Weihenstephan, 7 April 2026 — aerotill was one of four start-ups presenting their technology to representatives of Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank at TUM Venture Labs in Weihenstephan.
Nikola Steinbock and Dr. Christian Bock from Rentenbank took the time to visit the TUM Venture Labs Food / Agro / Biotech programme in person, to meet the teams and engage directly with their approaches. The visit was moderated by Theresa Pflüger of TUM Venture Labs, who brought together four start-ups working across very different corners of agricultural innovation: friction-reducing plough technology, automated potato sorting, algae as biostimulants, and AI-driven pest forecasting.
What the visit meant for aerotill
For aerotill, the visit was a first direct point of contact with one of the most important institutions in German agricultural financing. Rentenbank is not a passive observer of AgTech development. As the central institution for agricultural and rural financing in Germany, it is one of the few organisations that actively seeks out early-stage innovation and engages with it at the source.
Getting to present aerotill’s air-lubrication technology for soil tillage to that audience, answer critical questions directly, and have a substantive conversation about the approach rather than a pitch-deck review, was exactly the kind of exchange that matters in the early phase of a deep-tech company.
The setting
TUM Venture Labs in Weihenstephan is part of TU München’s start-up infrastructure, specifically focused on the Food, Agro and Biotech space through its FACIT programme. The visit also included an introduction to the university’s research farm by Prof. Heinz Bernhardt, giving the Rentenbank representatives a broader picture of the innovation ecosystem the start-ups operate within.
The four teams presenting alongside aerotill were CoastalBiotech, Karevo, and PlanXSense, each working on distinct problems in the agricultural and food sector.
Why this kind of exchange matters
Direct conversations with institutions like Rentenbank at an early stage are rare and valuable. They allow a start-up to present its thinking before positions are fixed, to hear critical questions from people who understand the agricultural sector deeply, and to build a relationship that is based on substance rather than a polished deck sent cold.
For aerotill, that is precisely the kind of foundation worth building on. The challenges in agriculture are structural and long-term. So are the solutions, and so should be the partnerships.
aerotill thanks Theresa Pflüger for organising and moderating the visit, Nikola Steinbock and Dr. Christian Bock for their time and their critical questions, and TUM Venture Labs for providing a home for exactly this kind of exchange.