APEX Ventures December Newsletter | Happy Holidays
What's new? Portfolio fundraising, event insights, and 2024 highlights in our December newsletter.
❄️ As we embrace the festive season and reflect on an extraordinary year, we're excited to bring you the December edition of our newsletter, shining a light on our portfolio companies' remarkable achievements and milestones.
We’re looking back at some of 2024's highlights from our portfolio companies. In our APEX One fund, OroraTech raised €25 Million in Series B Funding for Predictive AI, and TriLite raised an impressive €20m Series A round.
We’re delighted to see our APEX Medical fund portfolio thriving with rising stars like CardiaTec, Quibim, Deepspin, and Mindpeak, the latter also having raised a €15.3m Series A round this year.
Our latest fund - The Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, did not disappoint either - spacetech and quantum are thriving, and portfolio company planqc had a particularly good year, securing a €50m Series A round. We were also glad to welcome Vertus Energy to our portfolio in the second part of the year.
In November, our team attended key industry events like Slush, Jefferies Life Science Week, invest.austria, and Invest-NL. Keep reading for detailed insights into the latest trends and discussions from these events.
We're proud to announce significant achievements for our Amadeus APEX Technology fund with two new investments. GEMESYS secured €8.6 million in pre-seed funding to revolutionize AI on edge devices, and HyperHeat raised €3.5 million to develop emission-free, high-temperature heating solutions.
In our latest Ask The Expert article, we explore the future of holography with VividQ, offering exciting insights into this transformative technology.
As the year draws to a close, we are grateful for your continued support and partnership. May your holidays be filled with joy, and we wish you a prosperous and innovative New Year. 🎁
Warmest wishes,
The APEX Ventures Team.
Meet the APEX Ventures team at the following events in the upcoming month:
▶️ TechBio Boost - Demo day / 10 December / London, United Kingdom/ Diana Röttger
▶️ TUM Ultimate Demo Day / 10 December / Munich, Germany / Ion Hauer
▶️ Future of Computing Conference / 11 December / Munich, Germany / Ion Hauer
Here’s what the APEX Ventures team has been up to in November:
Slush
This year’s Slush was yet another highlight. The conference keeps impressing every year, packed with international startups and fellow VCs. It is one of the best ways of the year to reconnect with people and meet new ones alike. The theme was all around building great products and successful companies. More than ever before, this is crucial in times of economic and political uncertainty. In many sectors, we see the number of newly founded ventures going down, but the ones that start now will have a big advantage in just a few years.
Together with Voima Ventures, we proudly co-hosted a side event in conjunction with the Deep Tech Venture Collective, which we co-initiated in 2022. The turnout was great, and again, it showed that sometimes you can have the most engaging interactions outside of the main event.
Jefferies Life Science Week London
This year’s Jefferies Life Science Week brought together a diverse mix of participants, showcasing the breadth of the life sciences ecosystem, from big pharma to early-stage Biotech, MedTech, and digital health startups. APEX Ventures Principal Diana Röttger attended the event, and she believes that the conference reinforced the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in driving breakthroughs in life sciences.
Event discussions centered on the evolving landscape of MedTech financing and development. We observed a growing trend of seed investors shifting their focus towards later-stage opportunities while companies navigate the complex challenges of aligning product development, clinical trials, and regulatory hurdles. Innovative financing structures and strategic partnerships are becoming increasingly critical to address these challenges. We also connected with APEX Medical's portfolio company, DeepSpin, and gained valuable insights into their groundbreaking MRI technology.
Left to right: Clemens Tepel, CEO of Deepspin, and Diana Röttger, Principal at APEX Venture, at the Jefferies Healthcare Conference in London.
invest.austria
Last month, invest.austria united top investors and thought leaders for a day of transformative discussions, powerful networking, and breakthrough opportunities. APEX Ventures’ General Partner, Stefan Haubner, participated in the “Orbit and Shield: Investing in Space Technologie” panel, where he led discussions on the intersection of space and defense, sector-driving innovations, and new opportunities for forward-looking investors.
Invest-NL
Diana Röttger participated in Invest-NL’s panel on potential viable business models for Organ-on-Chip (OoC) and Lab-on-Chip (LoC) technologies. Diana believes this emerging field holds immense potential to revolutionize drug development and to realize this potential. Companies must prioritize early customer engagement, real-world validation, and active involvement in shaping the regulatory landscape. Additionally, securing adequate funding is crucial to accelerate development and commercialization. Read the highlights of the event.
Principal Diana Röttger on the Invest-NL panel
GEMESYS
GEMESYS has raised €8.6 million in pre-seed funding to help transform AI on edge devices. We are delighted to have led the round through the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and Atlantic Labs and participation from NRW.BANK, Sony Innovation Fund, Silicon Valley's Plug and Play Tech Center, and grant funding from the German government.
GEMESYS is at the forefront of developing next-generation AI chips. Its novel technology enables entirely analog neural network processing, unlocking new possibilities for high-performance AI training and inference on edge devices.
With this new funding, GEMESYS will accelerate research and development and expand its team to further advance its novel chip architecture. The company is actively hiring for roles, including Senior C++ Developer and Senior Simulation Engineer, to build on its promising technological foundation.
Learn more from Sifted.
The GEMESYS Demonstrator - Photo Credit: Donna und der Blitz
HyperHeat
HyperHeat, the startup using renewable energy to make Zero-Carbon industrial heat, has successfully raised €3.5 million in a funding round. The investment was led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund with participation from Finindus, Possible Ventures, E44 Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Fellows, and a group of seasoned business angel investors.
Over 25 percent of global CO2 emissions come from heavy industry, making products critical to our modern way of life but contributing to global warming. Steel, cement, and chemicals production are the world's most carbon-intensive industries. These sectors face significant challenges in decarbonization, including the need for extremely high temperatures and the inherent release of carbon dioxide during production processes.
To address these challenges, HyperHeat is developing a breakthrough technology for emission-free, high-temperature heating - an electrically-powered system capable of reaching unmatched temperatures of up to 2000°C without typical degradation.
Learn more from Tech Funding News.
The HyperHeat Founders are Frederick Lessmann (Left) and Dr. Ing. Lars Amsbeck (Right).
In our latest Ask The Expert article, we explore the future of holography with VividQ, an APEX Ventures portfolio company. In a recent interview, VividQ's co-founder and CEO, Darran Milne, shared his vision for this innovative technology.
Discover how holographic displays can revolutionize medical imaging, automotive, and consumer electronics industries. Learn about the potential societal impact and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead as holographic technology converges with other emerging technologies.
📖 Read the full article to learn about holography and its future scope. 📖
