In Part Two of our special Inside CVC series recapping the CVC Open Innovation Summit in Berlin, the conversation moves from diagnosis to execution.

Episode One explored urgency. Episode Two focuses on alignment.

As Europe faces accelerating technological change, geopolitical pressure, and widening capital gaps, the challenge is no longer awareness. It’s how leaders align capital, institutions, and organizational systems once the direction is clear.

This episode brings together perspectives from SAP, the European Stability Initiative, Roche, PwC, policymakers, and summit leadership to examine why execution breaks down — and what it takes to move from ambition to coordinated action.

The conversation culminates with a look ahead to Miami, where these themes continue at the next CVC Open Innovation Summit.

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Catch up on all episodes of Inside CVC at www.u-path.com/podcast.

In late November, leaders from across Europe gathered in Berlin for the first European edition of the CVC Open Innovation Summit. What emerged was not another debate about whether innovation matters, but a far more urgent question: is Europe actually set up to execute?

In Part 1 of this special two-part Inside CVC series, host Steve Schmith takes listeners inside the Berlin summit to explore why this moment feels different. Corporate investors, policymakers, founders, and ecosystem leaders speak candidly about capital gaps, risk tolerance, regulation, and the growing pressure to move from ambition to action.

Across conversations with summit co-host Philipp Willigmann, German Bundestag Financial Policy Spokesperson Katharina Beck, venture investor Tanja Emmerling, PwC’s Florian Noell, SAP’s Florian Kunzke, Roche’s Caroline Creven-Fourier, and former Inside CVC guest Martin Hüllen, a clear pattern emerges. Europe does not lack ideas or talent. What it struggles with is execution at scale.

This episode explores:

• Why access to capital alone is not enough
• How regulation and policy must keep pace with innovation
• The growing tension between risk-taking and hesitation
• What execution actually looks like inside corporations
• Why human capital, culture, and trust are central to innovation
• And why alignment, not awareness, is now Europe’s binding constraint

Berlin did not produce easy answers. Instead, it surfaced the hard work still ahead.

In Part 2, the conversation turns forward—into AI, sovereignty, policy alignment, and what real collaboration must become if insight is going to turn into action.

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Catch up on all episodes of Inside CVC at www.u-path.com/podcast.

Europe once led the world in autonomous driving. Massive public investment. Breakthrough demonstrations. Real vehicles on real highways long before autonomy was mainstream.

So what happened?

In this episode of Inside CVC, we sit down with Christian to unpack the rise, stall, and potential resurgence of autonomy in Europe. Drawing from decades of experience across research labs, OEMs, and boardrooms, Christian explains why Europe’s challenge isn’t technology. It’s culture, regulation, and execution.

You’ll hear how early European leadership gave way to faster deployment in the U.S., why China’s “progress over perfection” mindset changed the global pace of innovation, and how fragmented regulation slowed momentum across the EU. We also explore the growing gap between hardware-centric automotive cultures and agile software development, and why autonomy is no longer about cars, but autonomous systems across industries.

This conversation goes beyond autonomy. It’s about trust, talent, and the courage to deploy innovation before perfection.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why Europe led early in autonomy and why it lost momentum
• How U.S. and Chinese regulatory models accelerated deployment
• The cultural clash between automotive hardware and agile software teams
• Why autonomy is evolving into broader autonomous systems
• What Europe needs to rebuild trust, talent, and speed

Support the show

Catch up on all episodes of Inside CVC at www.u-path.com/podcast.