Start-up city Hannover
From swarm intelligence in road traffic to innovative cellulose made of waste from pineapple plants: Hannover is one of Germany’s start-up hotspots.
Swarm intelligence gets you there
Every year, commuters in Germany spend an average of 40 hours in traffic jams. Hannover’s young company Graphmasters shows that there’s a way around the problem: a world with flowing traffic. This is based on the NUNAV technology developed by the company that gives every vehicle an individual route. NUNAV spreads traffic out across the entire road network. The combination of AI-based traffic models with traffic predictions and real-time traffic information means that NUNAV users consume less fuel and reach their destinations on time. The principle is called collaborative routing and is based on swarm intelligence. Graphmasters was launched in 2013 in Hannover with support from the city’s economic development agency hannoverimpuls, and is now an international company with more than 50 employees, and branches in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Austria. Graphmasters found the ideal setting for its growth in the TECHNOLOGIE ZENTRUM in the Technopark Marienvalley.
The TZ – Hannover’s best address for the technologies of tomorrow
hannoverimpuls’s TECHNOLOGIE ZENTRUM (TZ) covers 6,500 square metres and offers offices, workshops, a technology mall and laboratories, giving innovative, technology-oriented companies and start-ups the opportunity for optimum business development. Going over and beyond the subsidised premises, hannoverimpuls supports the companies that have settled here with comprehensive advice and services to help them get started – from networking with suitable cooperation partners through to finding suitable funding and sources of financing. The TZ offers a huge locational advantage with its physical proximity to research institutes of national and international renown, as well as the mechanical engineering campus of Leibniz University Hannover.
Cutting costs in industry: processing system attached directly to the component
This also benefits Picum MT GmbH, a spin-off from the Institute for Production Engineering and Machine Tools (IFW) at Leibniz University Hannover. Picum MT develops mobile and highly flexible precision systems for demanding manufacturing processes. The system is attached directly to the component. To this end, the company has developed a machining technology that combines a whole process chain in one machine. As a result, steps such as time-consuming component transportation become superfluous, generating huge savings in time and costs. Picum won the Startup-Impuls competition in 2015 and was funded by the EXIST research transfer programme. The growing company combines traditional machine tool construction with sensor systems for digitalisation and robotic methods. As a high-tech start-up, it creates jobs in engineering and informatics.
The factors in Hannover’s success as a start-up location
Start-ups drive growth in a location. Hannover’s appeal for such enterprises consists of a network of institutions and players, combined with the goal of supporting prospective start-ups in every phase of founding a company. This extends from role models from successful companies and mentors via funding and premises through to the general conditions. Hannover’s start-up ecosystem stands out with the commitment to the city shown by so many people in positions of responsibility. Those interested in founding a company find numerous networking possibilities, particularly with established firms. Private-sector co-working spaces are available, such as the Hafven, one of Germany’s largest co-working and maker spaces, with its own accelerator programme. A second accelerator, the VentureVilla, offers early-stage start-ups a 100-day accelerator programme in web and software technology. This includes free individual coaching and mentoring, own workplaces in the heart of Hannover and access to a large network of investors.
Start-up competition as successful initial help
For 19 years, hannoverimpuls has pooled forces with Sparkasse Hannover every year to hold the “Startup-Impuls” competition with the highest endowment in North Germany, attracting interest that extends way beyond the region itself. Up to now, non-cash prizes and prize money valued at altogether more than 15 million Euro have been awarded to founding teams and 50 start-ups in various prize categories. For instance, Wingfield won the award in 2017 for its innovation in the field of sport. The Wingfield-Box uses artificial intelligence and innovative image processing software to track and evaluate a wide range of data for a tennis match. This turns tennis courts into digital smart courts and makes the results available conveniently in the app. Since the market launch in early 2019, Wingfield has become the European market leader for tracking technology in tennis and now operates in 16 countries. One of those investing in the on-going expansion is Hannover Beteiligungsfonds GmbH (HBF) from hannoverimpuls.
eco:fibr is also one of the winning teams in 2021. The start-up uses plant waste from pineapple plantations in Costa Rica to make cellulose from pineapple plants as a genuine alternative to wood pulp. The team also received an EXIST start-up grant for large-scale extraction of cellulose from plant waste. Work is currently in progress to set up a pilot factory on a partner plantation in Costa Rica.
From research to practice: starting business and Invest-Impuls und Invest-Impuls
eco:fibr and Picum MT are examples that show how universities supply young talents for the start-up ecosystem. “starting business”, the joint start-up service of Leibniz University Hannover and hannoverimpuls, addresses potential start-ups like Picum MT directly on site where the ideas are created. When it comes to seed funding, the hannoverimpuls fund ensures the city is well positioned on the investors’ side. Under the umbrella brand Invest-Impus, the economic development agency invests in innovative technology-oriented start-ups, thus keeping them in the region. One example: RFmondial. For radio listeners, it has become normal practice to be able to tune in to radio stations on one frequency in top quality throughout Germany.
This is all thanks to digital radio, which will replace VHF completely in the long term. RFmondial has made a name for itself on a global scale with products and services for digital radio broadcasting. 13 years after it was founded, the company has become the international world market leader in the digital radio standard DRM – thanks to support from hannoverimpuls and venture capital from Invest-Impuls. By the way, the company redeemed all the company shares in 2020 – even paying the investors a return.
Great place for female start-ups
Start-ups by women are different – and above all, more sustainable. It is, therefore, all the more special that Hannover takes the lead when it comes to female start-ups, even on a national scale. Instruments such as the Female Health Incubator (FHI), which supported health start-ups from 2020 to 2022 to boost the chances of digitalisation in the healthcare sector, have resulted in the market launch among others of HistaFit. HistaFit offers a platform that provides precise information and products for people with histamine intolerance. The FHI has advanced a wide range of business ideas. In three cycles, 13 teams have used the incubator for further development of offerings such as the digital care portal KindCare that connects family members, care facilities and companies. This was possible as part of the Social Innovation project with resources from the European Social Fund (ESF).
Heading for the future with Digital Health City Hannover (DHCH)
The new network Digital Health City Hannover (DHCH) also aims to cultivate new market segments involved in digital healthcare applications. With more than 50 partners already and numerous cooperation enquiries, DHCH is a new component in the cooperation that will advance Hannover’s reputation as start-up city also in the digital healthcare sector.
Short distances and lots of sharing in the start-up ecosystem
A smart football by iotis, an ammeter called FUSE for measuring tiny currents or therapeutic agents for repairing heart disease by Cardior – the list of forward-looking innovations from Hannover is long and could be continued ad infinitum. But they all have one thing in common: Hannover makes successful use of swarm intelligence not just in road traffic. Ideas emerge and grow in active sharing within an agile startup ecosystem.
Header picture: Hoda Bogdan/stockAdobe.com
