#49: Inside the Mind of a Space Engineer Turned VC (feat. Koen Geurts, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF)

NewSpaceVision

Technology

4.0 • 4 Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He helped land a spacecraft on a comet. Now, he decides which space startups get funded.

Koen Geurts went from operating one of ESA’s most iconic missions to becoming a Senior Investment Manager at HTGF - one of Germany’s most active early-stage investors.

In this episode, we cover:

What it’s really like to land on a comet (and bounce multiple times)
The transition from space engineer to VC
How HTGF thinks about early-stage space investments
Where Europe is falling behind - and where it can win
Contrarian bets (like propulsion) vs overhyped ideas (like space data centers)
Why government contracts are critical for scaling New Space companies

A rare inside look at both engineering and capital within the space ecosystem.

Follow Koen & HTGF:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgeurts?originalSubdomain=dehttps://www.linkedin.com/company/high-tech-gruenderfonds/https://www.htgf.de/en/venture-capital-investor-2/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So we had quite some challenges with these systems that even during the landing phase, where we saw,
0:07.0	oh, we are having troubles. And we, during the seven hours, we also had a crash of the thruster, which was upside down.
0:14.0	And I still remember sitting at the console. We got the data that we touched down and we saw all the people at Azoch shouting, I was saying, ah, we've landed. And I still remember seeing there and still trying to go process the data. And we saw, okay, we saw the touchdown, but we also saw the telemetry of the solar panels indicating that Filae was still rotating. And then quickly, everybody started to realize it something is not so good. And I went to the head of
0:39.1	DLR and then the people that saying, okay, what are we going to say?
0:43.8	Hello and welcome. The clock is turning.
0:53.3	Lift-off. We have a lift-off. Hello and welcome to the new world. Lift-off. We have a lift-off.
0:56.0	Hello and welcome to the New Space Vision podcast, sponsored by Live Here, where we discuss
1:02.0	New Space Technology, Finance and Innovation with executives, founders and more exciting
1:06.0	people from the startup and New Space Equist.
1:08.0	I'm Daniel Seidel.
1:09.0	And I'm Sam Shrivera and together we are the founders of the Earth Observation Company, Live Here and New Space Equist. I'm Daniel Seide. And I'm Svamp Shrivera and together we are the founders of the Earth Observation Company
1:12.6	Live Heo and New Space Vision.
1:14.6	Today's guest was introduced to us by another founder of a previous podcast.
1:18.6	You should definitely tune into the ISP tech episode.
1:21.6	Today's guest is Kun Heardt.
1:24.6	He is the senior investment manager at the high-tech Runderfong, short HTGF, which is Germany's most active early stage fund.
1:32.3	Welcome to the show.
1:33.3	Hi.
1:34.3	And it's a pleasure being here.
1:36.3	Yeah.
1:37.3	And the HGGF, I've just seen a statistic that you guys in Q4, based on the trade register, were the most active investor in Germany with 20 investments.
1:48.0	And you also were involved in a lot of space investments just recently. And for us, it was super
	...

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