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event February 2025 Barclays Fireside Chat
In a conference call with Matt Clements and Sarah Roberts from Barclays Equity Research, Achim Berg discusses the state of the European fashion industry, exploring key challenges and future opportunities.
linkedin January 2026 Smatch - raised €7.3m in Seed funding.
smatch is an AI-powered B2B marketplace transforming how unsold fashion hashtag#inventory is traded globally. By intelligently matching each item with the right buyer, smatch helps sellers regain control over distribution and margins, while buyers gain real-time access to a wide range of verified inventory. All transactions are discreet, fast, and data-driven. The opportunity is significant. In Europe alone, an estimated €300bn worth of fashion inventory is either heavily discounted or never sold, impacting profitability, brand equity, and sustainability efforts. Since launching in 2023, more than €15bn in inventory and 190 million items have offered to the platform. To support the next stage of growth, the team around Dr. Max Groberg and Dr. Hans-Martin Vetter has now raised €7.3m in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Transition Ventures, 42CAP, and 10x Founders, with backing from exceptional industry leaders including Noel Kinder (lululemon, former Nike CSO), Nigel Griffiths (former adidas SVP Global Sales), and myself.linkedin November 2025 From Family Vineyards to the Renaissance of German Sparkling
I grew up in the Rheingau, spending countless weekends helping my parents in the family vineyards. Back then, we didn’t make our own wines as we were part of a cooperative. Years later, while supporting the VDP.Die Prädikatsweingüter (the Association of German Fine Wine) on strategic topics, I met Steffen Christmann, the VDP president and owner of Weingut A. Christmann. In 2019, a simple idea - “let’s do something together” - led to the creation of Sektgut Christmann & Kauffmann, Germany’s response to grower Champagne. Our mission: to craft authentic, hand-made sparkling wines from biodynamic vineyards that express their origin. We believe great wines tell their story through the soil. None of this would be possible without an incredible team of friends: Steffen and Sophie Christmann, 6th and 7th generation winegrowers, and Mathieu Kauffmann, former Chef de Cave at Champagne Bollinger and a true pioneer of German Sekt. Today, Christmann & Kauffmann takes an exciting step from infancy to adolescence as we release our first meaningful volumes of single-vineyard sparkling wines. Don’t miss this unique expression of our terroirs.linkedin January 2026 It all comes down to this one moment: the assemblage.
In the fascinating process of making sparkling wine, few steps are as critical, or as exciting, as this. At Sektgut Christmann & Kauffmann, it’s one of our annual highlights. Yesterday marked my sixth assemblage, working side by side with Sophie and Steffen Christmann, and our sparkling wine wizard, Mathieu Kauffmann - former chef de cave at Champagne Bollinger. At our sparkling winery, we follow the méthode champenoise, beginning with the production of still base wines. Then comes the assemblage, where we blend these wines (or not!) to define the final style before secondary fermentation. The assembled wine is bottled with yeast and sugar to spark a second fermentation in the bottle, creating natural carbonation. It’s then aged on its lees to develop complexity, before undergoing riddling, disgorgement, (no dosage!), and final corking. The assemblage is a thrilling moment. We taste through wines from over 40 different plots and decide which will go into our two main cuvées - the 100 series (Riesling) and 200 series (Burgundy varieties) - and which are destined to become single-plot Soliste wines. My partners in crime and our team handle the heavy lifting, but I always enjoy being part of the process and learning more each time: especially knowing that what we shape today won’t reach the market for another 3 to 8 years, after second fermentation and disgorgement. Sparkling wine demands patience and vision.
