Ben Kubota

Expedite Ventures is a business angel group of CTOs and CPOs. We invest in tech founders and help them to create sustainable businesses through both capital and in-depth, hands-on mentoring. We are nerds at heart and passionate founders ourselves - many of us are still running startups. Our true hands-on mentoring approach is based on decades of collective experience in building and scaling technology companies – which we think is at least as valuable as funding. We encourage those who are already engineering todays technology to get into the drivers seat and become first-time founders. Our goal is especially to support underrepresented groups in tech, including female and immigrant entrepreneurs.

With CampfireFM we are not only building a social layer for podcasts, but we are creating the first real dedicated podcast ecosystem that unites distribution, discovery, community, and monetization for podcasters and their core audience. Podcasting creates this wonderful, loyal para-social relationship between creators and their core audience. But it is eerily hinged. Fans cannot really participate or interact with each other. And creators cannot easily make a living of their fandoms. We are going to change that. CampfireFM turns Listening into Participation. Our app functions as an enhanced podcast player. It makes podcast episodes interactive. It creates a home for podcasts communities and it keeps podcasts alive inbetween episodes. After our beta testing phase in 2025 – with some of the biggest podcasts in Germany ("Baywatch Berlin", "Einfach mal Luppen", "Apokalypse & Filterkaffee", "Geschichten aus der Geschichte") – we will in 2026 open the app for many more podcasters and their communities in Germany, add subscription and payment features, enhance community interaction, social sharing, discovery and recommendation. We are backed by podcasters like Felix & Toni Kroos, Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, Micky Beisenherz and many others. We are serial entrepreneurs, builders and podcast producers ourselves. And we are looking for other podcast fans, podcasters, entrepreneurs and builders who want to join us – building the missing ecosystem for podcasters and their core audiences out there.

Expedite Ventures is a business angel group of CTOs and CPOs. We invest in tech founders and help them to create sustainable businesses through both capital and in-depth, hands-on mentoring. We are nerds at heart and passionate founders ourselves - many of us are still running startups. Our true hands-on mentoring approach is based on decades of collective experience in building and scaling technology companies – which we think is at least as valuable as funding. We encourage those who are already engineering todays technology to get into the drivers seat and become first-time founders. Our goal is especially to support underrepresented groups in tech, including female and immigrant entrepreneurs.

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We built the first wave of European tech. We know what it takes to back the next. With offices in Berlin, London, and Stockholm, Cherry Ventures is Europes leading early-stage venture firm championing founders who are poised to solve the most critical issues in society, environment and business. Cherrys portfolio of European founders changes customer behaviour, enables enterprises and SMEs, drives impact and sustainability, and empowers developers and creators, having previously led the early-stage rounds of companies like FlixBus, Auto1, Forto, Tacto, Qualifyze, Juni, Moss, Carbo Culture, and more.

Techstars helps founders scale their startups into world-changing businesses. Founded in 2006, Techstars is on a mission to invest in startups to enable more capital to flow to more entrepreneurs around the world in order to deliver exceptional returns to our investors. We do this by operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, as well as by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Our results show why Techstars is Better for Founders than any other global accelerator: On average, 74.5% of Techstars companies will raise money within 3 years of their program; 18.5% of Techstars portfolio companies have exited 5 years after their program and 31.1% after eight years. (PitchBook June 2023)