Our mission at the CoLab-team of Fraunhofer Venture is to build-up collaborative teams between entrepreneurs, startups and Fraunhofer researchers. Our network encompasses proven technologies for almost any industry and use case, innumerous patents to be explored and short tracks to expert teams of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Europe’s leading institution for applied research. If you are a founder or startup lead looking for the next generation tech, check out our smart framework – you might unlock surprising new business opportunities based on technology:

1. Describe your tech-problem

Our match-making approach starts at the technology pain points of your business. Make your pain a gain and describe your technology-challenge as precise as possible:

• What or technology problem can be solved by technology? (f.e. an medical advanced testing environment, a next level-AI algorithm, …)
• Do you have a solution scenario or do you already know which technologies might help?
• What is your idea or vision of cooperation? (f.e. licencing, Co-Innovation, joint venturing, etc.).

Be as precise as can be to start our match-making engine. Don’t hesitate to give us a call in case of remaining questions (Contact info).

2. Get matching suggestions for free

If your company and your business concept seems a promising match, the CoLab team will start a deeptech-scouting mission in the tech universe of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Based on a deeptech-search engine, we will crawl through the Fraunhofer galaxy of patents and running technologies, evaluate promising solutions or collaboration scenarios and check formals aspects or technology readiness.

The team will get back to you with concrete collaboration suggestions and start a dialogue about possible cooperation scenarios.

3. Meet your tech-match

The bigger your challenge, the better your match-making should be – and this is what we are thriving for. A perfect match between a startup and a research-team has to work on three different levels:

• The tech-match: We are not scanning technology per se, but tech-based solutions for a real business challenge to present to our potential partner startups.
• The personal match: Technology is only as good as the operating team, who makes it a real business case. We therefore start team-building even before you meet your team-mates at Fraunhofer to ensure a great teamplay.
• The business match: Our goal is to empower tech cooperations – therefore, we have only one working business model: win-win. We offer a cooperation model tailored to the needs of your company and team, and opportunities to licence the »missing tech link«. To our CoLab-teams we provide legal support, unique opportunities to work with Fraunhofer labs and facilities and close working relations to the Fraunhofer Technology Transfer Funds (FTTF) as a possible investment partner. Our revenue on cooperation is a joint path to scale and grow on both sides.

4. Do what you can do best – outsource the rest

You are expert in your market – our technology is there to scale up your business. For the majority of startups we partner with, Fraunhofer Tech is the fast track towards the next level of business growth and development, for example a complex AI to boost your existing system or a large test environment for your industry.4.0 application – you name it.

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.