The TRIP Accelerator Program powered by STIFT started its fourth round today with 9 innovative start-up projects. Within the next six months, business models will be accelerated through expertise, budget and network and developed towards investment readyness.
The Thuringian Regional Innovation Program (TRIP) of the Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia (STIFT) has already been guiding start-ups specifically towards investment readyness since 2019 and connecting them with investors and stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem.
Around 50 guests from the start-up community, VC scene and industry gathered today at the kick-off event “Start Your TRIP” in Erfurt to exchange ideas and get to know the motivated applicant teams for the current TRIP Class. After a short welcome round by the organizers and a greeting by State Secretary Dr. Böhler, the teams presented themselves and their start-up ideas in a pitch. Among them were ambitious deep tech projects, start-ups from life science and optics, as well as innovative start-up projects from the fields of sports, digitalization and automation.
Following the pitches, nine start-ups were officially accepted into TRIP and provided with a starter kit for the next few months. Seven projects received full tickets for the program, while another two projects are allowed to participate in TRIP as associates.
Startups with a Full Ticket:
- FluIDect GmbH (Jena)
- ProSports.Zone GmbH (Poseritz)
- FreeMOM (Gerstungen)
- OpenUC2 (Jena)
- Indigo Optical Systems GmbH (Jena)
- BeeSupervisor (Dresden)
- CAMSENS GmbH (Schleusingen)
Associated Startups:
- BIM Hotspot (Weimar)
- Sandruschka GmbH (Weimar)
Right after the kick-off, a six-month journey full of individual coaching, monthly workshops, valuable networking events as well as a prototyping budget of up to €4,500 will start for the newcomers. In addition, the teams have the chance to receive an investment of €100,000 from Beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen GmbH (bm|t). Since, in addition to capital, expertise from various areas is essential for start-ups, topics such as team, business model creation, strategy, market and corporate communications, financing and investor relations will be taught in the upcoming workshops together with experts. Furthermore, this batch offers additional modules for the field of automation and robotics in cooperation with the Mehnert Lab. As a hub of industrial collaboration, it offers the perfect infrastructure for the development of innovative solutions, a coworking space as well as access to industry experts and real market and customer problems.
Through a combination of knowledge transfer, strategic consulting, reflection and network access, the teams are prepared in the best possible way for the program’s objective: Investment Readyness. This forms the basis for rapid scaling as well as sustainable business success.
For particularly scalable projects, there is an additional three months of the final TRIP phase. Here, the focus is on VC financing, which ideally prepares the teams for the final highlight of the program: The pitch at one of Germany’s largest start-up events – the Investor Days Thuringia, which will take place again in Erfurt on June 14 and 15, 2023.
About TRIP
The Thuringian Regional Innovation Program TRIP was initiated in 2019 by the Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia (STIFT) as part of the ThEx innovativ project to strengthen Thuringia’s start-up community, accelerate innovation, and connect stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. Since then, the accelerator program has already advanced 38 start-up teams from diverse fields such as IoT, AI solutions, mobility, new materials, green tech and space tech and successfully networked them with the VC community.
The TRIP program has a large community of innovators, investors and established companies and is supported by strong partners such as EY, Mehnert GmbH, LEG and Beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen GmbH as a sponsoring partner. TRIP is funded by the Thuringian Ministry of Economic Affairs as part of the ThEx innovativ project with money from the European Social Fund (ESF) and state funds.
Further information about TRIP can be found at: https://trip.community/
Contact
Andreas Sonnefeld Olga Röder
Projektleitung ThEx innovativ Projektleitung ThEx innovativ
c/o Stiftung für Technologie, Innovation c/o Stiftung für Technologie, Innovation
und Forschung Thüringen (STIFT) und Forschung Thüringen (STIFT)
Häßlerstraße 8 | 99096 Erfurt Häßlerstraße 8 | 99096 Erfurt
Tel.: +49 (0)361 78923-75 Tel.: +49 (0)361 78923-72
Mail: andreas.sonnefeld@stift-thueringen.de Mail: olga.roeder@stift-thueringen.de
Recap
Photos: Alexander Michel
