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Tag: Funding

  • Berlin’s female entrepreneurs invest in Berlin’s female founders

    Berlin’s female entrepreneurs invest in Berlin’s female founders

    At the FemaleCapital Pitch Night on December 16, 2024, female founders will present their promising startups at the Ullsteinhaus in Berlin – at the new location of the Startup Incubator Berlin.

    Berlin women investing in Berlin female founders – that is the FemaleCapital initiative, launched by encourageventures with the support of the Berlin Senate for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, celebrating its Berlin premiere this year. As part of the encourageventures Academy, Berlin women were trained as investors. The focus was not only on sound foundational knowledge about angel investment, but also on mentoring and community building.

    Pitch Night: A Stage for Female Founders

    The highlight of the initiative is the FemaleCapital Pitch Night on December 16, 2024, which will be officially opened by Franziska Giffey, Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises. At the FemaleCapital Pitch Night, six selected female founders from across Berlin will present their exciting business ideas to secure investment, including the SIB EXIST Founding Scholarship Team Deepfile, which has already made it into the Top 10 at the Innovation Award Berlin Brandenburg.

    A Strong Network for Female Founders

    Especially for female founders, investor networks are a valuable opportunity to specifically seek contact with the still scarce number of female business angels. A strong ecosystem in Berlin strengthens not only the visibility of female investors, but also the prospects for innovative ideas and projects by women.

    Ullsteinhaus: A Dual Founding Hub

    The FemaleCapital Pitch Night is at the same time a preview of upcoming developments at this location: From January 2025, the Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB), the founding center of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, will relocate to the Ullsteinhaus. Together with The Drivery – the global ecosystem for mobility innovation – the SIB brings its many years of experience in startup support and is specifically expanding its focus on supporting female founders. This includes practice-oriented workshops and coaching to impart founding knowledge, dedicated spaces for founding teams, and a prototyping and multimedia lab. In addition, the SIB’s network for early-stage founding support and its scholarship programs complement The Drivery’s offering. In particular, the new Berlin Startup Scholarship Women and the EXIST Women Program offer the SIB’s tailored support for female founders.

    An Ecosystem for More Innovation

    The investor network encourageventures aims, together with the Berlin Senate for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and other partners in the startup ecosystem, to create a more inclusive, innovative and dynamic investment landscape from which the economy and society as a whole will benefit. Through close collaboration with policymakers, business angels, startups and the entire environment can be sustainably strengthened. Policymakers set the framework conditions that enable innovation and growth, startups act as drivers of technological and economic development, and business angels contribute capital, contacts and know-how. A successful dialogue and cooperation between these parties are essential for building a dynamic and successful startup and angel ecosystem.

  • Female Founders Finance Day

    Female Founders Finance Day

    On 17.11.2022, the first Female Founders Finance Day of the Startup Incubator Berlin in cooperation with the Berliner Sparkasse took place live at Siemensstadt Square. We started with a roundtable of experts on the topic of finance and funding and the role of women in the founding sector. To close the evening, expert and financial advisor Ines Kroll delivered an impulse talk on financial and liquidity planning.

    Rise in Female Founders, but Gender Gap in Capital

    It was an extraordinarily exciting evening with many facts, especially from the recently published Female Founders Monitor by the Startup Association. While 20% of founders are now women, there is still a gender gap when it comes to capital. Male teams receive 9 times as much capital as female teams.

    What was the conclusion of our talk round?

    There is still a lot to be done, but a great deal has already been achieved. It is important to build your own network — and to do so strategically. As an aspiring founder, build a network that can support you in your career. Find out which business angels fit your company and reach out. Angels also often enjoy serving as mentors.

    Learn everything about the topic of finance — how does the entire investment landscape work? Berliner Sparkasse offers, for example, extensive (free) consulting for startups, whether it concerns loan financing, grants, or investments: berliner-sparkasse.de/startups

    There are many books that explain the basic “ABCs”, for example Dealterms.vc or you can attend an Angel Academy, such as the one offered by our speaker Karla Schönicke, the FIN Academy. It is designed for future investors, which you as an aspiring founder may one day become. The knowledge will benefit you in any case, and it is an ideal place for your network.

    Knowledge is Power

    The IHK (Chamber of Industry and Commerce), the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB), Berliner Partner (economic development agency) and the Business Plan Competition Berlin Brandenburg also offer aspiring founders and young startups free workshops and informational events on finance and funding.

    The Investitionsbank Berlin also offers a funding guide with all funding programs from the region.

    Further Events

    Simply follow us on LinkedIn and keep checking our events page. We regularly organize workshops and events.

    Here you can find a few video recordings of our event on YouTube.

    Our Talk Round Guests at a Glance

    Karla Schönicke – Venture Scout at Ananda & Speedinvest & Founder Women CTO Dinner

    With 10 years of experience in the Berlin startup scene, including the last 6 years in product management, Karla has seen a large number of startups and scale-ups from the inside — from 8 to 350 employees, B2B and B2C, in FinTech, SaaS, e-commerce, WealthTech and HRTech. She then transitioned from the tech industry to venture capital. Together with the Female Investors Network (FIN), she launched the first Female Business Angel Academy #FINacademy to attract more women to startup investing. In June, she joined Ananda Impact Ventures as a Venture Scout and now uses her extensive professional network to find impact startups.

    Tina Weise – Trueffles GmbH

    Tina Weise is Managing Director of Trueffles GmbH and is responsible for the product conception and business development of the company. Together with her team, she is building Trueffles, a community-based research platform that enables people to compile their information more efficiently, organize it more clearly, and share it with one another. Trueffles has just completed the Berlin Startup Scholarship at the Startup Incubator Berlin and is in talks with business angels for a pre-seed round.

    Dr. Amelie Wiedemann – DearEmployee GmbH

    Amelie Wiedemann is founder and CSO (Chief Science Officer) of DearEmployee GmbH. Healthy working is more than an ergonomic office chair. DearEmployee is a corporate health platform that supports companies in creating healthy and motivating working conditions. DearEmployee is particularly active in the D-A-CH region and has over 170 customers, including numerous large and medium-sized companies such as AXA and DEKRA.

    Prof. Dr. Heike Wiesner – Professor of Business Information and Communication Systems at HWR Berlin

    Transformative Technologies and Participatory Software Design are central components of Professor Heike Wiesner’s portfolio. She is a recognized expert in the field of business informatics, specializing in Business Information and Communication Systems. Additionally, she possesses specific expertise in the field of formative (accompanying) evaluation and the research area of IT & Diversity/Gender. She can point to already established national and international projects and publications and is furthermore a mentor for startup teams at the Startup Incubator Berlin.

    Petra Sachse – Head of Sales, Media and Creative Industries

    Petra Sachse has been working in the retail business of Berliner Sparkasse for 30 years and knows both the private customer segment and the business customer segment of Berliner Sparkasse. As a long-time manager, she has already been able to accompany many young colleagues in their professional development. Developing new talent is of great importance for companies today. Through her involvement in important strategic projects, she has been able to get to know and appreciate agile methods.

  • Pitching Event of the Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.

    Pitching Event of the Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.

    Pitch perfect!

    The pitching events of the Business Angel Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. continue to take place regularly even during the COVID era, and on Thursday, November 12, 2020, the time had come once again. 5 teams competed, and two of our outstanding teams from the Startup Incubator Berlin were also invited to this pitch. They were able to present the current status of their startups to potential investors and face the critical questions of the business angels from the region. At the founding center of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, startups develop their founding ideas to market readiness. With various funding programs and methodical support, the teams bring their companies to the point where their business model is mature enough for the potential entry of investors.

    Presenting their pitch deck from the Startup Incubator Berlin:

    Matti Fischer and Alex Gründler are the founders of the online platform Careloop, which connects qualified nursing professionals from abroad with clinics and care facilities in Germany. Careloop is revolutionizing the healthcare recruitment market, as foreign nursing professionals have the opportunity to find their dream job in Germany with Careloop.

    Konradin Breyer, founder and CEO, presented Forget Finance, a finance app that allows you to holistically plan your financial future on your smartphone. Forget Finance uses a hybrid model of personal consulting and algorithm-based coaching. The app guides users step by step and provides personalized product recommendations. Making finance easy for everyone!

    Congratulations!

    Over 30 angels were connected to the online event, and the teams had 6 minutes for their pitch. Excitement was high, and the presentations ran very professionally. Afterwards, the business angels asked many detailed questions about the market, the competition, and the business processes. The founders had plausible answers and interesting additional information for every question, and so the teams and their founding ideas were able to make an excellent impression. Several investors have already expressed interest in investing in both teams. This will likely not have been the last pitching event with participation from the Startup Incubator Berlin.

  • Startup Incubator Berlin at the Pitch Day of the Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.

    Startup Incubator Berlin at the Pitch Day of the Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.

    SIB Startups Present Their Founding Ideas to Business Angels

    The BACB (Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.) organized an exclusive pitch day with selected startup teams from the SIB (Startup Incubator Berlin). The startups had the opportunity to present the advanced status of their founding ideas to potential investors and face the critical questions of 20 attending business angels from the region.

    The BACB supports young companies with experience, contacts, and capital. For its members, the pitch day is an excellent opportunity to get to know founding teams at an early stage and, in the event of an engagement, to jointly develop their business idea further. Jesse Hartinger, Managing Director of the BACB: “Universities have always been places with bright minds and innovative ideas. For our business angels, exchanging ideas with the founders of the SIB is a true highlight in the annual calendar. In just five minutes, the startups must present their concept convincingly. Afterwards, they receive valuable feedback from experienced entrepreneurs – a first reality check! We are convinced that sustainable and innovative companies in Berlin can only be built together.”

    At the SIB Startup Incubator Berlin, the founding center of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, founding ideas are developed to market readiness. The focus is on the Lean Startup method as a planning tool during the pre-founding and founding phases. Christian Gurol, Head of the Startup Incubator Berlin: “The special feature of this method is working on the business idea in recurring development cycles – build-measure-learn – with as little effort as possible. In applying the lean methodology, the founders at the Startup Incubator Berlin are also supported through targeted coaching and regular milestone meetings.”

    At the pitch day on June 16, 2020, the following SIB startups presented their companies:

    Easy Cook Asia – Provider of authentic Asian food cooking kits, delivering prepared ingredients and recipes with interesting food stories

    Careloop – Online platform for connecting qualified nursing staff from abroad with clinics and care facilities in Germany

    Thing – Application of AI and robotics for the construction of automated care solutions for elderly persons

    Bloom Health – Online platform for forming patient communities around clinical research projects

    My Second Ear – Digital hearing care specialist that modernizes and innovates customer interaction around the purchase and fitting of hearing aids

    Rvolt – Development of value-added services to provide customers with transparency about their energy consumption and to reduce their CO2 footprint

    The keen interest in the event demonstrates that business angels are willing to invest in innovative business models even during times of crisis. Both sides expressed great satisfaction with this cooperation, and since the event, further direct contacts between angels and startups have been established.

  • 2,000,000 Euros for Berlin Startup Scholarship Recipients

    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.

  • Federal Funding for the Expansion of Startup Culture at the Berlin School of Economics and Law

    Federal Funding for the Expansion of Startup Culture at the Berlin School of Economics and Law

    For the first time, the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) receives federal funding through the EXIST programme to expand its successful startup activities. The university strengthens its profile as an entrepreneurship hub.

    At the Gründungsradar 2018 of the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft, HWR Berlin emerged as one of the best universities of applied sciences in Germany. The university is now receiving financial support from the EXIST funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) to further develop its startup network.

    “We are very pleased about the approval of the subsidies and are taking advantage of the opportunity that the EXIST programme / potentials offer us within the framework of the EXIST startup culture programme to sharpen the profile of our entrepreneurial activities,” says Christian Gurol, Head of Startup Incubator Berlin, the startup centre of HWR Berlin. In the six-month concept phase, four defined fields of work will be prepared with targeted measures to promote startups, before these are then implemented in the project phase.

    Gurol foremost sees strength and potential in entrepreneurship education, the university as Startup Incubator and in active relations to Berlin’s economy and international partners. The entrepreneurship network of the university relies on

    • the establishment of an international entrepreneurship campus as a contact point for international and internationally-oriented students,
    • the integration of incubation and education with the aim of further developing common methods and offers of teaching and startup support,
    • to expand the cooperation network sustainably, to develop partnerships with the regional economy quantitatively and qualitatively, and
    • economic sustainability by developing a business model for entrepreneurship activities.

    “The Berlin School of Economics and Law has continuously promoted entrepreneurship education and thinking in all areas of study and research over the past 18 years,” emphasises Prof. Dr. Sven Ripsas. The professor for entrepreneurship at HWR Berlin refers to the successful founding centre of the university, which was repositioned five years ago and aligned with the lean startup principle. Two years ago, the new startup campus of the Startup Incubator Berlin opened at the Siemens AG site in Berlin. In cooperation with established companies and the BIT6 network of Berlin’s universities of applied sciences, an important innovation centre has been created in the founding capital.

    Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, president of HWR Berlin, says: “Our students and our teachers benefit from the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking in all areas of practice-oriented teaching and research at HWR Berlin. We create the framework to enable creative startup teams to develop together with established companies and thus offer a focal point for knowledge transfer between universities and industry,” says Zaby.

  • Opening A32 Entrepreneurs Forum Berlin Siemensstadt

    Opening A32 Entrepreneurs Forum Berlin Siemensstadt

    On March 22, 2019, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, Siemens Board Member Cedrik Neike, the CEO of Siemens Real Estate, Dr. Zsolt Sluitner, and the President of the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin), Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, inaugurate the A32 Entrepreneurs Forum Berlin Siemensstadt. The transformation of Siemensstadt into a new ecosystem connecting industry, startups, science, and research is taking shape.

    Two years ago, the Berlin School of Economics and Law opened a new location for the Startup Incubator Berlin — the entrepreneurship center of HWR Berlin — on the corporate campus in Berlin-Siemensstadt. HWR Berlin and Siemens AG jointly created a network platform for the Berlin business community and startups to promote entrepreneurial thinking, providing space for the development of innovative business models and new approaches to current economic challenges.

    In a former factory hall, the A32 Entrepreneurs Forum Berlin Siemensstadt was created — an entrepreneurship hub with modern co-working spaces, a large event area, laboratory, and workshop. Through fruitful cooperation between the Berlin business community, the Startup Incubator Berlin, and the other founding centers of Berlin’s universities of applied sciences united in the BIT6 network, key entrepreneurship activities from the academic environment are now concentrated in this forward-looking innovation center of Germany’s startup capital.

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