EWE VERTRIEB GmbH

Deloitte GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft operates as the German arm of a professional services organization with nearly 180 years of evolution from a small London accounting firm into a global network spanning 150+ countries. Under CEO Volker Krug, the firm delivers audit, tax, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and legal services to international corporations, medium-sized enterprises, public sector entities, and nonprofits. The organization serves nearly 90% of the Fortune Global 500 alongside thousands of private companies across every sector of the economy. The firm's cybersecurity practice operates at the intersection of threat detection and enterprise security architecture. Teams work with a technical stack that includes IBM QRadar, Exabeam, Splunk, and ElasticSearch for security monitoring and analysis, while infrastructure runs on Azure and AWS with containerization via Docker and Kubernetes. The practice handles connected vehicle security for manufacturing clients, protects enterprise systems built on SAP, Salesforce, and ServiceNow, and deploys RSA security frameworks. Cybersecurity capabilities integrate with broader digital transformation and artificial intelligence practices, particularly around generative AI implementations that require new threat modeling. Technical work happens in Python and PowerShell environments across Linux systems. The German operation positions cybersecurity alongside risk management services, creating operational overlap between security architecture, compliance frameworks, and business continuity planning. Client engagements span financial institutions requiring regulatory compliance, manufacturers securing connected products, and public agencies building resilient infrastructure. The firm's scale enables access to global threat intelligence and cross-border incident response capabilities, though like most large professional services organizations, project structure and client mix vary significantly across practices.

EWOR GmbH runs a Berlin-based founder fellowship with a 0.1% acceptance rate, targeting entrepreneurs building transformative tech companies across AI, HealthTech, clean energy, and fintech. The program offers up to €500,000 in immediate funding per fellow, plus €300,000 in cloud credits distributed through 16+ partner companies. Founded in 2020, EWOR operates as a virtual-first, borderless ecosystem with weekly 1:1 mentorship from full-time unicorn founders - including builders from SumUp (€8B), Adjust (€1B exit), and ProGlove (€500M exit). The fellowship's operational model centers on direct sparring sessions between fellows and mentor-founders, rather than cohort programming or curriculum. EWOR claims its fellows have raised Europe's largest pre-seed rounds as first-time founders, with €13M in aggregate pre-seed funding secured and valuations reaching $3B within two years of joining. The program draws founders with academic credentials from MIT and Oxford, including nuclear scientists and PhDs, positioning itself as infrastructure for technical founders building at the edge of emerging domains. For cybersecurity founders, the threat model here is resource allocation: EWOR's structure assumes high-conviction bets on individuals rather than diversified portfolios, with mentorship bandwidth as the constraining factor. The cloud credit package suggests focus on compute-intensive projects - relevant for security tooling that requires large-scale testing environments, threat modeling simulations, or ML-based detection systems. The 0.1% acceptance rate functions as both brand signal and actual filter, though the €300,000 cloud allocation indicates they're backing founders who need infrastructure at scale, not just capital.

b2venture is a European venture firm that exists to transform how early-stage startups access capital and expertise. Founded in 2000 as BrainsToVentures, the firm emerged from the recognition that entrepreneurs in Europe lacked the support structures available elsewhere. By building an unparalleled community of angel investors and venture professionals, b2venture provides the fuel ambitious founders need at the earliest stages when capital is hardest to secure. The firm invests between EUR 250,000 and EUR 5 million in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A rounds, specifically targeting digital and industrial technology companies poised for breakthrough impact. What makes b2venture unique is its multi-generational approach to venture capital. Rather than simply writing checks, the firm creates a virtuous cycle where successful entrepreneurs become angel investors, mentoring the next generation of outliers. This collaborative model has backed companies like DeepL, SumUp, and Raisin - startups that have grown into European technology champions. By leveraging the collective wisdom of its angel community alongside disciplined investment processes, b2venture provides founders with more than capital; they gain partners who understand the challenges of building extraordinary businesses and stay committed from seed stage through IPO.

We're the world market leader for climate operating and control units, and we've built our reputation as the go-to specialists for outstanding HMI (Human Machine Interface) systems in the automotive industry. Founded in 1999 as a joint venture between Behr and Hella, we've grown into a team of 3,150 people across multiple continents, all working together to create products that make every drive more comfortable and intuitive. Our work spans from climate operating panels and control units to Center Information Displays and integrated center stacks. We became part of the AUO family in 2024, which has opened new doors for innovation and growth. What drives us every day is the challenge of turning complex technical requirements into elegant, user-friendly solutions that our customers and their passengers genuinely enjoy using.

Thalia is Europe's leading family-run bookseller, founded in 1919 in Hamburg, Germany. Today, the medium-sized independent family company headquartered in Hagen is the market leader in book retail across the German-speaking region. With over 570 bookstores in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), including a 50% stake in more than 30 Orell Füssli Thalia PLC bookstores in Switzerland, Thalia operates an extensive retail network that reaches millions of customers. The company employs approximately 7,000 people who work with passion and dedication across all locations and bookstores. Thalia combines traditional bookselling with innovative digital services, implementing a successful omnichannel strategy that enables customers to shop through all imaginable channels. The company's online platform offers over 8 million articles including books, eBooks, audiobooks, CDs, music, films, software, games and much more. With around 3,000 events per year, Thalia is one of the largest promoters of reading and literature in Germany. The company is owned by the Herder, Kreke, Busch and Göritz families, maintaining its family-run character while continuously expanding its market position through strategic partnerships like the merger with Mayersche in 2019.

VMRay builds sandbox technology designed to catch malware that evades signature-based and behavioral detection systems. Founded in 2013 by Dr. Carsten Willems and Dr. Ralf Hund, the company operates out of Bochum, Germany and Boston, Massachusetts, serving 300+ security teams including Fortune 100 enterprises and government organizations. The core product is a threat detection platform that combines malware sandboxing with phishing analysis - engineered specifically for environments where unknown or evasive threats are the primary concern. The technical approach centers on sandbox instrumentation that monitors execution at a level designed to surface obfuscated payloads and anti-analysis tricks. The team includes detection engineers and security researchers with collective depth in malware analysis, working in Python, C, JavaScript, and the ELK Stack. VMRay's platform is deployed in enterprise SOCs, government threat intelligence operations, and MSSP environments where speed and accuracy on zero-day samples matter operationally. The company employs over 100 people across its German and U.S. offices. Engineering roles span detection engineering, security research, and platform development. The team describes itself as technical-first, with internal pathways from early-career research contributors to project leadership. Work focuses on iterating against adversary tradecraft - reverse engineering new evasion techniques, tuning detection logic, and shipping updates that keep pace with attacker tooling evolution.