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Christoph Klink

Antler

General Partner
Christoph Klink is a partner at Antler based in Germany. Antler is the world’s leading inception stage investor and one of the most active early-stage VC firms in Europe. Christoph is responsible for Antler’s investments across Continental Europe. Since launching its investment operations in Berlin in 2021, Antler has made >100 investments into tech startups, spanning multiple sectors around the core themes of AI, Resilience and Deeptech. Many of these startups are now recognised as the most promising startups in the DACH region, including Peec AI, NeoCarbon and Voltrac. In the last five years, Christoph worked with hundreds of founders in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Munich. Antler supports a new generation of diverse tech founders. Founders come from 50+ different nationalities, and a third of the startups have at least one female founder. Christoph is recognised as one of the leading experts on early-stage investment trends in Germany and has published reports on the demographics of DACH unicorn founders and the rise of technical founders in Europe as well as the era of execution for tech startups in Europe. Prior to Antler, Christoph was a Partner at McKinsey. Over more than ten years, he held leadership positions in McKinsey’s Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice & the Advanced Industries as well as its Logistics and Infrastructure Sector Practices. Working from the US and Europe, Christoph advised a range of leading technology organisations on disruptive strategy and building innovative business models. Christoph holds a PhD in Business Administration and Management from the Technical University of Munich.
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Arena Stage
Jun 4, 2026
4:45 PM5:15 PM

Investing from Inception to Global Outliers

Christoph Klink
Description
A small number of companies backed at inception go on to become global unicorns and category-defining outliers. This session will explore how investors identify and support these companies from the earliest stages through to global scale. It will examine the investment strategies, conviction-led decisions, and long-term partnership approaches required to back founders across multiple growth phases. The discussion will highlight how early capital, active support, and ecosystem alignment contribute to building companies with enduring global impact.
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