State Secretary for Economic Affairs opens the digital start-up centre in Ansbach

ANSBACH Bavaria’s State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Roland Weigert, opened the ANsWERK digital start-up centre (DGZ) in Ansbach together with District Administrator Dr Jürgen Ludwig and Lord Mayor Thomas Deffner.  “Ansbach has a new nucleus for its young founders. In addition to suitable premises, ANsWERK provides above all a broad network of supporters and close ties to the regional start-up community. This is the perfect environment for young entrepreneurs to successfully exploit the opportunities of the digital transformation. And the region also benefits from the innovative ideas that spread from AnsWERK far beyond Ansbach”, explained Weigert.

 
The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is funding the development of the DGZ in Ansbach with over 2.8 million euros. In addition to the Posthof in Ansbach, ANsWERK has a second location in Merkenheim at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences’ Innovation Campus. Through cooperation with the Competence Centre for Digital Agriculture (KoDA) and the Biomass Institute (BIT), in addition to co-working spaces and office space, founders have access to laboratories and a workshop for building prototypes. The city and district of Ansbach run the digital start-up centre. Partner institutions providing support are the Ansbach and Weihenstephan-Triesdorf Universities of Applied Sciences, the Nuremberg Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Middle Franconia and the Chamber of Crafts for Middle Franconia. The goal of the stakeholders is to develop Ansbach and western Middle Franconia into a model region for innovation and digitalisation in rural areas. In addition to the Zollhof Tech Incubator in Nuremberg, ANsWERK is the second DGZ in Middle Franconia.
 

In his speech, State Secretary Weigert emphasised the importance of start-ups for Bavaria: “Bavaria needs young entrepreneurs who develop and courageously realise new business ideas with creativity, enthusiasm and determination. They are the innovators and drivers of future technologies. Entrepreneurship is the nucleus for successful small and medium-sized enterprises and the future-proof jobs of tomorrow. From this quotation is is quite clear: supporting young entrepreneurs was, is and will remain a core element of Bavarian economic policy. That is why we are investing in our 19 digital incubators comprehensively across the whole of Bavaria. Thus, speeding up the start-up dynamic and creating stable regional start-up ecosystems – in major cities and rural areas at the same time.”

 
The digital start-up centres support digital start-ups and are central contact points for start-ups in all regions of Bavaria. The 19 DGZs with 27 locations across Bavaria focus on networking start-ups with business, science and investors. The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is funding the development of the facilities with 120 million euros in total.
 

Source: StMWi | Press number 397/21