On 31 August 2021, our co-organisers eCAPITAL ENTREPRENEURIAL PARTNERS and Warth & Klein Grant Thornton and we welcomed Dr Jörg Kukies, a top-class guest from Berlin, to our monthly VC Roundtable Düsseldorf. The State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance answered all questions of the moderator Paul-Josef Patt, Managing Partner eCAPITAL, on the topic of the equity fund for technologies of the future ("Future Fund"). We say thank you for this highly exciting Q&A session, which was followed online by over 50 participants!
Dr. Jörg Kukies not only described how the German Future Fund is structured and what goals it pursues, but also gave interesting insights into topics such as:
- How is the Future Fund financed and who really benefits from it?
- How does it relate to the €2 billion package of measures for start-ups as an anticipation of the actual Future Fund?
- What mechanisms will be used to bring the money from the €10 billion Future Fund to start-ups and VCs?
He also stressed how important it is to convince German insurers, pension funds and other institutional investors to invest more in VC. Dr. Jörg Kukies also noted that, in his opinion, the concept of venture debt is still underused in Germany, in contrast to other nations.
Afterwards, Dr. Jörg Kukies answered the participants' questions and explained, among other things, why the success story of the Danish model for the Future Fund cannot simply be imitated and to what extent this is related to the German institutional investor landscape. Dr. Jörg Kukies also addressed the fact that the German government has recently supported the German VC ecosystem in anticipation of the Future Fund, in particular via the €2 billion package of measures for start-ups, and that the first commitments from the Future Fund now seamlessly follow on from this. During the Q&A, he also commented on whether there are already plans for a "Future Fund 2.0".
Dr. Jörg Kukies concluded the event with a short summary of the measures implemented so far to improve the VC culture in Germany and explained in which areas he sees even greater potential.
Those who were unable to attend the VC roundtable can watch the Q&A session (German language) online here.
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