Pre­vi­ously, we high­lighted how bold­ness is a vital intan­gi­ble asset for change. Speak­ing (or in this case writ­ing) about some­thing is one thing; demon­strat­ing it is another.

So how did we put words into action at bm|t?

Dur­ing the first six months of 2025, in close part­ner­ship with our trusted stake­hold­ers, Thuringia-based com­pa­nies within bm|t’s port­fo­lio secured circa € 40 mil­lion in total fund­ing across fif­teen financ­ing rounds. Fur­ther­more, we wel­comed five new com­pa­nies into our port­fo­lio.

This not only con­firms our com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing bold founders, it also proves the depth of tal­ent being cul­ti­vated in Thuringia – a reward for years spent nur­tur­ing the ecosystem.

Build­ing upon last quarter’s call for bold­ness, in this edi­tion we would like to high­light how intent can be turned into motion – through focus­ing on the impor­tance of dri­ving change. The impor­tance of lev­el­ling up local, regional and pan-Euro­pean com­pet­i­tive­ness in an ever-chang­ing world can­not be over­stated. The ques­tion thus is not why do we need change, but instead how can we deliver it?

This process of turn­ing intent into motion starts inter­nally through hon­est self-assess­ment – that in turn starts to drive pos­i­tive change. High­light­ing and cel­e­brat­ing wins is easy (and nec­es­sary); dis­sect­ing mis­steps is transformative.

It is only through can­did con­ver­sa­tions regard­ing what hasn’t worked as hoped that we can uncover the levers for improve­ment as indi­vid­u­als, teams and organ­i­sa­tions. This ini­tial crit­i­cal assess­ment is the first step towards dri­ving change, push­ing for­ward and ulti­mately lev­el­ling up.

Over the years, bm|t has sup­ported mul­ti­ple star­tups through every stage of growth – includ­ing the chal­leng­ing one where a com­pany first reaches its ceil­ing, is oper­at­ing ‘at capac­ity’ and must exam­ine mis­steps in order to keep scal­ing. Thus our role goes beyond sim­ply pro­vid­ing cap­i­tal – but in push­ing founders (and our­selves) to lean into change, to refine and to turn fric­tion into momentum.

To para­phrase the Roman philoso­pher Seneca: suc­cess is what hap­pens when prepa­ra­tion meets oppor­tu­nity. Volatil­ity may be the ‘New Nor­mal’, but fresh oppor­tu­ni­ties are on the hori­zon – from the newly launched MFT II fund to the Fed­eral Government’s new infra­struc­ture fund. Organ­i­sa­tions best posi­tioned to use these oppor­tu­ni­ties effec­tively will be those who con­front weak­nesses early, con­vert them into strengths, and thus turn intent into motion – inside the com­pany and across the market.

Together with our team and stake­hold­ers, bm|t is com­mit­ted not only to strength­en­ing the Thuringian econ­omy, but also lead­ing by exam­ple. We encour­age you and your team to start now.

Your bm|t Team