Berlin and Brandenburg receive 10 million for start-ups of the future!

Berlin and Brandenburg receive 10 million for start-ups of the future!

In the past few weeks there have been exciting news from Berlin, which are also of interest to start-up enthusiasts in Cologne. Berlin and Brandenburg have the Federal Government competition for start-up funding, the Exist-leuchturfsturm competition startup Factories , cleared. The start-up factory Unite, which should be active from the beginning of 2026, has won a funding of up to ten million euros over five years. This is a real push for innovative start -ups!

The funding is used as start -up financing and is intended to support technology -driven start -ups from science, whereby the focus is on the hot issues of artificial intelligence, health and green technologies. "There is something," says Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU), who pursues ambitious plans: From 2030, a new start-up is to be founded every day. In order to make this vision come true, the Senate plans a new IP strategy that should accelerate the technology transfer from universities to the start-ups. So it is sought that this process takes a maximum of three months.

support from business

Another exciting aspect of unite financing is the additional private capital of over ten million euros, which is provided from various sources: by the Berliner Sparkasse, private investors and large companies such as Bayer and Deutsche Telekom. Thomas Heilmann, Chairman of the Unite gGmbH Supervisory Board, emphasizes that it is about developing tomorrow's market leaders from research. This shows once again how important a close cooperation between science and business is.

Why the whole commitment is necessary? The number of foundations in Germany has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2023 it was only almost 2,500, a clear decline compared to almost 3,200 in 2021. But the numbers for 2024 show light at the end of the tunnel: According to the startup association, 1,500 new foundations were recorded in the first half of the year, and there is a view to cross the 3,000 mark by the end of the year.

The winners of the competition

Among the award -winning projects of the lighthouse competition can also be found innovative ideas such as those of Stackable. The founders Lars Francke and Sönke Liebau developed a modular data platform that efficiently processes large amounts of data - regardless of which industry, be it finance, research or healthcare. Stackable already has international customers in the USA and Malaysia and relies on open source to guarantee stability and reliability. It is interesting to hear that the idea originally came about during workshops in a "corona-WG", which shows how dynamic and creative the founding climate can be if you only have the right hand.

The example of stackable is proof that despite bureaucratic hurdles that can act like an hobbyhorse, the courage to be founded can pay off. In this sense, the founders encourage other entrepreneurs to quickly try out new approaches and not to be prevented from funding that often cost time. "You have to tackle a lot more here," says Francke.

The numerous initiatives and the funding by the Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche show that Germany is well on the way to becoming a leading start-up nation. Universities and established companies work hand in hand to strengthen the German ecosystem and to develop sustainable sustainable business models. It remains exciting to observe how these developments will affect the founding climate in cities like Cologne.

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OrtBerlin, Deutschland
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