High-Potential German Startups on Their Journey to Global Expansion

At German Accelerator, we continue with our mission to empower startups with cutting-edge solutions to scale globally. We have nurtured over 300 startups who have stepped up to address current and urgent challenges with their innovative products and services. Talking about ‘new,’ we’d like to congratulate a fresh wave of German startups who have recently joined our market access programs in Asia and the U.S. and are ready to take on and succeed in the respective markets.

Current U.S participant Walkolution, who offers people a healthier alternative to sitting, was recently one of the winners of the iF DESIGN AWARD 2021 in the office product discipline. Their revolutionary ‘walk as you work’ solution stood out from almost 10,000 submissions from 52 countries.

Drone solutions provider Wingcopter, another U.S. participant, is no stranger to German Accelerator, having gone through three other programs (Southeast Asia, India, and Japan). They recently partnered with ANA Holdings to deliver daily necessities and medicine to Japan’s remote islands. While they continue to make a mark in Asia, Wingcopter also raised $22M in Series A funding, where they intend to expand to the U.S. and launch a next-generation drone.

Thirty percent of these new startups have entrusted German Accelerator with their entry to global markets more than once. Prior to joining the Asia Market Access programs, lawpilots and kraftwerk TUBES were alumni of our U.S. program, and LexaTexer took part in our Japan Market Discovery program. They are now ready to take on the broader Asian market, and we are proud to support them once again. Rytle, on the other hand, was part of our Southeast Asia, Japan, and India programs previously and is now a participant in our U.S. program.

Doing Business in Asia and Scaling to the U.S.

We spoke to a few of our new Asia and U.S. class participants to understand what makes these regions attractive for global expansion.

Dr. Günther Hoffmann, Chief Executive Officer at LexaTexer, stated, “Our customers include cross-vertical international corporations in energy, healthcare, and heavy industries. In all of these verticals, we see strong growth and demand in Southeast Asia. German Accelerator provides the local networks, expertise, and access to local specialists to rapidly evaluate these markets and adjust our product-market fit. Singapore and the greater Southeast Asia region are highly competitive and entrepreneurial. We believe we can profit from the entrepreneurial ecosystem and provide cutting-edge and battle-proof solutions to the local markets.”

Mario Geiss, Managing Partner at alphin, shared, “Due to its size and innovative spirit, the U.S. market represents an enormous chance to test the scalability of our business model and product-market fit with international clients. The U.S. vaccination progress and early opening of local businesses offer another opportunity for us. German Accelerator provides a valuable and relevant network for our expansion. The guidance through expert knowledge will help us develop a scalable go-to-market strategy and open doors to potential partners and clients.”

Co-Founder at Kraftwerk TUBES, Martin Pentenrieder, said, “Multiple countries such as China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam match our market requirements and have significant market niches for our technology, especially e-scooters and mobile energy. These markets are positively reinforced by the existence of a well-developed LPG/CNG infrastructure. On the other hand, expansion and participation in the German Accelerator program offers great private growth capital opportunities within Asia. I am convinced that our company, Kraftwerk TUBES GmbH, can be successful in Asia, as we have already taken our first steps into the dynamic region.”

Have a look at the companies in the virtual German Accelerator programs over the next few months and stay tuned for what they have in store:

U.S. Market Access Class 2021-2

• alphin (Berlin) is a leading marketing platform for local businesses to automate and centralize their entire customer lifecycle management. alphin provides all the tools – from awareness building to activation and retention. Everything as software, everything in one app. Simple, affordable, and of the highest quality.
• koawach (Berlin) sells Fairtrade and Organic coffee, guarana, and coffee-milk-mix products. Its products are sold online and in more than 6,000 stores in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
• MODIFI (Berlin) is solving trade finance for SMEs globally, giving them access to the working capital they need to succeed. They support both sides of the trade – the buyer and the seller – offering them liquidity and risk protection. Its digital platform currently supports 500+ trading parties across 40+ countries.
• Nomitri (Berlin) offers a smartphone-based self-checkout solution for stationary retail stores that provide a personalized shopping experience with product recommendations, real-time communication with the retailers and product manufacturers, and relevant marketing content.
• RYTLE (Bremen) sells electric cargo bikes with a unique swappable cargo box that allows the top global logistics companies to deliver parcels fast and closest to your doorstep.
• troy (Lippstadt) combines successful debt collection with cutting-edge CRM. They help their customers recover debts and retain customers with less hassle than ever before.
• vivenu (Düsseldorf) is a limitless API-first ticketing solution to enable effortless and self-empowered ticketing. It offers ticket sellers a unified, powerful ticketing experience fueled by co-creation on their open platform to unlock unlimited opportunities.
• Walkolution (Garching b. München) replaces the chair with a silent and motorless walking treadmill desk. Their mission is to correct a fundamental and costly mistake of our civilization: the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle.
• Wingcopter (Weiterstadt) is an award-winning German manufacturer of unmanned (UAS) eVTOL, fixed-wing aircraft dedicated to improving the lives of people worldwide through meaningful commercial and humanitarian applications.

Asia Market Access Class 2021-1

• Annea (Hamburg) developed a software that predicts wind turbine failures up to 12 months in advance, leading to considerable cost savings and higher efficiency for wind park owners.
• Glenwood (Munich) operates as a pharmaceutical marketer focused on acquiring branded, mature, and off-patent niche products from big pharma companies. They distribute products globally through a growing international partner network.
• Kraftwerk TUBES (Dresden) produces an entirely new advanced compact fuel cell that runs on hydrocarbon (like e-fuels: LPG, LNG, CNG, propane, butane, etc.) and hydrogen. It is the only low-cost, lightweight aSOFC capable of repeated cycling and quick startups.
• lawpilots (Berlin) is a leading e-learning provider for innovative online trainings in legal areas such as data protection, compliance, occupational safety & health, and information security.
• LexaTexer (Berlin) provides software and industrial IoT devices to build enterprise-scale AI applications. They highly automate the building, testing, integration, operation, securing, and scaling of AI-driven solutions in multiple verticals like energy, healthcare, and manufacturing.
• Micro-biolytics (Esslingen), with their hardware and software, creates a global standard for chemical analytics by revolutionizing how to obtain, translate, interpret and compare information derived from all chemicals.

The wheels will not stop spinning for us at German Accelerator as we continue to cater to the unrelenting interest for international expansion to the U.S. and Asian markets virtually (for now). Want to start scaling to new markets? Check out our programs.