E 778 — WIN's €25B and Who Owns German Start-ups

Germany's answer to foreign capital is German pension money. The WIN initiative now aims to mobilise more than €25 billion by 2030, up from €12 billion, and according to Handelsblatt it will for the first time court pension funds, foundations and Versorgungseinrichtungen directly.

The gap it tries to close is large. According to KfW, more than 3 quarters of the venture capital invested in German start-ups in the first quarter came from abroad, with US investors alone at 34 percent. According to Dealroom, European pension funds and insurers committed about $15.5 billion to European venture funds over 10 years — roughly 0.1 percent of their pool. And KfW reports €2.64 billion invested under WIN by the end of 2025, so the €25 billion is a target, not money in the market.

Our prediction on record: by the end of 2027, WIN will publicly confirm less than €5 billion of new institutional commitments. Honest note for this feed: no fintech-company round made our verified September list.

Full blog post and sources: https://www.startuprad.io/post/startup-news-germany-austria-switzerland-september-2026

Growth partnerships: https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner

Host: Joern Menninger, Frankfurt am Main — https://www.linkedin.com/in/joernmenninger/

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