bm|t wrapped

At bm|t, we con­ti­nuously search for foun­ders and com­pa­nies sha­ping today and tomorrow’s tech­no­lo­gi­cal land­scape. As 2025 clo­ses and 2026 beg­ins, we would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to offer a retro­s­pec­tive on a year defi­ned by tran­si­tion, exe­cu­tion, and tan­gi­ble pro­gress across Thüringen’s inno­va­tion ecosystem.

The year began with an important new chap­ter for bm|t. In Janu­ary, Katja Butz­mann assu­med the role of CEO of bm|t. Having been part of bm|t since 2016, she brings strong expe­ri­ence as both a Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger and a suc­cessful CEO. Throug­hout this year, Katja Butz­mann has gui­ded the team through a period of change and suc­cess – nota­bly over­see­ing the land­mark exit of Spleen­lab to Quan­tum Systems.

The second major mile­stone fol­lo­wed in the sum­mer with the launch of the Mit­tel­stands-Fonds Thü­rin­gen II (MFT II). Announ­ced in July by Thüringen’s Minis­ter for Eco­no­mic Affairs, Agri­cul­ture and Rural Areas, Colette Boos-John, the fund will sup­port estab­lished, medium-sized Thu­rin­gian com­pa­nies to streng­then their equity base for fur­ther growth. The Mit­tel­stands-Fonds Thü­rin­gen II will be mana­ged by bm|t. “The fund for late-stage finan­cing will initi­ally have a volume of € 20 mil­lion and com­ple­ments our exis­ting range of funds,” sum­ma­ri­zed Katja Butzmann.

2025 was a strong year for liqui­dity events. In total, three port­fo­lio com­pa­nies exi­ted, led by the head­line-making acqui­si­tion of Spleen­lab by Ger­man defence uni­corn Quan­tum Sys­tems. As noted by Quan­tum Sys­tems Co-CEO, Spleenlab’s AI exper­tise had shaped the Quan­tum Sys­tems for years through col­la­bo­ra­tion, and the acqui­si­tion brings world-class soft­ware and world-class hard­ware under one roof. Deve­lo­ped in Thü­rin­gen, Spleen­lab exem­pli­fies the long-term value crea­tion that bm|t seeks to enable. Addi­tio­nal exits included Zei­len­wert and Crowd­Ar­chi­tects, fur­ther vali­da­ting the depth and matu­rity of the regio­nal ecosystem.

Deal flow remained strong throug­hout the year. In 2025, seven new com­pa­nies joi­ned the bm|t port­fo­lio, span­ning a wide-range of tech­no­lo­gies and indus­tries. This diver­sity is a clear signal of the strength of Thüringen’s start-up land­scape and a tes­ta­ment to years of focu­sed ecosystem-building.

As a com­mit­ted long-term part­ner, bm|t also sup­ported port­fo­lio com­pa­nies bey­ond the initial invest­ment. In addi­tion to new ent­ries, we par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the fol­low-on finan­cing rounds of eigh­teen of our Inves­tee Part­ners. This reflects our con­vic­tion that buil­ding suc­cessful com­pa­nies requi­res time, con­sis­tency, and trust.

Despite a chal­len­ging macroe­co­no­mic back­drop, bm|t Inves­tee Part­ners par­ti­ci­pa­ted in a total of six­teen finan­cing rounds of € 1 mil­lion of more during the year. Altog­e­ther, com­pa­nies within bm|t’s port­fo­lio rai­sed appro­xi­m­ately € 110 mil­lion in 2025. Whe­ther sup­port­ing early-stage dis­rup­t­ors or sca­ling estab­lished growth com­pa­nies, bm|t – tog­e­ther with our trus­ted part­ners – con­ti­nues to play an active role in streng­thening Thüringen’s inno­va­tion economy.

As we look ahead to 2026, we do so with con­fi­dence groun­ded in exe­cu­tion, resi­li­ence, and an strong eco­sys­tem of ambi­tious foun­ders and inno­va­tive com­pa­nies.

We thank all part­ners, entre­pre­neurs, and stake­hol­ders, and look for­ward to con­ti­nuing to sup­port inno­va­tion in Thüringen.

Your bm|t Team

Next Chapters

We are deligh­ted to high­light that our port­fo­lio com­pany Spleen­lab has been acqui­red by Quan­tum Sys­tems. As a pre-seed inves­tor, we sup­ported Spleen­lab in seve­ral finan­cing rounds since its foun­ding until the exit. Through being part of this tran­sac­tion, bm‑t betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment thü­rin­gen GmbH is not only achie­ving an excel­lent return for the fund, but also streng­thening ano­ther out­stan­ding Thu­rin­gian com­pany, which can now con­ti­nue to grow with a strong stra­te­gic partner.

Con­gra­tu­la­ti­ons to the teams at Spleen­lab and Quan­tum Sys­tems! For more infor­ma­tion, please read this press release.

Welcome to the Family

Tiny Mons­ter GmbH: bm|t, Rezi­rok, and a group of busi­ness angels have inves­ted € 4 mil­lion as part of a seed finan­cing round in Tiny Mons­ter, – the deve­lo­per of GALAKTO, an off­line audio sys­tem for child­ren that is based on tokens. Foun­ded in 2023 and with a con­ti­nu­ally expan­ding library, the Ber­lin-based start-up is using the funds to fur­ther expand pro­duc­tion, their con­tent cata­lo­gue, and sales. Katja Butz­mann, Mana­ging Direc­tor of bm|t sta­ted: “we are deligh­ted to be deve­lo­ping ano­ther inno­va­tive com­pany based in Thu­rin­gia. We look for­ward to a pro­mi­sing and inspi­ring col­la­bo­ra­tion.” For more infor­ma­tion, please read this press release.