#bytevaria Feb 22, 2019

Accelerators in Bavaria: the fast lane to success

A successful start-up needs a good idea. But even the best idea can not take off without contacts, business and marketing expertise, and a solid financial base. That is why many start-ups look for support to develop their business. Bavaria particularly impresses with the diverse and high-quality support on offer, including a number of accelerators. This article sheds light on what accelerators are all about and which industry-specific contact points are available in our region.

Accelerators do exactly what the word means, they speed things up. The idea behind this is to help start-ups to develop further so they can succeed faster. The prerequisite for this is that a business idea already exists and at least the main features of its structure have been defined. Accelerators are therefore particularly interesting for who want to get in contact with potential customers and test or sell their products.

Start-ups can find what is most important during this phase from accelerators: professional assistance in implementing their idea. This assistance often includes start-up financing, coaching or providing an infrastructure, f.e. in the form of premises, servers, software and hardware or marketing. In most cases, the program providers receive a certain percentage of the company shares in return but they are also other ways of cooperation – a customer-supplier relationship being an option as well. Often the corporates offer they own program, such as the Fasttrack Accelerator based in the south of Bavaria:

We are a consortium of three family-run, medium-sized automotive suppliers in southern Bavaria and offer aspiring B2B high-tech start-ups pilot projects in their real manufacturing environment – not a sandbox innovation, but open-heart surgery. - Michael Strommer, Head of Program at FASTTRACK

Other companies choose to work with external providers to support the collaboration between corporates and start-ups. Examples are the Plug & Play Accelerator for Insurtech and Retailtech based in Munich, another acclaimed example is the TechFounders program of UnternehmerTUM:

 

When start-ups and established companies work together, both sides win with good planning. The companies benefit from the start-ups’ innovative strength and agility and the founders get access to real applications. Start-ups and established companies march to a different beat though - TechFounders understands both worlds and brings them together. - Heiko Huber, Managing Director at TechFounders.

Wide range of accelerators with different approaches


The number and quality of these kinds of accelerators is very high in Bavaria. This development, which has picked up speed in recent years, is based on several factors: Bavaria has always been attractive to young talent thanks to its excellent (technical) universities and is home to a very strong start-up scene. Added to this, Bavaria offers fantastic opportunities in the digitization of these classic industries thanks to its traditionally strong and innovative industrial companies and is therefore particularly accessible for start-ups.
 

Munich is the best place to commercialise a start-up due to its corporates landscape, academia and geographic location. That's why we chose Munich as the location. - Christian Lindener, Managing Director at WAYRA


A comprehensive list of the most successful accelerators in Bavaria can be found here to download.