Berlin, 30 April 2018
17 finalists made it to the final round of applications in front of the German-American jury of German Accelerator Tech. Seven promising tech startups were awarded prizes on April 26 at the “Celebrating Innovation” event in the presence of 400 invited guests at Radialsystem V in Berlin. From July onwards, the winners are going to drive their U.S. expansion together with German Accelerator Tech in Silicon Valley and New York.
For the 14th time already, German Accelerator Tech presented a selection of the most innovative German tech startups and awarded the new participants of its acceleration program at the flagship event “Celebrating Innovation”. Andy Goldstein, CEO of the German Entrepreneurship GmbH and host of the evening, opened the event. Then, the German Accelerator scouts Konstantin Krauss and Nicolas Hantzsch disclosed the “secret formula” of what startups really need to make it in the U.S.: “Do your homework first: funding, team, product market fit and success on your domestic market.”
Christian Busch, CEO of the New York program, sees a clear U.S. mentality pattern: “Innovations arise in a totally natural way – people are open-minded about something new and just do it. It’s the principle of fail fast.” Silicon Valley CEO Dirk Kanngiesser added: “By definition, companies in the U.S. have higher ambitions than companies anywhere else.” Equally interesting for European tech companies is Southeast Asia, concluded Claus J. Karthe, CEO of the newly opened Singapore program. Many companies simply lack access to this market. Here, German Accelerator supports since March 2018 on-site.
As the highlight of the evening, the strategic partners of German Accelerator (DB Systel, Deutsche Bank and Deloitte Digital), which is mainly sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, announced the seven new participants of the Class of Fall 2018, starting in July: Oculyze, Meshcloud, vectoflow, VICAMPO, Stoyo, mitte, and SimScale.
The Berlin-based company Stoyo has high ambitions, according to founder Patrick Bales: “In Germany, we are the fastest growing advertising agency. Now we want to capture the U.S. market together with German Accelerator Tech.” The Munich-based startup SimScale is already actively present on the U.S. market: “The majority of our important partners is based in the U.S., one of the world’s most relevant markets. To drive the strategic expansion forward as quickly as possible, German Accelerator Tech was recommended to us by several alumni.”, described CEO David Heiny their motivation for the program participation.
The German flagship startup N26 has been participating in the German Accelerator New York program since the beginning of 2018 and has now successfully applied for a program extension: “Because we operate like a startup in the U.S. The German Accelerator Tech network helped us a lot. Getting access to the right people is essential when entering a new market. Furthermore, the German Accelerator Tech onboarding efficiency on-site was phenomenal.”
Stephan Kühr participated with his company 3YOURMIND in the German Accelerator Silicon Valley program at the end of 2016. His advice: “Be well prepared and make appointments in advance. Start networking from day one. Benefit from other startups on-site, share your challenges and everything that works out well.“ To him, the contacts provided by the German Accelerator Tech team have been relevant and turned into customers. Four customers back in the days turned into 26 customers today. 3YourMind now operates two U.S. locations in San Francisco and New York.
A great journey is yet to come: German Accelerator Tech provides startups with hands-on mentoring and office space in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and New York City, coaching by top-level mentors, an extensive network of potential investors, customers and partners, as well as regular events. A further incentive is the new partnership of German Accelerator with more than 20 top companies including Google, Amazon, WeWork, and Stripe that was officially announced on April 26. The partners offer support for all German Accelerator startups through tools and services worth $340,000.
The recent years show a strong German Accelerator Tech success story: Founded in 2012, the program covers 160 alumni companies and provides access to 150+ mentors in the U.S. More than 90% of the supported startups are still in business today.
List of the selected German Accelerator Tech participants (Class of Fall 2018)
- Oculyze (based in Wildau) enables capturing and evaluating microscopic images within seconds thanks to a system of smartphone microscope and automated image recognition.
- Meshcloud (based in Frankfurt) offers an open European cloud platform: Transparency, flexibility, and easy administration are paramount. For this, Meshcloud integrates established German data centers and builds on open source software.
- VICAMPO (based in Mainz) is an online marketplace where more than 1.000 German and international wineries offer their wines.
- vectoflow (based in Munich) offers innovative aerodynamic measurement devices. Through 3D printing, the company produces customized multi-hole-probes and offers systems to evaluate the results.
- Stoyo (based in Berlin) produces social videos for Facebook and Instagram, using an innovative, data-based approach. In 2017, 19 out of the top 50 commercials on the German Facebook platform were created by Stoyo – the fastest growing German advertising agency.
- mitte (based in Berlin) develops a “smart home water system,“ an intelligent solution to clean and mineralize tap water.
- SimScale (based in Munich) is the world’s first cloud-based platform for engineering simulation. SimScale enables designers and engineers to run high-fidelity physics simulations simply via a web browser.
About German Accelerator
German Accelerator is a support program for German companies that aim to expand internationally. Having started in 2012 in the Silicon Valley, the program expanded to New York in 2014. Through extensive hands-on mentoring, free office space, and immediate access to a top-notch network, selected tech companies are fully immersed in the respective ecosystem right upon arrival. With the support of German Accelerator, startups save precious time and money in building their business in the world’s largest market.
Life sciences companies have been supported in Cambridge / Boston since 2015. Since March 2018, the program supports German startups to enter the Southeast Asian markets from its site in Singapore. German Accelerator is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as well as corporate partners. The program is free of charge for all participating companies.
For further information: www.germanaccelerator.com
Press Contact German Accelerator, Germany
Katharina Legge, Munich
Email: katharina.legge@germanaccelerator.com