Fika with Markus Bohl: 'Nobody cares if it's the best European solution'

Let’s start with you. What’s your background?

I’ve been building companies almost my whole life. My own companies, VC- and family-office-backed companies, and ventures inside large corporates. I’ve also built companies for family-owned businesses, which is a very different animal. That journey eventually led me to Intel, where I became managing director of the Intel Ignite startup programme in Europe.

Where are you originally from?

I’m from Bavaria originally, and I’ve lived in Munich for about 30 years now. It’s a good place to be for tech – especially compared to when I built my first company. Back then, there were maybe ten VCs in the whole country. I knew all of them personally.

What was your first startup?

My first real tech startup was around 2008–2009. We built a live-entertainment platform for one of Germany’s biggest media groups. Ticketing, promotion, advertising – everything was fragmented across newspapers and radio stations. We centralised it into a single platform, at a time when e-commerce was still very nascent.

Ignite Next grew out of Intel Ignite. How did that happen?

When Intel decided not to continue the Ignite programme, we had the opportunity to spin it out. We took it independent and rebuilt it as Ignite Next. Same ambition, but now fully standalone.

Is Intel still involved?

We’re fully independent as a company. But we do have a commercial partnership with Intel – just like we do with Infineon and other partners we’ll announce soon. No shareholding, just collaboration.

Is Ignite Next a fund or an accelerator?

Neither, really. We call it a scale-up programme. The companies we work with have already raised on average more than €5m. We’re non-dilutive – we don’t take equity and we don’t sell anything. Our north star is founder success. We are planning to launch a fund in the future, but that would be separate from the programme.

Ignite Next is very focused on deep tech. What does that mean to you?

Is the company IP-heavy? Does it come from years of research or deep operator experience? And is it truly new to the world? We’re interested in breakthrough technologies. That ranges from chip design, advanced manufacturing and packaging, to data infrastructure and networks. On the more novel end, we look at quantum computing and photonics. On top of that, there’s AI, physical AI like robotics and perception, and underneath it all, privacy, security and developer tooling.

Does the programme help build European sovereignty?

We source companies in Europe, and yes, I care deeply about strengthening Europe’s technological independence. But I don’t believe in building “for sovereignty” as a primary goal. Nobody cares if something is the best European solution – it has to be the best solution, full stop. If you build world-class technology in Europe, sovereignty comes as a by-product.

Does Europe have a scale-up problem?

Absolutely. We fund people from kindergarten to PhD, then grants, then early VC – often all public money. But when real value creation starts, at Series B and beyond, that’s where companies often leave.

The money exists in Europe. It’s just not unlocked. And even if it were unlocked tomorrow, we’d still need the experience and maturity to deploy it well. This takes time.

Is that why so many companies flip to the US?

Yes. And when they do, the IP often moves too. Europe ends up with the lab work and cheap labour, while the value sits elsewhere. That shouldn’t happen.

Before we wrap up – what’s your FIKA order?

A cappuccino. And something small to eat – maybe cantuccini. Munich is basically the northernmost city of Italy anyway.