Frank Thelen

Who they are

Frank Thelen is Founder and CEO of TEQ Capital — a serial founder since 1994 who sold ip.labs to Fujifilm, wrote the bestselling '10xDNA', and built Freigeist Capital before launching a thematic AI ETF in January 2026.

Person

Frank Thelen dropped out of Computer Science at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg and started building internet businesses in 1994 — Softer Solutions (multimedia CD-ROMs), then Twisd AG (Linux routers and a web framework), then Create Media, and ip.labs (a photo-service software company he co-founded in 2004 and eventually sold to Fujifilm). He founded doo GmbH in 2011, a document management app that won the Microsoft Innovate 4 Society Award in 2012 — presented by Angela Merkel — and later pivoted into what became Scanbot. In parallel he built e42, the seed VC firm he eventually renamed Freigeist Capital in 2017, backing Wunderlist, MyTaxi, Lilium, Pitch, Hardt Hyperloop, and Endurosat. He joined TEQ Capital in 2021 when it was still called 10xDNA Capital Partners — a Munich-based deep-tech fund focused on AI, quantum computing, space, and synthetic biology — and became Founder & CEO, renaming it TEQ Capital in July 2024. German audiences know him from five seasons as an investor/judge on Die Höhle der Löwen (Germany's Shark Tank), and he's a regular on Markus Lanz, Maischberger, and Hart aber fair. His public output is high-volume and opinionated: two bestselling books ('Startup-DNA' in 2018 and '10xDNA'), the Innovation Pulse newsletter and podcast at frank.io, and daily posts on LinkedIn spanning AI, autonomous driving, robotics, Bitcoin, and European digitalization. The through-line across thirty years is betting early on technology waves — from CD-ROMs to deep-tech VC — and building media reach around each bet.

Company

TEQ Capital's most recent move is the January 2026 launch of the TEQ – General Artificial Intelligence ETF, a thematic UCITS ETF covering around 90 companies across the AI value chain; by mid-2026 it had reached approximately EUR 14 million in assets. As of June 2026, TEQ Capital's total managed assets surpassed EUR 100 million — an all-time high across its funds. The portfolio reflects a deliberate diversification across the AI infrastructure stack: recent positions include Aixtron (power electronics) and Be Semiconductor (Besi, with a focus on hybrid bonding technology and a collaboration with Applied Materials). A top holding in the Disruptive Technologies fund, Micron Technology, posted strong Q4 2025 results with expected 38% year-on-year revenue growth in Q1 2026, driven by HBM4 chip leadership — consistent with TEQ's thesis on AI hardware.

Market

TEQ Capital operates as a thematic investor in AI and disruptive technologies, competing in the space of retail-accessible deep-tech investment vehicles alongside broader ETF and VC-to-retail crossover products. The firm differentiates by targeting broad AI infrastructure — semiconductors, hybrid bonding, power electronics — rather than concentrated mega-cap bets. The macro backdrop is materially challenging: geopolitical tensions in 2026 are driving export controls on semiconductors and fragmented AI regulation, both of which directly affect the companies TEQ holds and the deal-making environment for firms in its segment.

Network

No direct edges are available in the data, but Thelen's documented engagements name a few specific individuals: he met Benedetto Vigna (Ferrari CEO) for an extended discussion, and he has worked alongside German State Minister for Digitization Dorothee Bär through the German Innovation Council. His public writing frequently cites Elon Musk as an intellectual influence.

Benedetto Vigna· CEO, Ferrari
Dorothee Bär· German State Minister for Digitization
Elon Musk· CEO, Tesla / SpaceX — cited public influence

How they likely show up

Serial founding since 1994 across hardware, software, VC, and media → moves quickly between domains; likely impatient with single-lane thinking.
Active daily LinkedIn poster on AI, robotics, Bitcoin, and autonomous driving → comfortable as a public voice, probably accustomed to being the loudest perspective in the room.
Two bestselling books plus a podcast and newsletter running in parallel with fund management → operates across multiple output channels simultaneously; values reach as much as depth.
Dropped out of Computer Science and built internet businesses immediately → self-taught operator orientation; may trust intuition and first-hand product experience over formal frameworks.
TV investor on Die Höhle der Löwen for multiple seasons → practiced at rapid judgment under camera pressure; likely direct and concise when evaluating pitches.
Hands-on testing of Tesla FSD and Waymo noted in posts → favours direct product experience over analyst reports when forming investment views.

Conversation tips

→ Come with a specific technology thesis, not a sector overview — he engages at the hardware and product layer (HBM4, hybrid bonding, Boston Dynamics Atlas), not at buzzword altitude.
→ Reference a recent Innovation Pulse episode or LinkedIn post by topic — he posts daily and will notice if you've actually read him versus skimmed a bio.
→ Don't pitch 'European' as a selling point on its own — he's been vocal about European digitalization gaps; he'll want to know what the technology actually does differently.
→ Ask about the 10xDNA-to-TEQ Capital rename — it signals a strategic shift worth unpacking and he's likely to have a clear narrative about why it changed.
→ Be prepared for Bitcoin to come up; he posts about it and has publicly traded his position — don't treat it as a fringe topic.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the January 2026 TEQ – General Artificial Intelligence ETF launch — he took a VC-style conviction about AI infrastructure and packaged it into a UCITS product covering around 90 companies; that's an unusual structural bet worth probing.
Reference the ip.labs-to-Fujifilm exit — he built a photo-service software company from scratch and sold it to a Japanese hardware giant; it's an early signal of how he thinks about technology-meets-incumbent deals.
Mention the doo / Scanbot pivot — he won the Microsoft Innovate 4 Society Award in 2012, got the prize from Angela Merkel, then pivoted the whole product into mobile scanning; it's a clean story about knowing when to change direction.

Discovery questions

The TEQ ETF covers around 90 companies across the AI value chain — how do you decide where the value chain actually begins and ends when the sector is moving this fast?
You backed Lilium as a seed investor and watched it struggle — how has that shaped how you evaluate deep-tech companies with long hardware development cycles at TEQ?
You've been hands-on testing Tesla FSD and Waymo personally — do your investment decisions at TEQ follow that direct product-testing approach, and what does that look like at the portfolio level?

Avoid

Don't treat his media presence (the TV show, the books, the LinkedIn following) as his main identity — he's been building and funding technology companies since 1994 and will engage far more seriously on product and investment specifics than on personal brand.

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