Constructor Capital Podcast

Constructor Capital

Constructor Capital is a Switzerland-based early-stage venture capital firm investing in DeepTech, Software, and EdTech startups at Seed and Series A. Operating as the venture engine of the Constructor Group, the firm bridges frontier academic research with venture capital discipline, backing founders who transform scientific breakthroughs into global businesses. Constructor Capital leverages a global network of universities, researchers, and operators to deliver scientific due diligence and hands-on support beyond capital. Each episode dives deep into the investment thesis, the science behind the hype, portfolio founders, and what it takes to build category-defining companies at the frontier of innovation. Whether you're an entrepreneur, technologist, investor, or simply curious about the future of computing, this is where science meets venture. Hosted by the general partners, the CMO at Constructor Capital with some special episodes hosted by the Constructor Group: Matthias Winter (McKinsey strategist with 20+ years in telecom infrastructure), Alex Fine (operator and M&A leader), Marie Lepske (deep tech investor with expertise in quantum and advanced materials) and Cláudio Meireles (ex Chaos, Makerpad with several startups founded over the last 20 years). Together, they've backed industry-defining companies including Lumai, Akhetonics, Gcore, QuEra, IonQ, and ID Quantique.

Episodes

  1. Jul 1

    How Akhetonics is Building the World's first General Purpose Optical Processor

    In this episode, hosted by our General Partner Marie Lepske, with one of our Portfolio companies Co-Founder and CEO Michael Kissner, from Akhetonics, a groundbreaking Deep Tech startup building the world's first all-optical digital general-purpose computer. While the hardware world races toward smaller, increasingly complex electrical nodes, the industry is bumping up against hard physical limits. Michael shares how a chance meeting in a German beer garden during the tail end of Covid-19 led to a radical realization: the next frontier of computing isn’t electronic, it’s photonic. In this episode, we explore: The Genesis of Akhetonics: How a deep dive into chip security and real hardware vulnerability analysis shifted focus toward optical computing.Why "Digital" Optics Matter: A clear breakdown of why Akhetonics chose the robust path of optical digital architecture ($0$ and $1$, light on or off) over noise-sensitive optical analog or quantum alternatives.The Power of Deterministic Hardware: Why time-of-flight computing makes these chips ideal for edge devices and safety-critical environments like avionics and defense, where predictable processing time is life or death.The 5-Year Roadmap: From open-sourcing their instruction set architecture, driver, and compiler in the near future, to running Doom on an all-optical rack unit, and their ultimate goal of miniaturization for edge AI applications by 2027.Tune in to discover how Akhetonics plans to become the essential backbone for the future of classic high-performance and quantum computing, right out of Europe.

About

Constructor Capital is a Switzerland-based early-stage venture capital firm investing in DeepTech, Software, and EdTech startups at Seed and Series A. Operating as the venture engine of the Constructor Group, the firm bridges frontier academic research with venture capital discipline, backing founders who transform scientific breakthroughs into global businesses. Constructor Capital leverages a global network of universities, researchers, and operators to deliver scientific due diligence and hands-on support beyond capital. Each episode dives deep into the investment thesis, the science behind the hype, portfolio founders, and what it takes to build category-defining companies at the frontier of innovation. Whether you're an entrepreneur, technologist, investor, or simply curious about the future of computing, this is where science meets venture. Hosted by the general partners, the CMO at Constructor Capital with some special episodes hosted by the Constructor Group: Matthias Winter (McKinsey strategist with 20+ years in telecom infrastructure), Alex Fine (operator and M&A leader), Marie Lepske (deep tech investor with expertise in quantum and advanced materials) and Cláudio Meireles (ex Chaos, Makerpad with several startups founded over the last 20 years). Together, they've backed industry-defining companies including Lumai, Akhetonics, Gcore, QuEra, IonQ, and ID Quantique.