The winners of the 2026 Deutscher Gründerpreis were announced in Berlin. Two of this year's winning teams come from our ecosystem: Proxima Fusion and DeepDrive.
Proxima Fusion, a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, received the award in the 'Startup' category for its technology to develop commercial fusion power plants. The company's journey took it from its founding phase at UnternehmerTUM and the TUM Venture Labs to Europe's largest private fusion financing round to date: a Series A2 round of EUR 411M. Since 2023, our early- and growth-stage fund UVC Partners has invested in the company several times.
DeepDrive received the award in the 'Aufsteiger' (Scale-up) category. The company develops highly efficient electric motors for the next generation of electric vehicles and recently accelerated its growth with an oversubscribed Series B round of EUR 30M. Following its participation in the UnternehmerTUM Accelerator, UVC Partners now invests in the company alongside BMW i Ventures and Continental (Co-pace).
What connects both winners goes beyond the award itself: both show how research at TUM can grow into internationally competitive companies. And both show how founders who believed in deep tech early on can thrive in an ecosystem that combines scientific excellence with capital, mentoring, and network.
Congratulations to the teams of Proxima Fusion, led by Francesco Sciortino, and DeepDrive, led by Felix Poernbacher and Stefan Ender.
Photos: Franziska Krug, Deutscher Gründerpreis
