRD-aligned regulatory software as core enterprise infrastructure within Germany and across Europe. (CSRD - Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
This financing signals that EU regulatory pressure — including Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requirements and supply-chain transparency mandates — is transforming compliance obligations into recurring SaaS revenue models, with global institutional investors backing German compliance technology as durable enterprise infrastructure rather than thematic climate exposure.
Compliance used to be overhead.
Now it’s competitive moat.
And BlackRock on the cap table legitimizes the category.
Sources:
Parloa — $350M at $3B (Berlin Enterprise AI)
Berlin-based Parloa raised $350 million in a Series D at a $3 billion valuation to scale enterprise AI agents embedded in contact center workflows, CRM systems and customer support automation platforms, positioning applied artificial intelligence as procurement-ready enterprise infrastructure with measurable ROI and clear revenue expansion dynamics.
This round demonstrates that applied AI integrated into enterprise software stacks — particularly customer experience automation and conversational AI — is fundable at mega-round scale when retention metrics, deployment depth and operational efficiency gains are proven, reinforcing Berlin’s status as a European enterprise AI hub.
This isn’t speculative AI narrative.
:
It’s operational AI.
And CFOs fund operational AI.
Quantum Systems — €150M Institutional Financing
Munich-area defense and dual-use technology company Quantum Systems secured a €150 million European financing package backed by the European Investment Bank, Commerzbank, KfW and Deutsche Bank, highlighting increasing alignment between venture-backed deep tech companies and public institutional capital in unmanned aerial systems and security infrastructure.
This financing reflects geopolitical realignment and EU security funding priorities, signaling that defense-adjacent startups in DACH are transitioning from politically sensitive ventures to strategically supported industrial players, with institutional lenders reducing perceived risk and enabling scale-stage expansion.
Defense-tech is normalizing.
And normalization changes capital access.
RobCo — $100M Robotics (Munich)
Munich-based robotics company RobCo raised $100 million in Series C funding to expand modular, AI-driven industrial automation systems for manufacturing environments, combining flexible robotic hardware with software orchestration tailored to Germany’s industrial base and Mittelstand customers.
The round reinforces Bavaria’s position as a robotics and advanced manufacturing hub, demonstrating that physical automation integrated directly into production lines remains a defensible venture category in Germany, particularly when aligned with industrial modernization and long-term enterprise contracts.
Software meets factory floor.
And factories don’t switch vendors lightly.
Exciva — €51M Biotech (Heidelberg)
Heidelberg-based biotech company Exciva raised €51 million in Series B financing co-led by Gimv and EQT Life Sciences to advance Deraphan, a treatment targeting agitation in Alzheimer’s disease, reinforcing Germany’s continued relevance in clinical-stage biotech and neuroscience research within the DACH startup ecosystem.
This financing signals that European biotech capital remains available for programs with credible clinical milestones, experienced syndicates and defined regulatory pathways, underscoring that life sciences financing in Germany is milestone-driven rather than hype-driven.
Biotech isn’t dead.
It’s disciplined.
Conclusion:
January and February show selective growth-stage confidence in the DACH startup ecosystem.Enterprise AI, compliance infrastructure, defense-tech, robotics and biotech. For startups: build where regulation, procurement complexity and geopolitical priorities create durable tailwinds. For investors: sector conviction beats broad exposure in this phase. For innovation leaders: these sectors define board-level discussions in 2026. We reviewed over 15.000 raw news links. And these are the structural signals. Highlights — January & February 2026.
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The news are co-hosted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. And Christian “Chris' ' Fahrenbach, co-founder Startuprad.io, freelance reporter, lecturer, author and blogger . Reach out to them:
About the Author
Podcast Host & Startup Analyst
Jörn “Joe” Menninger is the founder and host of Startuprad.io -- one of Europe’s top startup podcasts that scored as a global Top 20 Podcast in Entrepreneurship. He’s been featured in Forbes, Tech.eu, Geektime, and more for his insights into startups, venture capital, and innovation. With over 15 years of experience in management consulting, digital strategy, and startup scouting, Joe works at the intersection of tech, entrepreneurship, and business transformation—helping founders, investors, and enterprises turn bold ideas into real-world impact.
Follow his work on LinkedIn.
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