Martin Ott
CEO, Taxfix; former Co-founder & CEO, Eken
BAD1
BuildersFoundersInvestorsBerlin2026
CONFERENCE
A single day for the people actually building the future to meet each other.
200
best founders
200
best investors
Top 1%
of founders & investors
100
under 25s
01About BAD1 Conference
A gathering of the people who are building the world's future from Europe.
The movement
BAD1 Conference is the flagship event of Berlin auf die Eins, a growing movement to make Berlin a magnet for the next generation of builders, founders, and creatives shaping Europe's future.
The day
One day during Berlin's Juni Future Week. 500 hand-selected founders, investors, and young builders come together at The Delta for honest conversations, real connections, and an evening you won't forget.
Who's in the room
A few of the 500.
Each of the 500 seats is picked by the small team running the conference. Globally active founders and serial entrepreneurs, plus top-tier VCs from around the world.
Founders
Michael Cassau
Founder, Grover
VC's
Alexander Leibowitz
Vice President, Insight Partners
Phil Chambers
Partner, Balderton
Filip Dames
Founder, Cherry Ventures
Christian Figge
Managing Partner, Armira Growth
Oliver Holle
CEO, Speedinvest
Katharina Willhelm
Partner, Creandum
Helmut Schöneberger
CEO, UnternehmerTUM
Mike Wax
GP, Blueyard
Alan Poensgen
Partner, Antler
Mathias Ockenfels
General Partner, b2venture
Michael Hock
Partner, Motive Partners
Roman Scharf
Partner, 3VC
Jasper Masemann
Partner, Discovery Ventures
Eckhardt Weber
Partner, Heal Capital
Nenad Marovac
Founder & Managing Partner, DN Capital
Niki Rosinski
Managing Director, Generation Investment Management
The Day
Agenda
09:00-10:00
Arrival
Atrium
Check-in and Networking
Atrium
- Registration, breakfast, and first conversations before the main stage opens.
10:00-10:15
Opening
Atrium
Welcome
Atrium
Julian Teicke
Founder & Chairman · The Delta
Laura Möller
Founder & CEO · Juni
Nils Seger
CEO of Dentsu Germany
Cephas Ndubueze
Founder · FOMO
10:15-10:30
Keynote
Atrium
Opening Remarks
Atrium
Al Gore
Former US Vice President and Chairman of Generation Investment Management
10:30-11:00
Panel · 4 voices
Atrium
Is Europe Already Winning?
Atrium
- Al Gore opens BAD1 with a thesis on Europe. Three of Europe's most active climate investors, at AENU, World Fund, and Carbon Equity, react in real time. Where do they agree? Where do they push back? And where is the money actually going?
Moderator
Anna Alex
Co-Founder · NALA Earth
General Partner
Siobhan Brewster
AENU
General Partner
Danijel Višević
World Fund
Partner
Saskia Bruysten
Carbon Equity
11:00-11:25
Fireside
Atrium
ResearchGate, AI, and Europe's Hidden Champions
Atrium
- ResearchGate spent years fighting a lawsuit from the world's largest publishers. It survived, and is now a trusted partner to 140+ publishers, home to 70% of the world's scientists and 160 million publications. Is this actually the hottest AI company in Europe?
Moderator
Julian Teicke
Founder & Chairman · The Delta
Ijad Madisch
Co-Founder & CEO · ResearchGate
11:30-12:00
Panel · 4 voices
Atrium
Building Generational Companies from Europe
Atrium
- Generational does not mean old. It means companies built for the next generation, the new European moat. One of these founders sold his company to SAP for 1.2 billion and now works inside it, a generational company and Germany's most valuable. The other two are still building theirs. An off-the-record conversation about building one in Europe.
Moderator
Lea-Sophie Cramer
Founder · Amorelie / Epix
Mario Kohle
CEO & Co-Founder · Enpal
Marc-Alexander Christ
Co-Founder · SumUp
Gero Decker
Co-Founder · SAP Signavio
12:00-12:20
Fireside
Atrium
The European Founder's Tax
Atrium
- European founders pay a tax their US peers don't: harder hiring across borders, structural disadvantages at IPO, a longer road from seed to unicorn. The question is whether it is still worth paying. Johannes Reck built GetYourGuide from Switzerland to Germany. Knowing what he knows now, would he choose Europe again?
Moderator
Gloria Baeuerlein
Founding Partner · Puzzle Ventures
Johannes Reck
Co-Founder & CEO · GetYourGuide
12:30-13:30
Informal lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
- Lunch and informal conversations with the full room.
13:30-13:50
Panel
Atrium
There Is No Playbook
Atrium
- Nobody planned Berlin's tech scene. It grew from the bottom up, out of its universities, its founders, and a generation that had already built once and stayed to build again. That turned out to be the strength. Startups are now the fastest-growing sector of Berlin's economy, the city is Germany's unicorn capital, and nearly 100,000 people work in them. Three founders who have lived every era of it on how Berlin really gets built, and how much is still untapped.
Moderator
Olivia Czetwertynski
Co-founder and Managing Partner · UNBOXING The Future
Thomas Heilmann
Chairman JUNI gGmbH Internet Entrepreneur & Investor, Member of German Parliament
Martin Schilling
CEO & Co-Founder · Deep Tech Momentum
Tom Bachem
Founder · CODE University
13:50-14:15
Panel
Atrium
From TUM to Unicorn
Atrium
- Munich didn't happen by accident. Over 20 years its universities, corporates, investors and founders learned to pull in the same direction. TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the largest innovation center of its kind in Europe, turn research into companies: 21 unicorns from TUM alone, Celonis among them as Germany's first decacorn. This isn't a contest with Berlin, just a look at the ingredients, and what anyone can learn from how Munich did it.
Moderator
Michael Hock
Partner · Motive Partners
Helmut Schöneberger
CEO · UnternehmerTUM
Felix Haas
Chairman & Co-Host · Bits & Pretzels
Sebastian Schuon
Co-Founder · Schub / MD · CDTM
14:15-14:40
Panel · 4 voices
Atrium
€33 Trillion in Savings
Atrium
- Europe is not short of capital. Its households hold some €33 trillion in savings, its pension funds and insurers trillions more. Yet almost none of it reaches startups: European pensions put under 1% into venture while US pensions put closer to 3%, and Solvency II keeps insurers out. So our best founders raise their growth rounds in dollars. Four of Europe's leading investors on the political, regulatory and cultural blockers between all that money and a trillion-dollar European company.
Moderator
Alexandra Buys
Co-Founder & COO · The Delta
Christian Miele
General Partner · Headline
Christian Nagel
Co-Founder & General Partner · Earlybird
Filip Dames
Founder · Cherry Ventures
Katharina Wilhelm
Partner · Creandum
14:40-15:05
Panel · 4 voices
Atrium
Why We're Here
Atrium
- Silicon Valley moves at a speed Europe rarely matches, and the US market is big enough to build decacorns without ever leaving home. Less regulation, less friction, less reason to look abroad. So why scout European founders at all? Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Insight and Khosla all do. Four US funds on what they actually see in Europe, the strengths, the weaknesses, and where they think the continent is heading.
Moderator
Oliver Holle
CEO · Speedinvest
Alexander Schmitt
Partner · Lightspeed
Robin Dechant
Partner · General Catalyst
Alexander Leibowitz
Vice President · Insight Partners
Adina Tecklu
Partner · Khosla Ventures
15:05-15:30
Panel
Atrium
Arming David: Is Europe the Underdog?
Atrium
- Europe is rearming its industrial base, its software stack, and its defense ambition at the same time. This panel looks at what it takes to build for security from Europe: faster procurement, sharper capital, technical depth, and companies that can move at wartime speed without losing democratic accountability.
Moderator
Enrico Mellis
Founder · Animal Syndication Company
Lukas Köstler
Co-Founder & CEO · SE3 Labs
Johannes Boie
CMO · Helsing
Johannes Schaback
Co-Founder & CTO · STARK Defence
15:30-15:55
Panel · 4 voices
Atrium
We Are Not Cooked, We Are Cooking: Where Europe Wins in AI
Atrium
- Europe will not win the spending race, and it does not have to. This panel looks at how European companies are already winning AI a different way. n8n has become one of the fastest, most profitable unicorns in Europe, pulled forward by a global community that grows it organically instead of by burning capital. Dash0 is building the observability layer for the AI era from the same playbook. Choco has proven how a vertical SaaS company can transform into a fast growing AIaaS company. Three founders on what actually works, and the lessons for how Europe competes on its own terms: leaner, faster, community-first.
Moderator
Daniel Khachab
Founder & CEO · Choco
Jan Oberhauser
Founder & CEO · n8n
Mirko Novakovic
Founder & CEO · Dash0
15:55-16:25
Panel
Atrium
Escape Velocity: Europe's Break for Orbital Sovereignty
Atrium
- The U.S. built its lead in space over decades of public money and patient capital, and the lazy conclusion is that Europe has already missed the window. The sharper question is whether sovereignty in orbit is simply too important to outsource. Satellites already run our infrastructure and our security, and the next frontier, the data centers that will one day orbit above us, is being mapped now. The Exploration Company is building Europe's own road to and from orbit. LiveEO turns that orbit into critical-infrastructure intelligence. Loft Orbital makes space as deployable as the cloud. Isar Aerospace builds the launch vehicle to get there. Four builders on whether Europe can close the gap, and why orbital sovereignty is no longer optional.
Moderator
Thomas Jarzombek
Parlamentarischer Staatssekretär
Hélène Huby
Founder & CEO · The Exploration Company
Sven Przywarra
Co-Founder & Co-CEO · LiveEO
Pierre-Damien Vaujour
Co-Founder & CEO · Loft Orbital
Josef Fleischmann
CTO & Co-Founder · Isar Aerospace
16:25-16:55
Panel · 4 voices
Atrium
Debugging Europe: Systematic Fixes That Get Us Back on Track
Atrium
- Europe runs level with the U.S. on research and world-class patents, then stalls at the part that creates value. In fifty years it built 14 companies worth over $10bn. The U.S. built 241. A third of European unicorns moved their headquarters abroad. Andreas Klinger, Ted Persson and Damian Boeselager get specific on the fixes: EU Inc as a single legal form, a capital union to put €10tn of idle savings to work, and demand that actually buys European. What ships in 2026, what takes a decade, and what we can do without waiting for Brussels.
Moderator
Laura Möller
Founder & CEO · Juni
Ted Persson
Partner · EQT Ventures
Andreas Klinger
Founder & Investor · PROTOTYPE / Co-Initiator · EU-INC
Damian Boeselager
Member of the European Parliament · Volt
17:00-17:30
Laudatio and award
Atrium
BAD1 Award for the Best Young European Entrepreneurs
Atrium
Host
Cephas Ndubueze
Founder · FOMO
17:30-18:00
Winner platform
Atrium
So, Is Europe Cooked? Ask Europe's Future
Atrium
Moderator
Eva Johanna Egg
Co-Founder & CEO · Scripe
18:00-21:00
Dinner / networking
Rooftop
Flying Dinner + DJ
Rooftop
- Flying dinner, rooftop conversations, and the start of the evening program.
21:00-00:00
Social / party
Rooftop
BAD1 Afterparty
Rooftop
- DJ, drinks, and the late-night close at The Delta.
Partners
Founding Partners
Main Conference Partners
Conference Partners
Community Partners
The Venue
The Delta
Berlin · Neukölln
A multi-story creative campus with an industrial atrium, event stage, winter garden, and a rooftop with pool and panoramic views across Berlin.
