Full house at the VC Stammtisch Düsseldorf! Over 100 guests attended the VC Stammtisch Düsseldorf Networking Night, powered by NRW.BANK, and experienced an exciting evening on the highly topical subject of “Investing in Security: Cyber & Defense Tech in NRW”.
TIGGES partner Marius Rosenberg opened the evening on behalf of the organizers of the VC Stammtisch Düsseldorf – eCAPITAL ENTREPRENEURIAL PARTNERS, PwC Germany and TIGGES . Many thanks to Christoph Büth, Head of Equity Financing at NRW.BANK, for his opening remarks and keynote speech, and to the whole team at NRW.BANK for being such wonderful hosts.
The panel discussed
- Willi Mannheims (eCAPITAL ENTREPRENEURIAL PARTNERS)
- Moritz Anders (PwC Germany)
- Philipp Bohne (Skylance GmbH)
- Peter Hornik (DefenseTech-Inkubator.NRW)
The discussion was moderated by Svenja Nentwig, eCAPITAL ENTREPRENEURIAL PARTNERS, who led through the different perspectives of investment, start-ups, regulation and the innovation ecosystem.
At the start of the discussion, it became clear that cybersecurity and defense technologies are increasingly being thought of as linked – no longer as an IT issue, but as a question of resilience, technological sovereignty and economic security.
It also became clear that Europe is still at an early stage in building a strong cyber and defense tech ecosystem. Many initiatives are currently emerging, structures are being established and cooperation between start-ups, industry, research, investors and public players is being intensified. The DefenseTech-Inkubator.NRW is an important local building block here. The panelists agreed that NRW can act with greater self-confidence here, as Bochum is one of the world’s leading locations for cybersecurity R&D.
The availability of capital was also a key issue: while significantly more venture capital is flowing into security and defense technologies in the USA and Israel, interest is growing in Europe, but it takes time to build up sustainable financing structures. NRW.BANK provides support in this area through the “Defence.Tech.NRW” funding measure, among others. For defense tech start-ups, there are still numerous challenges to overcome, both in terms of access to capital and to the market, as Philipp Bohne from Skylance reported.
There was agreement that networks that bring together players from different sectors and promote exchange between innovation, investors and institutional partners are of great importance.
The great demand for discussion showed how relevant this topic is and the discussions continued for a long time during the subsequent networking and closing session.
Many thanks to all participants for an all-round successful evening. We are already looking forward to continuing the dialog!