Secure & Connected Demo Days 2026
From our blog: LIVESTREAM Secure & Connected Demo Days 2026 (including timestamps)
From Lab to Market
On June 18 and 19, our home at the Lanolinfabrik filled up with founders, incubators, policymakers, investors, and industry representatives. The occasion: the first-ever Demo Days "Secure & Connected," hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), to showcase what emerged from the two publicly funded programs StartUpConnect and StartUpSecure with the associated eight incubators.
We were there in two roles: as co-hosts and as one of the incubators behind the programs. Both gave us a front-row seat to a question that ran through the entire event: What does it really take to turn research into a successful company?
According to Dr. Sebastian Jester of the BMFTR, the decisive question today isn't whether research becomes innovation, but how we can make the step toward founding a company systematically easier.
Providing the supporting structures around tech development (i.e., helping founders gain access to networks, capital, and markets) is what StartUpSecure and StartUpConnect were built to do, and what the incubators behind them work on day after day. Needless to say, there is room for improvement, both in what we do and how we do it.
And yet, the numbers shared on stage allow us to pause for a moment and appreciate where we stand today: more than 135 funded projects, almost €100 million invested through StartUpSecure and StartUpConnect, and more than €130 million raised in follow-on venture capital. Behind these numbers are companies that have closed multi-million-euro funding rounds, won innovation awards, conducted their first trials with industry partners such as Deutsche Telekom and Volkswagen, and created jobs for people across Germany.
Over the course of these two days, four things stood out to us from the panel discussions, speeches, and conversations with people across the event.
Things have changed over the last twenty years, but we still need a cultural shift.
Failure shouldn't be seen as fatal but as proof that someone had the courage to try. Other countries are often more comfortable taking risks. The difference is perhaps best captured like this: an American says, "We've never done that before!" with enthusiasm. A German says, "Das haben wir ja noch nie gemacht," as a reason not to.
The hardest step isn't the technology — it's finding the first customer.
Founder after founder said the same thing. Things that make perfect academic sense still don't get bought, because trust has to be earned before a contract is signed. Incubators help companies bridge that gap.
Language is a feature, not a nice-to-have.
The pitches that landed proved that the ability to explain deep tech simply is itself a competitive advantage. If a founder can do that on stage, they can do it with customers, too.
An ecosystem that comes together grows together.
It takes a village, as the saying goes, to build something valuable and make it sustainable.
Thanks to the BMFTR for the event and the programs behind it. Thanks to the teams for bringing two days of energy into the house. And thanks to everyone who came by, asked questions, and made connections.
Out of the lab and into the world, made in Germany — that's the work, and we're glad to be part of it!
© BMFTR / Czybik & Schmid Media / Kurc