The teams from the last round of the Berlin Startup Scholarship have raised over 2 million in funding capital. “This is the highest funding amount achieved within our BSS calls to date,” says Christian Gurol, Head of the Startup Incubator at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.
Four of the eight graduating founder teams had developed their concept ideas in the Startup Now program of the Startup Incubator Berlin (short: SIB) and had qualified for funding through the Berlin Startup Scholarship (short: BSS).
This enabled them to further develop their business models to market readiness within six months using the Lean Startup methodology. Mathias Kuhlmann, advisor for the European Structural Fund at the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, joins the Startup Incubator in celebrating the successes: “The fact that the startup teams here have the opportunity to develop their business model to market readiness over a total of up to 18 months across various programs, while already raising initial funding, demonstrates the value and benefit of the funding program.”
What makes the Lean methodology applied at SIB special is that it places the focus on early and continuous feedback from potential customers. Products are not first developed to completion and then offered on the market, but instead enter a development cycle: build – measure – learn. In addition to coaching, mentoring, and training offerings, the regular event formats UX Testing, Startup Dinner, and Co-Founder Matching are also considered valuable for the BSS teams at SIB. Peer learning between experienced and new teams also helped accelerate the teams’ development. At the end of the program, the graduating startups simultaneously take on a new role within the HWR Incubator community in the new Siemensstadt.
For example, Matchbase, the first on-demand football league as an app, and Wavy, which is renewing the yacht charter market as a kind of AirBnB for boats, are staying in close proximity to the incubator on site. The rental law startup Lawio is taking its next growth steps in Saxony-Anhalt, but remains part of the community, as do OTEK Bicycles and the green tech off-grid impact startup Suncrafter, who are pursuing their vision of supplying people without access to energy with solar power using recycled solar modules. The departure of some marks a new starting point for others. Homemade Studio, rvolt, My Help Buddy, Krenu, and Alvego have made the development leap from Startup Now to BSS. MySecondEar and Startupdetector are two teams that have qualified with platform solutions.
