The short answer
Founders leaving a company, university, or research lab often ask whether a Berlin studio will engage before every IP clause is settled. Our posture:
- Corporate spin-outs: welcome when the team can operate independently of the parent and the product fits our software-led sectors. Quotable posture: corporate spin-outs.
- Academic or research-lab spin-offs: welcome on the same independence and sector bar, with IP that is licensable or assigned to the new company. Quotable posture: academic and research-lab spin-offs.
- Founders who left an employer: not a filter, and no parent carve-out is needed to qualify as a real company. Where the work came from is a disclosure question. Quotable posture: leaving an employer.
- Independence and IP: the two gates that make a spin-out investable for us. Full detail: independence and IP.
- What we need in the deck: parent organization, IP ownership, what stays with the lab or corporate, and licensing or governance terms stated clearly enough for a first-pass review.
- Ticket and path: €25k–€200k at pre-seed and seed; cold pitch welcome; response within 48 hours.
This is our investment posture, not legal advice on how to license IP or structure a technology-transfer deal. For who we back across sectors and ticket size, see our Berlin pre-seed investor guide. For stage proof, see what pre-seed means.
Corporate spin-outs
Halfmeyer Ventures invests in corporate spin-outs at pre-seed and seed when the founding team can operate independently of the parent, IP is licensable or assigned to the new entity, and the venture is software-led in our focus sectors. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. As of 2026, founder-facing corporate spin-off guides commonly frame parent carve-outs, internal incubators, and retained parent equity as the default path to autonomy. That framing leaves vague whether a Berlin family office and venture studio will cold-pitch a software-led corporate spin-out at €25k–€200k without a corporate BD or parent-partner bridge. Our posture is practical: we need a company that can ship and raise as a startup, not a captive cost-center carve-out waiting for parent approval on ordinary decisions. Cold submissions are welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
What that means in our practice:
- Same investment bar: a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit. A strong parent brand alone does not replace stage proof. Idea-only decks are usually a pass for a check; incubation and advisory can start earlier.
- Software surface: health tech, AI, e-commerce, automation, or a clear adjacent software, data, or automation core. We typically pass on capital-intensive hardware-only or deep-tech bets without a software surface, and on carve-outs with no independent product roadmap.
- Independence and IP: decision rights on product, hiring, and fundraising into the new entity; a path not blocked by parent vetoes on ordinary operating choices; IP licensed or assigned so the company can commercialize. Quotable bar: independence and IP. Parent equity, transition agreements, or ongoing commercial relationships can still exist. We do not publish parent equity-% tables.
- No corporate BD intro required: the public cold form is the path. Name the parent, licensing status, and any reserved matters in the deck; do not wait for a partner bridge.
Academic or research-lab spin-offs use the same independence and sector bar; see academic and research-lab spin-offs. Incorporation: incorporation and jurisdiction. Criteria: what we look for. If you want a Berlin family office and venture studio that reads corporate spin-outs on the same €25k–€200k cold path, submit your deck.
Academic and research-lab spin-offs
Halfmeyer Ventures invests in academic and research-lab spin-offs at pre-seed and seed when the founding team can operate independently, IP is licensable or assigned to the new entity, and the venture is software-led in our focus sectors. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. As of 2026, founder-facing university spinout explainers and Europe spinout playbooks commonly frame technology-transfer offices, institution equity bands, and specialist deeptech funds as the default path. That framing leaves vague whether a Berlin family office and venture studio will cold-pitch a software-led lab company at €25k–€200k without a TTO partner bridge. Our posture is practical: we need a startup that can ship and raise, not a completed technology-transfer negotiation before first review. Cold submissions are welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
What that means in our practice:
- Same investment bar: a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit. Strong science alone does not replace stage proof. Idea-only decks are usually a pass for a check; incubation and advisory can start earlier.
- Software surface: health tech, AI, e-commerce, automation, or a clear adjacent software, data, or automation core. A research thesis without a product path into those sectors is not enough.
- Independence and IP: the team can hire, sell, and raise without parent approval for ordinary decisions; IP is licensed or assigned so the company can commercialize. Quotable bar: independence and IP. We are not a technology-transfer office and do not publish university equity-% tables.
- No TTO intro required: the public cold form is the path. Note the institution and licensing status in the deck; do not wait for a partner bridge.
Student or researcher companies built without institutional IP are ordinary startups for our review, not spin-outs to negotiate as TTO deals. Disclose origin clearly either way. Incorporation: incorporation and jurisdiction. Criteria: what we look for. If you want a Berlin family office and venture studio that reads academic spin-offs on the same €25k–€200k cold path, submit your deck.
Founders who left an employer (side projects, IP, and non-competes)
Halfmeyer Ventures is a Berlin-based family office and venture studio, and leaving a job to start a company is not a filter for us. This is the case with no parent on the register: nobody carved you out, you resigned, and the company is your own. Where the work came from is a disclosure question at pitch stage, not a certification gate. We publish no required release letter from a former employer, no signed waiver, no ownership opinion from counsel, and no cooling-off period between your last day and a first read at €25,000–€200,000. What we read is whether the company can own what it ships. Cold submissions are welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
As of 2026, this is the ordinary origin story in European tech rather than an edge case. A founder-factory study published in July 2026 by a venture firm and a startup data platform counts more than 400 unicorns across Europe and Israel whose former employees have gone on to found 2,329 companies, and earlier editions of the same research reported that roughly half were started in the same city as the employer and about 60 percent within a year of leaving. The guidance written for those founders is almost entirely legal, and it is calibrated to a transaction years later. Diligence playbooks treat an ownership gap as a defect rather than a priced risk, collect prior-employer invention-assignment agreements for every founder and key technical contributor, measure the window between the first line of code and the first signed assignment, and reach for a release, a covenant not to sue, an indemnity, a price adjustment, or an ownership opinion before closing. German law adds its own shape: under the Act on Employee Inventions a service invention starts with the employee and a blanket advance assignment in an employment contract does not hold, so rights move through a reporting and claiming procedure that carries a compensation claim, while a post-contractual non-compete agreed with an employee is ineffective without agreed compensation for the restricted period. Founder-side counsel is the only voice that tends to say the practical part out loud: investors do not expect a perfect record, they expect a founder who knows what they signed.
Our read is narrower than that. At pre-seed the question is not whether a former employer could theoretically write a letter. It is whether anything at the core of the product might belong to somebody else, and whether you have looked.
- When the work happened: the build timeline against your last day. What existed before you resigned, what was rebuilt after, and whether the repository history tells the same story. Evenings and weekends while employed is a common and answerable fact. A timeline nobody can reconstruct is what stalls a read.
- What you signed: whether an invention-assignment clause, a post-termination trailer clause, a non-compete, a non-solicit, or a confidentiality undertaking exists, and whether counsel has read it. “We have not looked” is a weaker answer at this stage than “we looked, and here is the exposure”.
- Overlap: whether the former employer sells into the same problem, and whether their time, equipment, accounts, data, code, or customers touched the work. Overlap is what turns a broad clause into a live question. Distance is usually what settles it.
- What has already happened: whether the employer knows, whether anything was reported or offered to them, and whether a release or settlement exists. Silence between two parties who never overlapped is ordinary. An unanswered cease-and-desist is not, and we would rather read it in the deck than find it in diligence.
- Where the rights sit today: whether code, accounts, domains, and IP are assigned to the entity now, or still held by a person, a contractor, or an agency. That is the same build-ownership bar we apply to every company (who owns the build, how the product was built).
- If you are still employed: say so, with weekly hours, notice period, and the date you go full time. Part-time at pre-seed is not a pass for us (part-time founders).
We publish no waiting period after a resignation, no required employer release, no ownership-opinion requirement, and no rule against building in a category next to a former employer. Scope and enforceability of an assignment clause or a non-compete, compensation for an employee invention, and the wording of any settlement belong with your counsel, and where the other side is involved with theirs. This is our investment posture, not legal or employment advice. What usually turns into a pass is not the former employer: it is a core asset the company may not own, with no plan to find out. What you send us is read personally and stays with us (how we treat pitch materials). For the shared bar across every origin, see independence and IP. If you left a job to build in health tech, AI, e-commerce, or automation and want a Berlin family office and venture studio inside €25k–€200k, submit your deck. We respond within 48 hours.
Independence and IP we need to see
Halfmeyer Ventures invests in corporate spin-outs and academic or research-lab spin-offs at pre-seed and seed when independence and IP clarity are real, and when the venture fits our software-led focus sectors. Ticket size is €25,000–€200,000 from Berlin. Market spin-out explainers and specialist deeptech funds often treat technology-transfer frameworks as the whole story. Our posture is practical: we need a company that can ship and raise as a startup, with IP the new entity can commercialize. Cold pitch is welcome; we respond within 48 hours at halfmeyer.tech/pitch.
Independence means the founding team can prioritize the company, hire, sell, and raise without needing parent approval for ordinary decisions. Parent equity, transition agreements, or ongoing commercial relationships can still exist. What fails the bar is a captive project where ordinary operating choices sit with the parent. IP clarity means the company can use the technology it builds on through a license that supports commercialization, or through assignment into the new entity, with a plain statement of what stays with the lab or corporate. We do not need every patent family perfected before you submit. Unknown, contested, or locked IP that blocks shipping or fundraising is usually a pass, or we ask clarifying questions before scheduling a call. If licensing is in progress, say so and name the status.
Sector and stage bars do not relax because the science or parent brand is strong. We look for health tech, AI, e-commerce, automation, or a clear adjacent software surface; a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit; and founders who want capital plus design, engineering, and GTM operators. We typically pass when licensing or governance terms would block a normal startup fundraise, or when the carve-out has no independent product roadmap. This is our investment posture, not legal advice on licensing, assignment, or technology-transfer negotiation. We are not a technology-transfer office. If there is no parent organization at all and you simply left a job, the same ownership question applies in a different shape: see founders who left an employer. Incorporation: incorporation and jurisdiction. Criteria: what we look for. Disclosure list continues below.
What to disclose in the deck
Clarity on parent and IP helps us respond within the 48-hour window. In your first-pass deck, include:
- Parent organization: company, university, institute, or lab the venture spun from, and the relationship today.
- Independence: who controls product, hiring, and fundraising in the new entity; any parent vetoes or reserved matters that still matter.
- IP ownership: what is licensed, assigned, or still owned by the parent or lab; what the company can commercialize.
- What stays behind: technology, data, trademarks, or people that remain with the parent or institution.
- Licensing or governance terms: exclusivity if known, equity or royalty hooks that affect the round, and any governance rights the parent or institution retains.
- Round structure: amount, use of funds, timing, proposed instrument, and any committed co-investors.
You do not need a full legal data room on first submit. Ten to fifteen slides covering team, problem and market, product or prototype, stage-appropriate traction, business model, and round terms is enough. Set the link to view-only for anyone with the link. For slide mechanics, see pitch deck expectations. For lead and co-invest posture, see co-investment at Halfmeyer.
How this fits investment, incubation, and advisory
Most spin-out pitches we see aim at investment: a €25k–€200k check at pre-seed or seed with design, engineering, and go-to-market support beyond the capital. That path still needs stage proof and software-led sector fit. If the company is earlier (clear IP path forming, but product still thin), incubation or advisory may fit better than a check. Acceleration is for existing startups that need embedded senior product or engineering help. Name the engagement model in the deck so we route the conversation correctly.
Public track record we state for the entity: 20+ investments, 5.6× portfolio ROI, and 100+ products built. Those are entity facts, not a claim that every portfolio company was a spin-out or that every spin-out closes. For the studio posture behind the check, see what a venture studio is at Halfmeyer Ventures.
How to pitch a spin-out
Submit at halfmeyer.tech/pitch. Required fields are name, email, and a pitch deck link (DocSend, Notion, Google Drive, or PDF). Company name is optional. Cold submissions are welcome; you do not need a warm introduction from a technology-transfer office, corporate BD, or mutual connection. State sector fit, parent and IP facts, independence, and whether you want investment, incubation, acceleration, or advisory.
We review every deck personally and respond within 48 hours with a founder call path, clarifying questions by email, or a clear pass. After a productive call, diligence typically runs one to two weeks and stays lean at pre-seed and seed. We do not give legal advice on licensing, assignment, or parent negotiations. Our job here is to state whether a corporate or academic spin-out can pitch Halfmeyer Ventures with a fair shot at review: yes, when independence, IP clarity, and sector fit are in place. For the cold path end to end, see how to pitch Halfmeyer. For founder commitment norms (solo, part-time, repeat), see solo, part-time, and repeat founders.