Rafael Laguna de la Vera is the founding director of SPRIND, the German government’s Agency for Breakthrough Innovation. He has been active as an entrepreneur and investor in the software business for more than 40 years. When Laguna was 16 years he founded his first software company, Elephant Software. At the age 21 he programmed a cash register system for the beverage industry with his company called dicomputer and at the age of 31 he had his first successful exit with his company, Micado.
Laguna has also worked as a technology investor, interim manager and advisor for venture capital funds. From 2001 to 2004, he was involved in the salvage and sale of Nuremberg-based SUSE Linux to Novell. From 2003 to 2006, he committed himself to the relaunch of Bäurer until its sale to the Sage Group. In addition to his role at SPRIND he was the CEO of the Open-Xchange, a company which he co-founded in 2005 that is active in the area of open source software for e-mail, DNS and office productivity. He is also co-founder of the CODE University of Applied Sciences.
Laguna, who studied only three weeks of informatics at Dortmund University before returning to the business world, completed a management program at Harvard Business School. He recently spoke to The Innovator about how government can serve as a catalyst for innovation.
Q: Most government’s fail at attempts to spur innovation. What, in your opinion, is SPRIND’s differentiator?
RL: It was Albert Einstein who said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Government approach to funding innovation doesn’t work well, so I set out to create an independent entity that operates differently. SPRIND is a new kind of instrument that aims to identify and support potential breakthrough innovations. We are an organization built on trust that looks for results and funds fast. To free ourselves from the usual constraints on government funding we have developed a challenge format that is based on the EU pre-commercial procurement rules. The EU in 2008 set up a framework that allows governments to call for a product that doesn’t yet exist and fund in phases. Our challenges are pan-European and they are set up in a way that allows us to bet on the race, and not just on one horse. In the SPRIND Challenges, the IP always remains with the participants. However, for reasons of state aid law, SPRIND regularly reserves a free, non-exclusive right for five years. We could use it to our benefit, but we never do. Teams that have been selected by the jury to participate in a SPRIND Challenge receive their money within 14 days after application deadline. The challenges are done in phases. The participants of each phase compete against others in the next phase to raise more funding. It is very effective and is why SPRIND challenges were mentioned as a role model for other governments in the Draghi report [a 2024 report by Mario Draghi addressing European competitiveness and the future of the European Union.
Q: What do the challenges focus on?
RL: In 2024 we focused on many AI topics, composite learning, deep fake detection and prevention, but also tissue engineering and bio-circular manufacturing. In May we are launching a new challenge focused on fully autonomous flight Version 2.0.
The aim is to create social and economic added value by solving significant technological, social, or ecological problems. For example, only the biggest players have the resources to develop the most powerful AI models. High-performance training still depends on costly, centralized data centers, limiting access for SMEs and startups—especially in Germany and Europe. Composite Learning combines distributed, decentralized and federated learning, offering a new approach to AI and allowing models to be trained across diverse systems without the need of centralized data centers. This method lets organizations collaborate and train models securely, preserving data privacy and making cutting-edge AI accessible to more companies. However, new solutions are needed to overcome the limitations of today’s systems, such as a lack of compatibility between different devices, communication bottlenecks, and reliance on central update servers. The focus of this challenge is on developing solutions that enable efficient model training on heterogeneous hardware, from high-performance GPUs to CPUs of different types and manufacturers. The teams are expected to deliver a functional core for this framework as open source, which will serve as the foundation for further development, including commercial services and proprietary product features. We received 50+ applications. A jury of experts assisted SPRIND in evaluating the applications and chose seven teams to participate in Stage 1. The teams come from universities and start-ups in Germany, France and the UK. The first stage will run until the next jury meeting in January 2026.
Q: It is great that SPRIND is addressing AI. What about the energy sector and fusion in particular? At one point German nuclear fusion start-up Marvel Fusion, blamed a lack of government support in Europe for its decision to build a facility in the U.S.
RL: Well, SPRIND is changing that. We have been working with fusion companies like Marvel Fusion for four years already. We have ultimately succeeded in keeping them in Europe. Yes, they are building a test facility at Colorado State University, but they have also just closed a $113 million round and almost all of the money came from Europe, including funding from SPRIND, a big German family office, corporate investors and private investors. Things have changed. Mr. Trump is erasing the Green New Deal, [former U.S. President Joe Biden’s energy transition program which lured green energy companies to the States with promises of funding]. So now we are in the role of helping Marvel Fusion and others like Focused Energy, Gauss Fusion and Proxima Fusion bridge up to the point where they can raise the funds to build a power plant.
Q:. If Europe wants to build global deep tech champions shouldn’t countries be joining forces?
RL: Absolutely. No single European country alone is able to compete globally. This interview is being conducted in the German Embassy in Paris. We are here because SPRIND is actively seeking closer collaboration with France on deep tech. In some areas we are very complementary. France does a lot of work on nuclear fission, Germany does not. But we are doing a lot in nuclear fusion. France does some, but not as much. Sometimes we need the biggest possible talent pool. Take AI, for example. You cannot have enough AI people. In areas where enormous resources are required bundling those makes obvious sense. We are building a military version of SPRIND. France and Germany have the biggest defense industry in Europe. Working together on innovation is not an option, it is a must.
Q: What do you advise other governments to do to shore up their own innovation programs?
RL: Build a carbon copy of SPRIN (Your Country Here). We are an ‘open source’ agency: all our tools are available and have been tested and evaluated. Not only does our approach work, it works well. It needs to be run like a startup and the people hired to work there need to be results oriented and be paid better than governments usually do. What I hope is that we will end up with a European association of SPRIN(D)s and the European Commission will leverage what we do.
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