The Non-Dilutive Funding Roadmap: from Pre-Seed to Series B
Most founders think fundraising means one thing: giving up equity. Venture capital is and remains the engine of startup growth, but it is only one layer of a smart financing strategy. Some of the best-funded startups in Germany complement every equity round with capital that costs them zero ownership, through non-dilutive funding. The concept of non-dilutive funding is simple: capital you do not pay back with ownership. Grants, R&D tax incentives, subsidised loans, and public co-financing exist at every stage of the company lifecycle, and they are designed to work alongside your equity rounds, not replace them. The problem is that most founders either do not know these instruments exist, assume they are not eligible, or believe the bureaucracy is not worth it. The result: billions in available funding go unclaimed every year, while founders dilute themselves earlier and harder than they need to. This matters just as much on the other side of the table. For VCs and business angels, non-dilutive funding is leverage: every euro of public funding extends the runway of their portfolio companies, de-risks the next round, and multiplies the impact of their invested capital. The best investors already treat it as part of their playbook. The takeaway: before, during, and after every equity round, the non-dilutive layer should be on the table. Used right, it extends your runway, strengthens your negotiating position, and compounds from pre-seed all the way to Series B and beyond. About The Delta Campus Masterclass Series: The Delta Campus Masterclass series brings experts into our community to teach what they know best, from product and venture design to legal, finance, and growth. Each session delivers hands-on knowledge founders can immediately apply to strengthen their ventures. This session is hosted in collaboration with START Berlin, Germany's leading student-driven entrepreneurship network. This Session: The Non-Dilutive Funding Roadmap Hosted by Marten Pieper, CEO of
Details
More upcoming events in Berlin
8x Mobile Hackathon We just got back from Silicon Valley. And honestly, Europe needs more weird people building ambitious things. So we're taking over a space in Berlin for one day and filling it with founders, indie hackers, students, engineers, designers, AI builders, mobile developers, creators, and anyone obsessed with shipping products. What you'll find Free drinks Great food AI tools and credits from our partners Prizes Unexpected demos Future friends, co-founders, and maybe a wife Schedule 10:00 AM — Doors open, coffee, make friends 10:30 AM — Quick kickoff and start building 12:30 PM — Lunch 4:30 PM — Live demos 5:15 PM — Final pitches 6:00 PM — Done. Go get drinks with your new friends. 🚨 Rules Teams of 1 or 2 people. Use whatever you want: AI. Code. No-code. Agents. APIs. Spreadsheets. Duct tape. Build something useful. Or weird. Or beautiful. Or completely unhinged. Just ship. See you in Berlin. Our Partners Bella&Bona Providing fresh lunches and corporate catering for companies across Berlin, Munich, and Cologne. OpenAI The fastest-growing AI company in the world, behind ChatGPT, Codex, and the APIs powering thousands of AI products. ElevenLabs Building industry-leading AI for text-to-speech, speech-to-text, voice generation, and audio. Bilt An AI platform that enables anyone to build mobile apps with AI. Delta Campus One of the best coworking spaces for startups in Berlin, bringing ambitious founders and teams together under one roof.
When I first started strength training, I was intimidated, confused, and nowhere near consistent. I kept thinking it would be easier if I just had other women around me going through the same thing. So I'm starting exactly that — for women who want to be more serious about their strength training, get extra accountability and a community of women. How it works We meet in front of a cafe, grab a coffee, take a walk together, and end at a gym nearby. Want to train after? Great — work on your own program or buddy up with someone. Prefer to just do the walk and grab a coffee? Also great. What matters is that you're surrounded by other women who are interested in getting stronger. 13 free gym passes on us for Holmes Place Gendarmenmarkt! If you've always wanted to join a Coffee & Lift but haven't been able to, this is your sign — we have 13 free gym passes to give out! All we ask in return is a quick story from the session tagging @womensliftclub. Please only claim one if you don't already have a Wellpass, USC, or Holmes Place membership. Let's make sure they go to the right people! Please note: by claiming a free pass, you agree that your name and email address will be shared with Holmes Place. Free filter coffee from 19grams this week! 19grams is treating us to filter coffee when we arrive, courtesy of their team. It's first come, first served — so show up on time! Plus, 15% off anything else at the bar for the whole group. Where we meet: We meet at 19grams Alex We walk to and gym at Holmes Place Gendarmenmarkt What to bring Comfy shoes, your gym stuff and your energy! The coffee and walk are free to join and open to everyone. For the gym session, you'll need your own access to Holmes Place Gendarmenmarkt. Wellpass and Urban Sports Club (at least Classic) work too. No worries — we have 13 free day passes available this week (see above for how to claim one). Or feel free to just come for the walk and coffee, and connect with other women getting into strength trainin
It's 2031. Europe has become economically and politically sidelined, unable to defend its values, fund its social welfare systems, address risks, hold together the European Union. This is the trajectory sketched in Europe2031, the viral AI scenario that has been making waves from Brussels to Berlin since its release last months, and has been featured in the Guardian, The Economist and Die ZEIT, among others. Written by researchers from Oxford, MIT, KIRA, Arq and others, it argues that avoiding this future requires "the most ambitious political agenda in the history of post-war Europe." We (aisafety.berlin & Hertie AI Policy Initiative) are excited to host europe2031.ai co-author Dr. Philip Fox (European AI Policy Lead @KIRA) for an exclusive Q&A and discussion. Come prepared. Read at least the summary (10min) beforehand, and bring your questions and ideas! 18:30 Arrivals, submit questions via slido, catch up 19:00 Europe2031 Q&A with Philip Fox: Challenge the scenario's assumptions, discuss alternative trajectories and how to influence them 19:45 Breakout sessions: Small group discussions at tables hosted by Philip Fox and various AI safety & policy practitioners. Discuss, connect, take action. 21:30 Open space, more discussion and networking open end (22:00 or later) 🥨 We'll have 100 Pretzels and some other snacks (Börek, fruit, nuts, ..). We don't have capacity to organize dinner for ~200 people, though, so we recommend having dinner before or bringing your own food. This is for policy professionals, researchers, founders, and anyone who wants Europe to shape its own future in the age of AI, and is prepared to take action accordingly. We welcome diversity of backgrounds and opinions, and will moderate discussions so every voice is heard. ~~~~~~ AI Safety Berlin is a network of Berliners working in research, policy and field building to ensure that future AI systems are safe and beneficial for all. If you're new to the AI Safety Community, have a look at aisa
A public evening on permissioning, shared space, and what it takes to keep civic technology alive once the first funding ends. Cities build civic technology that works. Systems that book spaces, route permits, and coordinate community use of shared infrastructure. Many of them stop working. Not because the technology failed. Because nobody built the structure to keep them alive once the initial funding ended. That is not a Korean problem, or a London problem, or a Berlin problem. It is a structural one. There is a nightclub in Berlin that is world-famous from Friday night to Monday morning. Berlin clubs open at midnight and run until morning; the floor is empty every weekday from dawn until the doors open again. That is roughly 60 hours a week of a large, warm space with a sound system, open floor, and chairs sitting unused. A language exchange group needs somewhere on Tuesday mornings. A youth theatre wants a rehearsal room on Wednesday afternoons. A repair café, a dance course, a community kitchen: the uses are not hard to imagine. The venue owner is open to it. The problem is not goodwill. It is that no system exists to generate a conditional agreement across different use types, risk profiles, and insurance requirements at any useful speed. So the space stays empty. Civic Ledger is one attempt to close that gap. Built with Dark Matter Labs across South Korea, London, and Melbourne, it converts plain-language civic requests into structured, conditional agreements that cities and communities operate together. It has been tested across more than 40 spaces in Incheon, Yongin, and Jeollanam-do. In December 2026, its R&D funding ends. What comes next is not a technology question. It is a governance, licensing, and sustainability question that every city running public-interest digital infrastructure will eventually face. Berlin is not the destination for those questions. It is a co-contributor. Berlin's new climate adaptation law is live, contested, and in need of coo
Join a Claude Community Event, organized by local enthusiasts for everyone who would like to discuss the value system of Claude's Constitution, and how consequential it is! https://www.anthropic.com/constitution This is the first in the series of Claude Constitution Reading events, hosted at the Foresight Institute (Berlin AI node) / Æthos / AI Safety Berlin - a space that brings together AI researchers, philosophers, ethicists, and policymakers. The focus is on the value system shaping Claude's character and behavior. https://foresight.org/ https://aethos.org/ https://aisafety.berlin/ We'll read selected fragments aloud, then discuss - no preparation required beyond a skim. Note: it is not a typical "Building with Claude" event. It will be a reading circle and open critical discussion centered on moral philosophy and AI governance - why Claude interacts with us the way it does.
Can Europe Win the AI Race Using Technology It Doesn’t Control? Speed vs. Sovereignty: Europe’s AI Startup Dilemma Debate Club and The Agora are hosting an intimate debate night in Berlin for people interested in AI, startups, technology, public speaking, and sharp conversation. For our first event, we wanted to create something different from a typical panel. Something more alive. A room where people can think out loud, challenge each other, laugh a little, and leave with a sharper view than they came in with. So we’re starting with a question that feels very real for anyone building, working, or thinking around AI right now: Should European startups use the best AI tools available, even if that means depending on US and Chinese technology? On one side, the answer feels obvious. Startups need speed. The best AI tools help teams build faster, automate more, and compete globally. If a tool gives you an advantage, why wouldn’t you use it? But there is another side. Many of the tools European companies rely on are built, owned, hosted, or controlled outside Europe. That raises harder questions about data, infrastructure, dependency, security, and whether Europe can shape its own technological future. So what matters more? Speed, because founders need to survive and compete now? Or sovereignty, because long-term dependence comes with a cost? This is not a lecture. This is not a traditional panel. It is a live, moderated debate night where the audience is part of the room, not just watching from the side. We’ll start with short opening arguments from invited speakers. Then we’ll open the floor into an interactive debate circle, with space for questions, challenges, arguments, responses, and people changing their minds. You can come to speak, listen, argue, laugh, vote, or just meet people thinking about the same things. No expert status required. Curiosity is enough. An opinion helps. Expect strong arguments, humour, disagreement, and a relaxed room of people from Berlin