By Andreas Kißler
BERLIN (Dow Jones)–With the Startup Factories lighthouse competition, the Federal Ministry of Economics is launching new startup funding, thereby complementing the long-standing funding program “Exist – start-ups from science”. The aim is to support the development of university-related and entrepreneurially oriented start-up centers, as the ministry announced. In a first step, a concept phase will be carried out in which universities and research institutions with strong start-ups can take part. The corresponding funding guidelines have now been published in the Federal Gazette.
“Universities and research institutions are one of the most important sources for new technologies, innovative products and services,” said Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens). Germany holds a leading position in research. “In order to become a leading startup nation, we must further expand the transfer of knowledge and technology into the economy.” To this end, the aim is to promote the establishment of supra-regional and internationally visible startup lighthouses.
With the new funding guidelines, the ministry is implementing an important project in the government’s startup strategy, namely making it easier for scientific spin-offs. A special feature of the startup factories is that universities join forces with private financing partners: The startup factories must be financed as a public-private partnership with at least 50 percent coming from private funds, and sustainable business models should be developed. The merger of universities, investors and established companies should “contribute to the significant scaling of the German startup ecosystem”.
Implementation phase planned for 2025
According to the information, up to 15 projects will be selected by the beginning of June with the involvement of an external jury, which will then develop their detailed concept for a startup factory with financial support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and thus apply for an implementation phase planned for 2025. According to information from the Finance Ministry, the federal government also wants to increasingly encourage private investment in German growth companies. To this end, the “Venture and Innovation Capital for Germany” (WIN) initiative was launched, which aims to “mobilize private investments in German startups and the technology sector”.
As part of the initiative, measures and agreements are to be developed by summer 2024 “to make the German capital markets more competitive, especially in the area of venture capital, and at the same time to obtain a concrete financing commitment from institutional investors for German startups and innovation technologies,” said a spokeswoman. According to reports, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to loosen the regulation of pension funds, pension funds and insurance companies.
Habeck and Lindner have also announced that they want to expand access to capital for young, innovative technology companies. This is intended to provide greater support for startups that invest in, for example, artificial intelligence, climate, quantum or biotechnology. According to Habeck, further private capital will be leveraged with public investments of 1.75 billion euros. In his words, “at least the same amount of private funds” should be added to these, which would mean at least an additional 3.5 billion euros would be available for investments in the German venture capital market.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 28, 2024 05:33 ET (10:33 GMT)