News out of the world of Fraunhofer startups

Germany occupies a top position in high-tech research and development, but currently lands only in the middle of the pack when it comes to high-tech start-ups and venture capital investments in young technology companies. Especially in the capital-intensive early phases of company development, investors and start-ups seem to have difficulties finding each other. One reason for the gap between technological potential and its commercial exploitation is the difficulty in obtaining reliable key figures on companies whose technology and products only become marketable after lengthy, complex developments. The so-called Venture Readiness Management System, a new method to evaluate startups, enables investors to reliably evaluate young tech companies even if they do not yet have valid market data. We spoke with Leonard Rinser, Innovation Manager in the Fraunhofer AHEAD program, who has evaluated methods to overcome the investment gap with the Venture Readiness Management System.

There are many ways to reshape the economy and society with technology partnerships – but there’s only one way to find out if a tech match has what it takes: Work it out and try. Just fill out our matching-deck and pitch for our next CoLab Kick-off on July 06, 2021.

A researcher team from industry and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS is spinning off a high-tech company called “Fusion Bionic”. The company aims to bring lotus effects and other functional microstructures from nature to technical surfaces such as air wings and implants using globally cutting-edge solutions for laser interference technology. The team received support from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s AHED project, which specializes in technology transfer.

Grimmen, 27.04.2021 - The European market leader in plant-based lupine protein food and beverages is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Denayer to the position of CEO. Paul brings with him more than 20 years of relevant experience as business leader in the Food Industry. Paul served most recently as CEO of Crop’s, market leader in Europe in frozen vegetables, fruits and meal solutions.

Heidelberg/Würzburg, March 31, 2021 - Multiphoton Optics GmbH has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidelberg Instruments Mikrotechnik GmbH. The pooling of development capabilities and technologies for producing microstructures further underscores the global importance of research, development and production of direct-writing laser systems “Made in Germany”. The merger also extends the company’s market position in the micro-optics sector.

NexWafe GmbH wins the Fraunhofer Founder Award 2020 endowed with 5000 euros. The start-up convinced the high-caliber panel from Fraunhofer Venture and High-Tech-Gründerfonds with a revolutionary new approach for the photovoltaic industry.

Threedy is a spin-off from Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD in Darmstadt, Germany. It has now raised early-stage venture capital to commercialize its instant3Dhub platform. This platform primarily supports visualization, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, and will initially serve companies in the automotive, aerospace and energy industries, as well as users of building information modeling (BIM) solutions. The investment is led by the Industrial Technologies fund of btov Partners, in association with High Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Fraunhofer.

Although periodontitis is a widespread infectious disease affecting around 30% of the global population, there are currently no effective treatments available — yet. PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals, a Fraunhofer IZI spin-off, has developed a novel treatment strategy that works to specifically eradicate the major bacterial pathogens of periodontitis, thereby tackling the root cause of the disease. With the help of bmp Ventures AG (through the IBG-Fonds), i&i Prague, Fraunhofer Venture and a strategic partner, PerioTrap now plans to advance its drug development programs.

The tech-business of the future will combine the world’s leading science & technology sources and outstanding entrepreneurial capabilities – and you could be part of it. Last Monday, the AHEAD-Team kicked off a pull-workshop with scientists and entrepreneurs to create dedicated matching and collaboration opportunities for future ventures – here is how a pull-workshop connects stat-ups / entrepreneurs and Fraunhofer Technology:

At first sight, reseachers and startup-entrepreneurs seem to work at different ends of the value chain: While researchers solve sophisticated technical problems through forward-looking technologies, startups pilot practicable market solutions for real customer problems. But the reality at Fraunhofer is quite different and even Joseph von Fraunhofer himself started a successful business based on his groundbreaking findings in the field of optics.