Insider's Advantage? The Founders and Companies Reshaping Europe's Industrial Base
Insider’s Advantage? The Founders and Companies Reshaping Europe’s Industrial Base
Europe is rebuilding its industrial base: energy, materials, manufacturing, mobility. AI and robotics are reshaping what a factory floor can do, and there is a growing imperative to decarbonize. What stays scarce is people who can build transformational companies at scale, navigating the reality of factory floors, financing, and permitting. These people often come from inside, having spent a decade within an industry, then leaving to build and scale the solutions that innovate it.
On night two of Bits & Pretzels, we explore what it takes to reshape Europe’s industrial base.
Your hosts: AENU (early-stage VC), CDTM (leading technology & entrepreneurship program), Netlight (tech consultancy), UnternehmerTUM (TUM's startup hub), Celonis (Process Intelligence Platform), and ImpactVC (VC-focused community).
What to expect from the event: Industrial companies pitch real challenges from the floor, the kind they haven't cracked internally. Founders who came from or are building for industry discuss common challenges and potential solutions powered by robotics, real-world models, and deep domain knowledge. Together, we discuss what it takes to future-proof European industries and who needs to play a role.
Much of that is also a decarbonisation story. At the event, AENU will release new research on the founders behind Europe's best-funded climate-tech companies, in collaboration with publishing partner Green Executives.
The agenda:
18:45 – Opening remarks & presentation of AENU research
19:00 – Reverse pitches by industry players
19:15 – Panel on the future of European industry
19:50 – Networking, drinks & dinner
Hosted by:
Elena Harumi Stark - VP Impact & Platform at AENU & German Chapter Lead at ImpactVC
Ann Rosenberg - Global Head of Public Affairs & Evangelist Process Mining and AI at Celonis
Anna Neumann & Sven Hörner – CDTM
Frederick Pietzcker & Julia Sophie v. Knoblauch - Netlight
Philip Prestele - Startup Ecosystem Evangelist - UnternehmerTUM
Your Hosts
AENU is a climate tech VC backing founders building the next generation of sustainable, impact-driven companies. The fund partners early with ambitious teams and supports them hands-on as they scale real-world solutions to global challenges.
CDTM (Center for Digital Technology and Management) is a joint institution of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and the Technische Universität München (TUM), offering talented students the international and interdisciplinary study program “Technology Management”. With 300+ companies founded, 10 unicorns, and over €9 billion in total funding, CDTM alumni have built ~20% of all German unicorns and shaped Europe's startup ecosystems.
Celonis makes processes work for people, companies, and the planet. By combining process data, business knowledge, and AI through the Celonis Context Model, its platform helps organizations analyze, improve, and automate operations to deliver measurable business outcomes. Headquartered in Munich and New York City, Celonis serves leading global organizations from more than 20 offices worldwide.
ImpactVC equips venture capital leaders with the frontier insight, tools, and trusted relationships to raise and deploy capital more effectively to drive meaningful impact.
Netlight is an international digital consulting firm, helping leading companies to succeed in the digital landscape, from advice to implementation. Our ambition is to co-create and be an augmented partner to our clients as they explore the digital landscape. Our clients range from industry-leading enterprises to disruptive startups turning into unicorns. We strive to be role models — conscious of positive change at the forefront of society's digital transformation. Creativity thrives in an inclusive and diverse culture. Together with our ambitious clients, we engage in challenges to make a sustainable impact.
UnternehmerTUM is a unique platform for the development of innovations. UnternehmerTUM actively identifies innovative technologies and initiates new business through the systematic networking of talents, technologies, capital and customers. UnternehmerTUM offers founders and startups a complete service from the initial idea to IPO. A team of over 500 experienced entrepreneurs, including scientists and investors, supports startups with business creation, market entry and financing – also with venture capital. Founded in 2002 by the entrepreneur Susanne Klatten, the non-profit UnternehmerTUM GmbH is the leading center for innovation and business creation in Europe with more than 100 high-growth technology startups every year - including Celonis, Konux, and Isar Aerospace.