Bennet Barth

Managing Director RESPOND at RESPOND I BMW Foundation

Bennet is a deep-tech investor and venture builder. He backs the hardware-first companies — across energy, industry and materials — that European competitiveness and resilience now depend on. As Co-Founder and Managing Director of RESPOND, he built a European program that helps these companies cross from technology to commercial scale — from early-stage acceleration to a Scaleup Program he designed for companies entering commercial deployment. At the BMW Foundation he invests as an LP into European deep-tech and climate funds. For nearly a decade his focus has stayed the same: getting capital and commercial support to the technically hard companies that matter for Europe’s industrial future.

Sessions (2)

13:15–14:00

Thu 2 Jul

When technology hits society, we get both magic but also rising energy prices, labor uncertainty, and a loss of trust in institutions. Should we try to break or accelerate?

Part of DeepTech Ripples: Debating Europe’s Breakthrough Future

Social media set the conditions and AI is amplifying them: data centre energy demand outrunning grid capacity, learning and entry-level work hollowing out as models take over the tasks that used to build expertise, and a media environment where real and generated content are no l…

DeepTech Startups

17:00–17:55

Thu 2 Jul

1E9 DeepTech Startup Competition 2026 - Part 1

Entrepreneurs have the incredible potential to solve the world's biggest challenges, and the 1E9 DeepTech Startup Competition at the "Festival der Zukunft" showcases this perfectly. Innovative teams pitch their promising deeptech ideas to a panel of expert judges. Discover ground…

DeepTech Startups

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