By Kai Hennig |
Kai Hennig
Known as the“ Silicon Allee,” Berlin is undeniably one of Europe’ s top tech hubs. Every 20 hours there is a new startup founded in Berlin— with roughly 2,500 of them in total. In addition, there are over 14 major incubators and accelerators located in the German capital. In 2015, German startups raised nearly 3 billion Euros in venture capital, over 2 billion of which were spent on startups in Berlin. In the first half of 2016, about 520 million Euros went to the scene on the river Spree. Alongside Berlin there are two more very well established entrepreneurship ecosystems in Germany— Hamburg with its significantly smaller but tight-knit and powerful startup community, and Munich which benefits from its proximity to large tech companies. But it is important for federal governments, no matter the country, to not only
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focus on the larger startup hubs but to work toward growing smaller startup communities into thriving centers for innovation. Let’ s take a closer look at three promising regions where the Silicon Allee |
is expanding and see how the government is promoting this growth.
The federal state of North Rhine- Westphalia, with its metropolitan Rhine- Ruhr region, registered a significant 50 % growth of its local startup scene in 2015. Now, more than 15 % of the startups in Germany have their headquarters here. Promoting this ecosystem is one way of trying to master the structural change in the former coal mining district. The main goal of the federal government is to simplify the transfer of innovative technology from its numerous well-known universities to the marketplace. Its initiative“ Startup Hochschul-Ausgründungen”( which can be roughly translated to“ Startup University-entrepreneurship”) supports selected startups with a total of 20 million Euros through 2020.
Saxony follows with its program SAXEED, a similar approach to that of North Rhine-Westphalia, that offers
Source: CB Insights
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coaching for young university graduates during the implementation of their business ideas. The startup scene in Leipzig is especially booming, which is why locals have begun to refer to the city as“ Hypezig.”
Furthermore, it seems important to keep an eye on the developing startup scene in Baden-Wuerttemberg. The newly elected federal government seeks to make Baden- Wuerttemberg“ the most dynamic entrepreneur ecosystem in Europe.” To do this, they aim to build a statewide founder network and promote the relocation of business angels and venture capitalists. Throughout this process, the federal government can rely on several already established initiatives, including its“ Elevator Pitch BW”— the first statewide annual pitch competition. In addition, Baden- Wuerttemberg is a partner of the MedTech Startup School( MSS), where participants“ receive real-world innovation training while working on a startup idea.” MSS adapted Steve Blank ´ s Lean Launchpad for Life Sciences & Health Care Curriculum from the Universities of Berkeley, Stanford, and San Francisco. Additionally, Stuttgart is also home to the FinTech-Days which inspire teams to“ get finnovative” with events including a Bankathon, where interdisciplinary teams develop and implement FinTech ideas within 40 hours.
Naturally, the federal governments also keep track of what is going on in Berlin and try to learn from the capital’ s strategic approach to promoting its startup scene. In 2015, Berlin’ s Senate and representatives of the startup industry founded the Berlin Startup Unit. The key purpose of the Berlin Startup Unit is to enhance the frame conditions for startups by analyzing existing structures, exposing what the system is lacking and using this information to develop new incentives for founders. The information gathered through this bottom-up process resulted in the“ Berliner Startup Agenda,” which will set the direction of the industry for the years to come. One of the agenda’ s main goals is to strengthen Berlin’ s collaboration with tech hubs worldwide. To this end, Berlin’ s senator for economics, Cornelia Yzer, came to New York City in 2015 to foster the exchange between local startup communities.
North Rhine Westphalia, Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg are only three examples of the widely spread efforts of Germany’ s federal governments to promote their local startup scenes. Without a doubt there is still a lot to do, but they are a positive notion of how the“ Silicon Allee” is steadily expanding throughout Germany.
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Kai Hennig is, Deputy Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, head of the economic department. |
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