Benchmark for start-up locations: Karlsruhe wants to have its pioneering role confirmed

Cover picture: Dennis Dorwarth Photography

Start-ups are booming. In Karlsruhe, too, numerous young entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas want to set up their own business and take their destiny into their own hands. In the city, the spirit of optimism is palpable thanks to the numerous start-up centers. But how does Karlsruhe compare nationally and internationally as a start-up location? David Hermanns wants to find out. That’s why the Managing Director of the high-tech entrepreneur network CyberForum and spokesman for the start-up culture working group of the karlsruhe.digital initiative wants to commission a benchmark.

“Karlsruhe plays a real pioneering role in Germany with its start-up centers,” Hermanns is convinced. This has also been shown in a number of external surveys to date. If these findings are confirmed by a current comparative study, he believes that Karlsruhe could receive a further boost as a start-up location. “Karlsruhe is already well known in the start-up scene,” says Hermanns. “But then we could also attract more investors.”

Business incubators and universities are important success factors

For Hermanns, the reasons for Karlsruhe’s success as a start-up location are obvious. On the one hand, the city already has several renowned start-up centers with the CyberLab of the CyberForum, the Technologiefabrik and the Perfekt Futur in the Alter Schlachthof creative park. On the other hand, there is a broad circle of support for young entrepreneurs thanks to the good networking of CyberForum e.V. with the Karlsruhe Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) and the city’s business development department. And last but not least, the high level of expertise of the two technical knowledge hubs Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) is the basis for numerous spin-offs from the IT sector. “The student spin-offs are a major boost for Karlsruhe as a start-up location,” says Hermanns. This is why the student university group PionierGarage is also an important success factor for Karlsruhe as a start-up location.

Successful start-ups are beacons of the start-up scene

For Hermanns, companies such as ArtiMinds Robotics, Papershift and Campusjäger are real beacons of the start-up scene alongside the accelerators. “These started out as small start-ups and now have up to 150 employees,” says the CyberForum Managing Director. The success stories in Silicon Valley in the US, with numerous large companies, are still a long way off. “But you can’t compare the USA with Germany in this case,” says Hermanns. There is a much larger market overseas and entrepreneurs are much more willing to take risks than in Germany. According to Hermanns, what Karlsruhe still needs as a start-up location is a few financially strong investors who are willing to take risks. “Elsewhere, large companies buy up successful start-ups to further develop their own business.”