Lars builds deeptech ventures out of university research. Most of his work happens in the gap between a promising lab result and a company that can hire, raise and sell, which in hardware and climate tech is a long and unglamorous stretch.

His real strength is connection. He knows who is working on what across the Munich research ecosystem and can link it to the people doing adjacent work at Stanford, MIT, ETH Zurich, Imperial or Breakthrough Energy. That is how moonshot companies get built. He backed Proxima Fusion from day one, and three years on it is Europe's best-funded fusion company at a €2.4 billion valuation.

He co-leads TUM Venture Labs as Chief Sustainability Officer and runs the Climate & Circular Economy Venture Lab. He founded Energy Launchpad with ETH Zurich and TU Wien, brought X, the Moonshot Factory to Munich (announced at Bits & Pretzels last year, now up and running), and works with the Viessmann Generations Group on multiplying the number of climate spin-offs coming out of European research. Before this he spent close to twenty years in industry, most recently as VP for R&D and Logistics at MAN Truck & Bus, so he also knows where corporate pilots usually die.

Right now most of his attention goes to climate risk and adaptation. He has built wildfire detection work with Airbus Defence and Space and Munich Re, and is shaping the climate risk programme at the first Munich Climate Week.

Come to this table if you are a founder in climate, energy or deeptech stuck on market entry, a corporate looking for deal flow and pilot partners, or an investor who wants better reach into Munich, Zurich, Vienna, London, Boston and the Bay Area. Come with the real problem. You should walk away with an introduction, a route into one of our programmes, or a straight answer about why your idea is not ready yet.