The Startup Incubator Berlin takes 3rd place in the competition among idea forges at the Business Plan Competition Berlin-Brandenburg. This is a great success for the founding center of HWR Berlin.
The Startup Incubator Berlin of HWR Berlin takes 3rd place in the competition among idea forges at the Business Plan Competition Berlin-Brandenburg 2022. The award was accepted at the prize ceremony on July 4 by Sandra Thumm (Network Manager Startup Incubator Berlin), Matthias Gryztka (Head of Startup Incubator Berlin) and Katrin Jahnke (Project Lead Berlin Startup Scholarship) (l. to r.). Photo: Leo Seidel Fotodesign
Universities in Berlin and Brandenburg are regarded as idea forges of the startup scene. The Business Plan Competition Berlin-Brandenburg (BPW) recognizes the commitment of universities in the capital and the region in the field of startup promotion every year in the Study category.
The Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB), the founding center of the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin), takes third place this year, with only three points separating it from the Technical University of Berlin and one from Humboldt University, ranking as the only university of applied sciences in the capital among the top 3.
Matthias Grytzka, one of the two heads of the Startup Incubator Berlin: “We are very proud that our founding teams have achieved such a strong ranking in the competition among the best idea forges in Berlin and Brandenburg. This result reflects not only the wealth of ideas and dedication of our startups and students, but also confirms that the unique support provided by HWR Berlin’s university founding ecosystem pays off. It is carried by individual professorships, through the departments, all the way to university leadership. We are thrilled that our work contributes to Berlin being regarded today as the startup capital of Europe.”
1,000 students from universities and universities of applied sciences in Berlin and Brandenburg had participated in the competition. A total of 352 business concepts were submitted, many of them by women, as the BPW reports. HWR Berlin holds its own in the strong field of participants as one of the most startup-active universities in Berlin.
“With our successful founding center, we create the framework conditions under which creative startup teams can develop well together with established companies, thus offering a crystallization point for knowledge transfer between academia and business,” says Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, President of HWR Berlin. “We want the spark of the entrepreneurial spirit to spread to the degree programs of our university. That is why the founding center, why interdisciplinary entrepreneurial education is so important to us,” says Zaby.
The founding center of HWR Berlin creates space for business ideas to emerge and offers the necessary broad-based, intensive support to develop them further. In this attractive environment, those interested in founding become teams and ideas become market-ready products and services. The exchange between startups is a central element of this. When everything goes well, a company is ultimately founded. “The team and the entrepreneurial spirit of our Startup Incubator provide the opportunity and contribute significantly to enabling founders to realize their dreams and ideas,” says Grytzka.
What makes this startup hub, with locations at Campus Schöneberg and the A32 Entrepreneurs Forum Berlin Siemensstadt, special is that the teams work according to the Lean Startup method and are coached accordingly. At its core, it is about involving potential customers early on in order to align the development of products and services closely with market needs from the very beginning. Financial assistance is available during the founding phase through the Berlin Startup Scholarship. The strategy is paying off: approximately 95 percent of the supported startups establish incorporated companies and themselves become economic actors.
“Startups have great strategic importance for Berlin and the region as a business location. Spin-offs from academia play a special role in this. The transfer between research and practice drives innovation, is an engine of structural change, and creates the jobs of the future,” emphasizes Zaby.
In the 2018 Founding Radar of the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft, the Berlin School of Economics and Law emerged as one of the best universities of applied sciences (HAW) in Germany. With funding from the Federal Ministry, it can continue and further develop its successful startup promotion, drawing and setting impulses as a member of the network of successful German founding universities. HWR Berlin is focusing on three priorities for strategic expansion:
- HWR Berlin Startup Boosters: a regional network that directly benefits the supported startups
- Open Startup Academy: a regional network that ensures the institutionalized anchoring of HWR Berlin in the regional startup ecosystem
- International Startup Community: knowledge and personnel transfer between partner universities to support the regional network.
The Startup Incubator of HWR Berlin
At the Startup Incubator of HWR Berlin, founding ideas are developed to market readiness. To this end, we support academic founding teams with know-how, infrastructure, and scholarships. We create a shared platform for entrepreneurial thinking and action (mindset) with Berlin’s business community (including Siemens AG). As a lean incubator, we focus on speed in developing and validating business models with customers.
Since 2016, the Startup Incubator Berlin has been supporting founding teams with the Berlin Startup Scholarship, now also with the REACT Startup Scholarship. More than 30 startups have benefited from this financial and non-financial support, combined with the infrastructure provided by the founding center of HWR Berlin, to successfully develop their business ideas and products. Well-known startups such as Wonder, Forget Finance, SunCrafter, and startupdetector are today successfully active in the market. Forget Finance recently closed a seed financing round of €3.8 million.
About the Scholarships
