#Interview
Cusp Capital is one of the most important early-stage investors in Germany. In an interview, General Partner Jan Sessenhausen talks about the current market environment, the importance of learning curves and the most exciting developments in the AI sector.
The Essen early-stage investor Cusp Capital has been investing in young and aspiring software and tech companies since 2021. The latest investments by the investor (fund: 300 million), which initially invests up to 10 million, include this country Delta Labs, CertHub and leadity.
In an interview with deutsche-startups.de, Cusp General Partner Jan Sessenhausen speaks in detail about the current investment situation in Germany.
How would you explain Cusp Capital to your grandmother?
Imagine if someone told you 20 years ago that you could have a conversation with an artificial intelligence, shoot rockets into space that then land back on earth, order taxis using your cell phone or always carry your bank in your pocket. In the beginning, behind all of these things were young companies that tried something that at the time hardly anyone believed would work. Our job is to find and support precisely such companies early on, long before what they are working on becomes self-evident for everyone.
How do you assess the current investment situation in Germany?
To be honest, I always find the current market situation secondary. The financing climate changes, sometimes there is more capital in the market, sometimes less, and anyone who bases their decisions on this is looking at the wrong thing, and only the individual company is relevant anyway. What’s more exciting to me is what’s currently emerging: In Germany and Europe, more companies are working on really difficult technical problems and concepts with great potential. This substance is the real signal, and it makes me very confident for the next few years, regardless of what the climate looks like in the individual quarter.
What expectations do you have for the coming months?
The speed of technological innovation is currently rapid. I find the question of how AI technologies are translated into real value creation and which new companies emerge from them particularly exciting. This currently opens up an extraordinary number of opportunities for founders and us as investors.
What advice would you give to founders who are currently looking for capital?
Many founders underestimate how much investors pay attention to learning curves. No investor is looking for perfection. It gets exciting when a team can show how quickly they test hypotheses, make decisions and get better from them. This capability is often more meaningful than a single metric. And basically: talk to us!
Which startups are you particularly excited about at the moment?
My personal focus is less on applications and more on what lies underneath: the infrastructure on which AI runs in the first place. The new workloads place completely different demands on computing power, data and energy, and at the same time they make clear how inefficient much of the existing infrastructure still is. I find companies that address precisely these bottlenecks exciting. This is currently creating completely new categories that will have a long-term impact.
Startup jobs: Looking for a new challenge? In ours Job exchange You will find job advertisements from startups and companies.
