Mon, 28 Sep - Wed, 30 Sep, 2026 • Munich

Bits & Pretzels 2026 | Founders Festival in Munich

Bits & Pretzels hosts 7,500 founders, investors, and industry leaders for three days full of learning and doing business at Oktoberfest.

131Sessions 281Speakers

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Sessions

131 sessions · tap any to dive deeper

40 of 131 sessions

Eu policy

From Startup to Scaleup: Europe’s Path to Global Leadership

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Ekaterina Zaharieva

Startup germany

Startup Germany: What's Next?

Startup Germany Stage | Room 13 a

Janina Jänsch, Zackes Brustik

Ai wearables

Golden Pretzel Award - Pre-Round I

Visionaries Stage | Room 14c

Christoph Klink, Eli Waxman, Christian Stiebner, Frederik Brammer, Elsa Hyland, Claes Mårtén, Maxime Paradis, Domokos Kertesz, Matthias Spott, Franziska P. Bäurle, Flo Akinbiyi

Mega rounds

Mega seed or starve: The Bifurcation

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Robert Lacher, Filip Dames, Paul Murphy, Troy Estes

Ai scaling

Scaling Through Chaos in the Age of AI

Masterclass B | Room 12

Bastian Hasslinger

European ai

Who Owns Europe’s AI Future?

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Andreas Klinger, Rana Yared, Judith Dada, Maex Ament, Mark Bergen

Ai in vc

State of AI for VC

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Andre Retterath

Regional startups

Beyond the big Startup-Hubs: How Regional Startups Scale

Startup Germany Stage | Room 13 a

Tobias Gotthardt, Anika Gruner, Eric Braun, Markus Klippstein, Katja Butzmann, Carsten Rudolph, Zackes Brustik

Ai for vc

AI for VCs: Building the Data-Driven Firm

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Moustafa ElBialy, Dominic Wilhelm, Vic Singh, Andre Retterath

Eu scaleups

The EU Scaleup Fund

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Dominik Stein

European scaleups

Unlocking Europe’s Global Growth Potential

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Dominik Stein, Ara Yeromian, Ritika Pai, Maximilian Harl

Secondaries

How to create Liquidity in Today's Market? The Truth About The Exit Market

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Ben Wilkinson, Nicolas Meier, Aaron Archer, Cara Griffiths, Ivan Levingston

Public investment

Investment Landscape Germany

Startup Germany Stage | Room 13 a

Gregor Haidl, Dominik Steinkühler, Zackes Brustik

Angel investing

What Investors Really Look For

Startup Germany Stage | Room 13 a

Laura Keilhofer, Katja Ruhnke, Gregor Haidl, Zackes Brustik

Embedded finance

Fintech & Global Capital Flows

Visionaries Stage | Room 14c

Jonathan Sanders, Malte Rau, Max Schertel, Hannah Schwär

Buy side ma

Buy to Grow: The European Founder's Buy-Side M&A Playbook

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Valerie Bures Bönström

Africa

Everyone Is Chasing AI. Where Is the Overlooked Opportunity?

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Antoine Nussenbaum, Yusuf Özdalga, Anna Herken, Alex Ilic

Ai agents

Fireside Chat: Wonderful AI x Index Ventures

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Bar Winkler, Sahir Azam

Observability

Fireside Chat: Dash0 x Accel

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Mirko Novakovic, Harry Nelis

Startup data

Antler Report: Path to Series A

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Christoph Klink

Ai venture

Funding the Trillion Dollar Decade: Venture in the Age of AI

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Gabriel Vasquez, Zhenya Loginov, Zeynep Yavuz-Willson, Kathi Wilhelm

Founder support

Beyond the Check: What VCs Actually Add

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Enrico Mellis, Florian Heinemann, Christian Miele, Nadine Schimroszik

Startup policy

Keynote Speech Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Stefan Rouenhoff

Opening

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Felix Haas, Maximilian Harl

Founder fundraising

Winning the Deal: How VC Firms Compete for the Best Founders

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Rob Moffat, Evgenia Plotnikova, Rupert Schaefer

Ai diffusion

Lightspeed's Perspective on AI

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Alex Schmitt

Public markets

When Will Quantum become Mainstream?

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Olivier Tonneau

Frontier science

Science Outran the System We Built Around It

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Julia Hawkins

Climate capitalism

Energy Tech 2.0: Price and Resilience, Not Purpose

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Fabian Heilemann

Defense investing

Investing in Defense: Where's the Opportunity, and Where's the Line?

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Bernhard Gold, Frank Thieser, Prash Sharma, Larissa Holzki

Limited partners

Where LPs Actually Put Their Money

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Greg Schmitt

Europe vs us

Europe vs US: Where Do Funds Really Generate Alpha?

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Greg Schmitt, Hendrik Brandis, Philip Chopin, Alexander Thees, Karim Jalbout

Legal ai

Fireside Chat: Legora x Accel

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Max Junestrand, Ben Fletcher

Fund selection

Picking Winners: A Discussion On Fund Selection

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Leyla Holterud, Mike Wax, Christian Stiebner

Growth capital

Choosing Your Co-Pilot - The Founder's Guide to Growth Capital and What Comes After

Masterclass A | Room 11

Christian Figge, Anna Schulte

Tech sovereignty

Keynote Klaus Hommels

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Klaus Hommels

Gp fundraising

Fund I Was Easy. Now Raise Fund II!

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Michael Ströck, Aashna Kumar, Magnus Karnehm, Andre Retterath

Air defense

Battle-Tested Tech: Investing in the Future of Defense

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Eveline Buchatskiy, Larissa Holzki

Golden pretzel award

Golden Pretzel Award - Grand Finale

Inspiration Stage | Room 14b

Flo Akinbiyi

Private equity

Cage Fight: PE vs VC. Who wins?

Investor Stage | Room 14a

Markus Schillo, Robin Haak, Franziska Kayser, Philipp Struth, Mark Bergen

OUR SPEAKERS

Meet the speakers

281 speakers on stage.

Judith Gerlach

State Minister for Health, Care and Prevention @ Bavaria

Session

Bavaria

Organisation

Keynote

Topic

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