Spore Labs — venture studio for hard-tech founders
Money, a machine shop and 16 weeks of stubborn help
for robotics, climate and health-hardware founders.
Most funds won't touch hardware. It's slow, it's messy, and every good idea needs a workshop nobody wants to pay for. So we built the workshop — then put the money, the machinists and an unreasonable amount of patience under one roof.
SeedsSoilRootSproutBloom
Robotics
Arms, grippers, and machines that learn a task by watching once.
Climate hardware
Sensors, storage and field kit that has to survive actual weather.
Health devices
Wearables and rehab tools built to pass a clinic, not just a demo.
Edge AI
Models squeezed onto chips that run far from any data centre.
Companies backed since 2019
Raised by the portfolio after residency
Closed a follow-on round within 18 months
Prototypes built in our own shop
002 — Programs
Two ways in
Pick by the state of your bench. Germinate if the idea still has wires hanging out of it. Canopy if it already works and now has to survive contact with a factory.
01Residency
Germinate
Sixteen weeks inside Halle 3 with the tools, the money and the people who have shipped hardware before.
- 16-week residency Wk 01–16
- 2 cohorts a year Spring · Autumn
- 8 teams per cohort 16 / yr
- Desk, shop access, €150k on day one Day 01
02Investment
Canopy
Seed money for teams whose prototype already does the thing, and who now need to make a thousand of it.
- Seed investment Equity
- First cheques €150k–€600k Lead or co
- Follow-on reserved Pro rata
- For teams already past a working prototype TRL 5+
Inventory — 10 items
What grows here
What founders actually get, itemised. No "ecosystem", no "network effects" — just the list.
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Five-axis mill, laser cutter, pick-and-place and a fume-hooded bench, unlocked 7am to midnight.
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A parts budget kept apart from the cheque, so salaries never lose a fight with stepper motors.
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Warm handshakes with European factories that quote batches of fifty and actually answer email.
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Your certification route drawn up in week two, before the design paints itself into a corner.
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Deck teardowns, a data-room checklist and a closed room of investors who know what a BOM is.
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We source, screen and sit in on interviews until the first five desks have names on them.
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Farms, clinics and depots that have agreed to host a pilot before the enclosure is pretty.
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What to file, what to keep as a trade secret, and what is not worth the attorney hours.
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Applications drafted alongside you, because non-dilutive money spends exactly like the other kind.
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Week sixteen ends on the shop floor: live hardware, a full room, and no slide-only demos allowed.
— End of inventory. All ten come with Germinate; Canopy teams book them as needed.
003 — Specimens
Grown here
Six of 41 companies we have backed. Each walked into Halle 3 with a sketch and a stubborn thesis, and walked out with hardware that works outside the lab.
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Climate / Agri
SPC-01of 06
Kestrel Fields
Crop-scouting drones that map disease before it is visible.
- Sector
- Climate / Agri
- Stage
- Seed
- Raised
- €2.4M
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Climate
SPC-02of 06
Loam
Greenhouse climate sensors that run five years on one cell.
- Sector
- Climate
- Stage
- Pre-seed
- Raised
- €1.1M
-
Health
SPC-03of 06
Tendon
A haptic rehab glove for stroke patients.
- Sector
- Health
- Stage
- Seed
- Raised
- €3.8M
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Mobility
SPC-04of 06
Pedal Freight
Modular cargo e-bikes for last-mile logistics.
- Sector
- Mobility
- Stage
- Seed
- Raised
- €1.6M
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Climate
SPC-05of 06
Heliotile
Off-grid solar beacons for remote infrastructure.
- Sector
- Climate
- Stage
- Seed
- Raised
- €2.9M
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Robotics
SPC-06of 06
Gripwise
A €9k cobot arm that learns a task from one demonstration.
- Sector
- Robotics
- Stage
- Series A
- Raised
- €7.2M
Lab log
- SPC-01 · flight 212 flagged leaf blight on row 14, nine days before the eye could
- SPC-02 · node 0031 still running on its first cell, day 1,140
- SPC-03 · glove v7 cleared 10,000 flex cycles, knuckle seam intact
- SPC-04 · cargo module swap now 40 s with one hex key
- SPC-05 · beacon logged a −31 °C night, uptime unbroken
- SPC-06 · arm learned box folding from one demo, two retries
- HALLE 3 · reflow oven recalibrated, profile B locked in
- SHOP · prototype no. 312 off the printer, still warm
004 — Germination
16 weeks, soil to bloom
Germinate residency
2 cohorts a year · 8 teams each
One stem, four phases. Scroll and it grows.
Phase 01 / 04
Soil
Weeks 01–03 Diagnose
- Tech risk audit: which law of physics could still say no
- Twenty customer interviews before anyone opens CAD
- Shop induction: CNC, reflow oven, wet bench, RF room
Cut two features after one interview. Cheapest prototype we'll ever build.
Phase 02 / 04
Root
Weeks 04–08 Build
- Prototype sprint: one revision a week, built in Halle 3
- Supply-chain map down to the second-tier vendor
- First hires, with a partner sitting in on the interviews
Rev C survived the drop test. Rev B now props the workshop door open.
Phase 03 / 04
Sprout
Weeks 09–13 Prove
- Pilot with a customer who pays. Letters of intent don't count
- Regulatory path drafted: CE, MDR or FCC, whichever bites first
- Data room assembled while the numbers are still boring
First invoice went out on a Tuesday. We printed it twice: one to file, one to pin up.
Phase 04 / 04
Bloom
Weeks 14–16 Raise
- Investor room: warm one-to-ones with funds that back hardware
- Demo Day in Halle 3: working devices on the bench, ten slides max
- Canopy follow-on held in reserve for the round after
Nobody asked for the deck. Everybody asked to hold the device.
Ask the ones
who grew
Three founders from past cohorts, lightly edited for swearing. We asked one question: what actually helped?
Technical teams of two to four building something you could drop on your foot: robots, climate hardware, medical devices, sensors with a brain. Bring a working bench prototype, however ugly, and a reason to think someone will pay for the next version. Eight teams per cohort, so we read every application twice.
Yes. Germinate comes with a €150k cheque for roughly 7%, on terms we publish before you apply. That covers the money, 16 weeks in Halle 3, machine shop and wet lab time, and the people who run them. No service fees, no invoices disguised as "studio credits".
Most of our teams do. We ask you to relocate to Berlin for the 16 weeks: hardware is a contact sport and the reflow oven will not come to you. We write the visa letters, help you find a flat near Wedding, and know which Bürgeramt appointments are worth fighting for.
Somewhere between "it works on the bench" and "it works for one customer". Usually pre-seed, sometimes early seed. Still choosing which problem to solve? Come back in six months. Holding a Series A term sheet? You probably don't need us, but we'll happily buy the coffee.
Rarely. The exception is edge AI that lives or dies on its hardware: models squeezed onto a sensor, a drone or a robot arm, where the silicon and the software get designed together. If your product ships as an app-store link, we are the wrong soil.
You keep your badge. Alumni keep access to the shop in Halle 3, and our investment program Canopy holds follow-on capital in reserve for residency companies. It seems to work: 74% of our teams raised a follow-on round within 18 months.
The Autumn cohort. Applications close on 30 Nov 2026. Every team hears back from a human, and shortlisted teams spend a day with us in Halle 3 before either side decides anything.
Plant
yours
Eight teams. Sixteen weeks in Halle 3. A first cheque from €150k. Bring a prototype — or a very convincing sketch of one.
Received.
We read every one — expect a reply within 10 days.
Ref. SPR-26A-0000 · kept on this page only