DeepSlate's €7.7m seed left founders at 55.76% in the latest list

DeepSlate's €7.7 million seed round produced a more specific ownership result than the funding headline suggests. The latest shareholder list for DeepSlate GmbH leaves co-founders Paskal Paesler and Jan Brachthäuser with 27.88% each, or 55.76% combined on the register's displayed percentages. It also records 42CAP IV as the largest named institutional block at 16.94% and Alstin III Fonds at 11.27%.

The legal record adds a second financing signal. The August 10 list shows the 39,669-share denominator created through a capital increase, with 42CAP at 16.94% and Alstin at 4.29%. The list taken into the register folder on August 25 keeps the denominator but records transfers of 192 shares from each founder to Alstin. Alstin's block rises to 4,470 shares, or 11.27%. The documents do not state consideration, issue price, valuation or the reason for the transfers.

That is the useful boundary for this story. Public coverage describes a 42CAP-led seed round. The filings show how the legal ownership map was built and then changed. They do not turn €7.7 million into a valuation or prove who controls DeepSlate.

The funding headline and the legal map answer different questions

Tech.eu reported on 1 October that Berlin-based DeepSlate raised €7.7 million in a seed round led by Munich investor 42CAP, with Alstin Capital, existing investor SIVentures and business angels participating. The report says the company will use the capital for speech-to-speech model training, European training data, sales and marketing, and production infrastructure in European data centres. DeepSlate describes its system as an end-to-end model that processes spoken language directly and hosts the technology within the European Union.

StartupValley independently reports the same €7.7 million round, investor group and planned use of funds. The coverage also describes a 15-person team and the company's focus on European-language speech AI. Those sources establish the event and its commercial framing. They do not disclose the number of shares issued, the price paid per share or the rights attached to each investor's position.

DeepSlate's company contact page identifies the exact legal entity as DeepSlate GmbH, Am Gutshof 19a in Templin, registered with Amtsgericht Neuruppin under HRB 14460 NP. The German Handelsregister portal is the public register source for the shareholder lists used here. Keeping the company identity exact matters because the funding articles use the brand name while the legal documents use the German GmbH.

Three register snapshots show the ownership reset

The available lists make the change visible without claiming that nominal capital equals cash raised.

The June list is the pre-capital-increase baseline. Paesler held shares 1 to 11,250 and Brachthäuser held 11,251 to 22,500. Lohwasser Ventures, Founder Mode and ManHa held the remaining shares. Together the founders accounted for 90.00% of the displayed capital.

The August 10 list marks the change as a capital increase. The denominator grew by 14,669 shares, from 25,000 to 39,669. Each founder's 11,250-share block stayed in place, so each printed percentage fell to 28.35%. 42CAP IV received shares 32,951 to 39,669, a block of 6,719 shares. That is 16.94% when calculated against the 39,669-share denominator. Alstin III received shares 25,614 to 27,313, a 1,700-share block shown as 4.29%.

The 14,669 new shares are nominal €1 interests in the GmbH. They are not a €14,669 valuation and they are not evidence that the €7.7 million was paid at nominal value. A premium, separate instrument or other contractual terms could carry the financing economics. The shareholder lists do not publish those terms.

The latest list records a transfer to Alstin

The list taken into the register folder on 25 August preserves the 39,669-share denominator but changes several holder lines. Paesler is listed with shares 1 to 11,058 and a 27.88% total. Its change column says that shares 11,059 to 11,250 were transferred. Brachthäuser is listed with shares 11,251 to 22,308 and the change column records the transfer of shares 22,309 to 22,500.

Those are 192 shares from each founder, or 384 shares in total. The same list shows Alstin III with four ranges: 11,059 to 11,250, 22,309 to 23,360, 23,475 to 25,000 and 25,614 to 27,313. The Alstin row describes the acquisition of the transferred ranges and reports 4,470 shares, or 11.27%.

The register does not say what Alstin paid, whether the transfer was part of the seed subscription, or whether any side agreement changed voting or economic rights. The notarial certification references deed UVZ 347/2026 dated 22 July 2026, while the list was placed in the register folder on 25 August. The safe description is therefore that the latest available list records the transfer and attributes the relevant deed date. It is not safe to describe an undisclosed secondary sale or to infer a motive.

The founder result is measurable. The two founders retain 22,116 shares, which is 55.75% by raw share count and 55.76% using the two printed 27.88% percentages. That is a majority of the legal shares shown in the latest list, but it is not proof of a voting agreement, personal beneficial ownership or board control.

42CAP is the largest new block, not a disclosed control position

The latest list separates the institutional positions instead of presenting one generic syndicate line. The selected blocks are:

The 42CAP block is the largest individual investor position and the public round coverage calls 42CAP the lead. Those statements are compatible, but neither establishes control. Alstin is now the second-largest institutional block in the visible list. Together 42CAP and Alstin account for 28.21% of the printed capital, while adding SIVentures brings the three named funds to 35.14%.

The smaller positions matter for a complete cap table, but the register's legal labels do not always map one-to-one to the brand names used in press coverage. The article therefore uses the exact holder names in the list and treats public investor descriptions as context. It does not infer that every angel or fund named by the company holds the same legal vehicle.

The distinction is similar to the one in Ground A's pre-seed ownership analysis, where a new-share block shows dilution but not the price of the round. Open Cosmos' preferred-class analysis shows the other side of the problem: an ordinary-share percentage can coexist with senior economic rights. Inbolt's voting-control map likewise separates visible legal holdings from the governance terms needed to call a position controlling.

What the filings do not price

The shareholder lists show €1 nominal amounts for each Geschäftsanteil. They do not show the subscription price, share premium, post-money valuation, liquidation preference, conversion right, anti-dilution protection or reserved matters. They also do not state whether the 42CAP and SIVentures positions carry rights that differ from the founder interests beyond the legal share count.

The €7.7 million headline should therefore remain a financing fact, not a valuation shortcut. Dividing it by 14,669 new nominal shares would produce a number that looks precise but would have no evidentiary basis without the issue price and the transaction documents. The same warning applies to the 384-share transfer to Alstin: the filing records the movement and the receiving entity, not consideration or a negotiated ownership outcome.

The record also does not establish ultimate beneficial ownership. Paesler and Brachthäuser are named as individuals in the list, while the investor positions belong to German companies and limited partnerships. A legal holder is not automatically the same as the person who ultimately controls its votes or economics. The public sources identify the founders and investors, but they do not publish a complete shareholder agreement or governance schedule.

The next document should connect the round to its terms

DeepSlate's public financing announcement and the German shareholder lists now tell a coherent but bounded story. A capital increase expanded the legal denominator to 39,669 shares and created a 16.94% 42CAP position. The latest list records transfers of 192 shares from each founder to Alstin, taking Alstin to 11.27% while the founders remain at 55.76% on the printed percentages.

The next decision-changing evidence would be the full notarial deed referenced by the 25 August list, any filed agreement that sets out voting or preference rights, or a later shareholder list that changes the 39,669-share denominator. Those documents could show whether the transfer had consideration, how the seed was priced and whether the investor blocks have rights not visible in the list.

Until then, the strongest defensible reading is narrow: DeepSlate raised €7.7 million in a 42CAP-led seed, the register shows a primary capital increase and a later-recorded transfer into Alstin, and the legal map leaves the founders with a majority of the displayed shares. It does not yet show the price of the round, the value of the company or who controls every decision.

Sources

• Tech.eu: DeepSlate secures €7.7M for its European voice AI platform
• StartupValley: Deepslate erhält 7,7 Millionen Euro für europäische Sprach-KI
• DeepSlate company contact and legal identity
• German Handelsregister portal