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  • 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.

  • Boosting Startups @ HWR Berlin

    Boosting Startups @ HWR Berlin

    HWR Berlin as the only Berlin university in the “Regional Networking” funding focus among winners of the BMWi competition EXIST. Major success for Startup Incubator Berlin and Entrepreneurship Education

    The Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) will receive two million euros over the next four years to strategically expand its startup support programs. 220 universities and universities of applied sciences from all federal states had participated in the funding competition of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). HWR Berlin entered with its concept titled “Boosting Startups @ HWR Berlin” in the “Regional Networking” category.

    “The strong performance of universities of applied sciences in the funding competition to expand their startup centers underlines once again how much the federal government relies on practice-oriented approaches when it comes to startups and startup support,” says Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, President of HWR Berlin. “Being counted among the winners is both recognition and motivation. We are very pleased to have been the only Berlin university to succeed in the funding line for advanced startup universities, and we will use the funding to further expand our offerings,” says Zaby.

    The goal is to strengthen the startup culture in the capital region by integrating HWR Berlin with players in the regional startup ecosystem and international partner universities. Christian Gurol, head of Startup Incubator Berlin, the startup center of HWR Berlin, considers the team and the exchange between startups to be key success factors. “With our startup center, we provide the platform and broad-based, intensive support so that startup enthusiasts become teams, ideas become market-ready projects, and companies are founded,” he explains.

    The special feature of this startup hub, with locations at Campus Schöneberg and at the A32 Entrepreneurs Forum Berlin Siemensstadt, is that the teams work according to the Lean Startup method. At its core, this 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. The strategy is paying off: approximately 95 percent of startups establish limited liability companies after the “Berlin Startup Scholarship” and become economic actors themselves. “Startups are of high strategic importance for Germany as a business location: they drive innovation, are the engine of structural change, and create the jobs of the future,” emphasized Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier upon announcing the winners of the EXIST-Potentiale funding competition.

    In the 2018 Startup Radar of the Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany, the Berlin School of Economics and Law emerged as one of the best universities of applied sciences in Germany. With the funds from the Federal Ministry, it can continue and further develop its successful startup support, and draw inspiration as a member of the network of successful German startup universities. HWR Berlin is focusing on four priorities for strategic expansion:

    • HWR Berlin Startup Boosters: a regional network that directly benefits the supported startups
    • Spin-off of HWR Berlin for commercial exploitation, in order to offer commercial activities on a demand-oriented basis
    • Open Startup Academy: a regional network that ensures the institutionalized integration of HWR Berlin in the regional startup ecosystem
    • International Startup Community: knowledge and people transfer between partner universities to support the regional network.

    “We create the framework conditions under which creative startup teams can develop well together with established companies, and thus offer a crystallization point for knowledge transfer between academia and industry,” says Zaby.

    For more information on Startup Incubator Berlin at HWR Berlin:
    http://www.startup-incubator.berlin/

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