Deal Update: Project A, FORWARD.one, Haufe Group Ventures, caesar., adesso ventures, Gründerfonds Ruhr, 42CAP and Ventech

YPOG advised on a number of significant venture capital and tech transactions in February 2026, providing legal counsel to clients including Project A, FORWARD.one, Haufe Group Ventures, caesar., adesso ventures, Gründerfonds Ruhr, 42CAP and Ventech. The focus was on financing rounds in key future-facing sectors such as energy and raw material security, autonomous off-road systems, cybersecurity, AI infrastructure and digital medical technology.

YPOG advises Project A on EUR 15 million seed funding round of mining tech start-up Hades 

Berlin/Munich, February 12, 2026 – YPOG has provided legal advice to early-stage investor Project A on its participation in the EUR 15 million seed funding round of Munich-based mining tech start-up Hades. The round was led by HV Capital and Headline, with participation from Project A and Visionaries Tomorrow, and increases the total capital raised by Hades to over EUR 20 million within just a few months.

Hades is developing a new generation of high-performance drilling and subsurface access systems to unlock critical raw materials while also harnessing the energy generated in the process. The company focuses on ultra-deep drilling for geothermal energy and the extraction of critical minerals such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, which are needed, among other things, for electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy infrastructure. Hades aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on energy and raw material imports and to build a more resilient and sovereign supply base.

Europe currently produces only a very small share of the critical minerals it consumes and also imports a large proportion of its energy. Against this backdrop, Hades is addressing a key geopolitical and industrial policy challenge with its technology: secure and sustainable access to energy and critical raw materials on the continent itself. 

Team

Dr. Frederik Gärtner (Lead, Transactions) Partner, Berlin  
Dr. Ferdinand Cadmus (Transactions), Associated Partner, Berlin/Hamburg   
Sarah Sostak (Corporate), Associate, Berlin  

YPOG advises FORWARD.one on EUR 3.5 million Pre-Series A financing round of driveblocks 

Hamburg, February 16, 2026 – YPOG has provided legal advice to Dutch venture capital investor FORWARD.one on a Pre-Series A financing round of Munich-based software company driveblocks with a total volume of EUR 3.5 million. The financing round was led by FORWARD.one, with participation from Bayern Kapital, rethink Ventures and angel investor Joachim Drees.

Munich-based driveblocks is developing a software platform for safe and scalable off-road autonomy, intended in particular for use in agricultural and construction machinery as well as military vehicles. The capital will be used in particular to further develop AI-based environment perception, advance safety certifications and prepare for initial series production deployments with OEMs and system integrators. Target industries include, among others, agriculture, construction and defense, where robust autonomous systems are becoming increasingly important due to demanding off-road environments and a shortage of skilled workers. 

YPOG has previously advised FORWARD.one on various financing rounds and transactions. 

Team

Dr. Adrian Haase (Lead, Transactions), Partner, Hamburg  
Dr. Miriam Peer (Transactions), Associate, Hamburg 
Dr. Carolin Raspé (Corporate Crime + Compliance + Investigations), Partner, Munich
Dr. Tim Walter (Transactions), Senior Associate, Cologne
Anna Eickmeier (IP/IT/Data Protection), Associated Partner, Berlin  
Charlotte Petrasch (IP/IT/Data Protection), Associate, Berlin  

YPOG advises Haufe Group Ventures, caesar., adesso ventures and Gründerfonds Ruhr on financing round of cybersecurity startup CyberDesk 

Hamburg, February 23, 2026 – YPOG has provided comprehensive legal advice to Haufe Group Ventures, caesar., adesso ventures and Gründerfonds Ruhr in connection with a financing round in the cybersecurity startup CyberDesk.  The round is backed by a consortium of experienced investors, including, in addition to the lead investors, Venture Stars, the TKM Family Office, and Angel Invest Together, they are supporting CyberDesk in further expanding its platform, scaling across companies in various industries and strengthening the technological and organizational security architectures of its customers.

CyberDesk is developing a platform for identity-based data security that addresses a central security issue for many companies, namely uncontrolled identities and excessive access rights to sensitive data. Challenges include, among others, overly broad permissions, a lack of transparency regarding human and non-human identities, and security and compliance tools that often fail to reflect practical realities.

The CyberDesk platform tackles these vulnerabilities directly. Using an authorization graph, CyberDesk makes data access visible, controllable and automatable. The aim is to reduce the attack surface, increase operational security and at the same time create a robust foundation for complying with regulatory requirements, for example under DORA and NIS2. 

Team

Dr. Adrian Haase (Lead, Transactions), Partner, Hamburg  
Dr. Miriam Peer (Transactions), Associate, Hamburg 
Benjamin Müller (Transactions), Senior Associate, Berlin 
Dr. Lutz Schreiber (IP/IT/Data Protection), Partner, Hamburg 
Dr. Florian Wittner  (IP/IT/Data Protection), Associate, Hamburg  

YPOG advises 42CAP on USD 7.5 million seed funding round of Berlin-based AI startup Cognee 

Berlin, February 24, 2026 – YPOG has provided comprehensive legal advice to early-stage investor 42CAP on its participation in the seed financing round of Berlin-based AI startup Cognee. Cognee is developing an infrastructural “memory layer” for AI agents – a key technology addressing a fundamental challenge in today’s AI systems: the lack of reliable long-term memory.

The USD 7.5 million seed round was led by Pebblebed. Alongside 42CAP, additional investors participated, including Vermilion Ventures as well as business angels from the ecosystems of Google DeepMind, n8n, and Snowplow. With this fresh capital, Cognee plans to further advance its technology and scale its underlying memory infrastructure for AI agents internationally. The company’s goal is to provide a persistent, self-learning memory infrastructure that makes context and knowledge permanently accessible, thereby significantly enhancing the reliability and performance of AI applications.

Founded in Berlin in 2024, Cognee addresses one of the core shortcomings of modern AI systems: their lack of robust long-term memory. With its proprietary “Memory Graph” technology, Cognee makes unstructured data searchable and creates a knowledge base that allows AI agents to access information in context. The solution is already being used by numerous companies and research institutions today. 

Team

Dr. Frederik Gärtner (Lead, Transactions) Partner, Berlin    
Dr. Ferdinand Cadmus (Transactions), Associated Partner, Berlin/Hamburg    
Sarah Sostak (Corporate), Associate, Berlin 

YPOG advises Ventech on EUR 3.5 million Pre-Series A financing round of Custom Surgical 

Cologne, February 26, 2026 – YPOG has advised Ventech on their participation in the EUR 3.5 million Pre-Series A financing round of Custom Surgical GmbH. The round was led by Ventech, with ZEISS as well as further existing and new investors also participating.

Munich-based Custom Surgical develops hardware-agnostic digitalisation solutions for ophthalmology. Using adapter and camera systems, existing slit lamps and surgical microscopes are integrated into digital workflows without requiring replacement of core equipment. Its core product is the cloud-based platform “MicroREC Connect”, which captures, stores and structures ophthalmic image and video data and makes it accessible across devices. On this basis, AI-based applications for image optimisation and workflow support are planned to be implemented.

The fresh capital will primarily be used to further develop the platform and to expand sales activities across Europe and the United States.

YPOG has successfully advised Ventech on multiple investments in German start-ups in the past. 

Team

Dr. Johannes Janning (Lead, Transactions), Partner, Cologne
Dr. Tim Fabian Walter (Transactions), Senior Associate, Cologne
Laura Franke (Transactions), Senior Project Lawyer, Cologne
Dr. Benedikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protection), Partner, Berlin
Anna Eickmeier (IP/IT/Data Protection), Associated Partner, Berlin
Konstantina Nathanail (IP/IT/Data Protection), Associate, Berlin