Insights from the Physical World

Analysis, investment perspectives, and fund news across energy transition and resilient infrastructure systems.

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A car's side hustle: What vehicle-to-grid needs to go mainstream

A car's side hustle: What vehicle-to-grid needs to go mainstream

Picture a small electric Renault parked on a street in Utrecht. It belongs to a car-sharing fleet, and right now nobody has booked it. Most cars would simply sit there. This one is working. Through a bidirectional charger, it is pushing electricity back into one of the most congested power grids in Europe, helping the local network stay below its limits during the evening peak. Tomorrow morning someone will drive it to a meeting and never notice.

September 30, 2026
PT1 co-leads Metris' $5M seed round

PT1 co-leads Metris' $5M seed round

Metris has raised a $5M seed round to build the data layer for the physical world of energy. PT1 co-led the round alongside Octopus Ventures, AENU and Blackfinch, with participation from Plug and Play and Love Ventures.

September 21, 2026
Where to meet the PT1 team this autumn

Where to meet the PT1 team this autumn

Some of the best conversations in venture don't happen over email. They happen in a hallway between sessions, over a coffee that runs twenty minutes longer than planned, or at a side-event dinner where nobody's checking their phone.

September 3, 2026
Bot the Builder: AI has already arrived on Germany's construction sites - a ZDF documentary

Bot the Builder: AI has already arrived on Germany's construction sites - a ZDF documentary

Germany has a building problem, and everyone can feel it. Flats are scarce, schools are overcrowded, kindergarten places run out before the applications are even processed, and the backlog of buildings waiting to be renovated keeps growing.

August 3, 2026
Why we invested in Scy AI: Turning corporate risk from a black box into provable data

Why we invested in Scy AI: Turning corporate risk from a black box into provable data

In 2024, natural catastrophes cost the global economy $417 billion, according to Gallagher Re. Behind that number sits a quieter problem: most large companies cannot actually prove their own risk.

July 28, 2026
Startup Insider Podcast: A single 30-degree heat day costs Germany 431 million euros

Startup Insider Podcast: A single 30-degree heat day costs Germany 431 million euros

A single 30-degree heat day costs Germany 431 million euros. And 97 percent of that is not people calling in sick; it is lost productivity.

July 2, 2026
Why we invested in AUAR (Automated Architecture): The factory that comes to the building site

Why we invested in AUAR (Automated Architecture): The factory that comes to the building site

There are not enough homes, and there are not enough people to build them. Across the US, UK, and EU, roughly 15 million homes are missing. Closing that gap the traditional way would take around 7.5 billion additional hours of construction labour, and that labour does not exist.

June 16, 2026
Startup Insider Podcast: German Venture Playbook

Startup Insider Podcast: German Venture Playbook

Outside SuperReturn in Berlin last week, there were protesters. Their worry: that money meant for pensions and public welfare might end up flowing into capital markets.

June 15, 2026
Why we invested in TUAL: Electrifying the fleets that keep society running

Why we invested in TUAL: Electrifying the fleets that keep society running

Every day, millions of commercial vehicles keep modern life functioning: police cars and ambulances, the vans of water utilities and grid operators, delivery trucks moving goods between warehouses and stores. These vehicles belong to what the industry calls fleets, groups of vehicles owned and operated by a single organisation.

June 12, 2026