European Sovereignty Playbook

When its government wrote the rules under which new nuclear plants now apply, one small start-up was in the room helping to hold the pen. It was later the first to apply. An executive told the story near the end of the European sovereignty Ripple. The company's chief executive had networked with officials from the start, the executive said, even when that seemed futile for so small a company.

The story made the hosts' case. Maxi Pethö-Schramm of HV Capital and Birthe Ross of SPRIND had spent recent weeks on a playbook, built from interviews with founders in their portfolios. Governments now meet deep-tech start-ups as investors, customers and rule-makers, they said, and many founders have no plan for any of the three. Writing good grant applications is no longer enough.

The state on the cap table

Maxi said new public vehicles keep appearing, from Germany's DTCF to the EIC's scale-up programme and the UK's sovereign AI fund. Governments still back early science risk, but almost all the growth goes into large rounds and mega-rounds. The money rarely leaves home. National vehicles in the playbook's sample invest over 90% domestically, which made the authors ask whether Europe has European sovereignty or German and French versions of it. Themes have shifted too. Climate and energy made up 60% of rounds with a sovereign investor in the second half of 2023 and 10% in the first half of 2026, displaced by semiconductors, defence, space and foundation models.

The strings are fewer than their reputation. Public investors usually follow a private lead on its terms and take 40 to 50% of a round, though SPRIND can take up to 70%. Their vetoes are narrow, covering moves of IP or the holding company abroad and where an exit buyer is based. A founder who makes a palm-oil alternative by fermentation had been warned that a regional Dutch fund would be an administrative nightmare. That was partly true, since the fund had less technical expertise and double-checked much of the lead investor's work. Once on board it was helpful and good at reaching the provincial officials who can speed up permits. Its main clause lets it sell if the company moves everything to the US. An investor at a state fund said it matches market terms because it must bring private capital into every deal, and involves its bankers from seed stage so companies plan early for bankability.

Customers who decide early

Public procurement is a pull that equity cannot provide, Birthe said, but Europe's industrial strategies rarely pay for it. The CHIPS Act and the net-zero and critical raw materials strategies set targets and allow state aid without putting cash on a start-up's P&L. Defence is the exception. Many tenders draw only one bidder, and "once a tender is published, it's already decided," Birthe said. Founders have to be at the ministries while it is written.

To win, Birthe advised speed, the one dimension where start-ups beat incumbents. A partner helps, bringing security clearance in defence or a balance sheet in climate tech. And tenders can be sequenced, starting where they move fast, such as Greece or Poland, before a large one in Germany. An investor walked through ICEYE's path, from tracking deforestation for Brazil's armed forces to a 1.7 billion contract with Germany's armed forces in December 2025, with Rheinmetall as prime. In Poland it won 200 million in contracts and delivered a satellite in under 12 months, while incumbents spoke of 2030 or 2032. With a war on NATO's eastern flank and Poland spending around 5% of GDP on defence, the investor said, procurement cannot take 24 months.

A venture investor asked how early a start-up has to move. Months, if not years, before a tender, the playbook's authors said, while taking care not to receive information that would disqualify the company.

Outnumbered in the lobby

Start-ups face incumbents with 40-person government-affairs teams in every major market. The founders interviewed for the playbook no longer treat public affairs only as a way to get permits. They hire whoever can own the make-or-break relationships, from Series A onwards, and try to be present while laws are still being specified. Industry associations help only when a start-up has no access or its peers are aligned challengers, since many serve incumbents.

once a tender is published, it's already decided

The head of government affairs at a food-biotech company, hired after its Series A, described what that looks like. Incumbents "love to practice regulatory capture," the lead said, pushing to tighten the EU's novel-food rules, for instance on how much DNA a product may contain. Approval needs a qualified majority of member states, hard to win against farm and dairy lobbies, and investors want to see a route to market before a Series B. Finding no trade association that would back them, several early-stage companies put part of their seed money into building their own in Brussels. Over four years it won over a large retailer and a dairy company, and the EU's Biotech Act now looks at fast-track approval and regulatory sandboxes.

A participant from a recycling start-up had found another way round the 40-person teams, which was to borrow them. Corporate venture partners have exactly those people. Getting a corporate investor to ask its own government-affairs team to talk to officials, they said, turns the incumbents' lobbying power into a bridge.

This Ripple was hosted by Maxi Pethö-Schramm (HV Capital) and Birthe Ross (SPRIND) at The Drop 2026 on 16 September.