After several months of intensive acceleration in STIFT’s TRIP Accelerator Program, 13 start-ups from Thuringia presented their innovations. Nine projects were given tickets to the final phase of the program, which prepares them for VC investment.
TRIP Season 21/22 is all about transforming structures, processes and new ways of thinking. Six months have passed since the kick-off of the 3rd batch of the Accelerator program. During this time, 13 teams have worked hard and successfully on their business strategies, overcame many challenges and learned a lot. The teams’ concepts are very different, but they have one thing in common: they have the potential to disrupt the status quo of markets and thus create technology change and sustainable growth. From Med-Tech, AI Solutions, HR Solutions and Green-Tech, to Digitalization of Crafts and Sports Innovations and Security Solutions, everything is present in this year’s TRIP to shape the future. With workshops, coaching, prototype budget and a large network of investors, SMEs and industry, the program is optimally positioned to accelerate start-up innovations and make them investment-ready.
At the Demo Day on March 16, 13 startups of TRIP Class 21/22 pitched their acceleration results and future visions to the diverse innovation community and TRIP partners. Christiane Kilian from STIFT opened the event at Mehnert Lab’s Erfurt Innovation Space and shared insights into the current TRIP Class. Afterwards, Dr. Katja Böhler, State Secretary at the Thuringian Ministry of Economy, Science and Digital Society, welcomed the TRIP community: “For years, Thuringia has been at the top of the nation in terms of the quality of start-ups. This is not least due to the broad-based start-up support in the Free State. Since its launch in 2019, the TRIP program has become an important component of this startup support. Already 39 teams have been advanced up until now and successfully networked with investors,” Böhler emphasizes. “The TRIP program not only enables new ideas to become sustainable business models, but also makes it easier to raise the necessary capital.”
The pitch series was followed by the awarding of tickets for the final phase of the TRIP program, which focuses explicitly on VC financing. At the end of the day, eight start-ups from the TRIP Class as well as a newcomer project “ConnCons GmbH” were able to enjoy the tickets for the next TRIP round. Congratulations to the nine teams that are now part of the final TRIP Class:
- Coachwhisperer GmbH from Jena
- ConnCons GmbH from Radebeul
- IDloop GmbH from Jena
- Janova GmbH from Jena
- LOKK UG from Weimar
- Novu from Ilmenau
- Revincus GmbH from Jena
- Taskcards from Schmalkalden
- 4Pilots UG from Jena
These projects have particularly scalable business models and will receive intensive support over the next three months in fine-tuning their concept with the goal of “investment readiness”. The final highlight of the program is a pitch at one of Germany’s largest start-up events – the Investor Days Thuringia, which will take place in Erfurt on June 14 and 15, 2022.
These projects have particularly scalable business models and will receive intensive support over the next three months in fine-tuning their concept with the goal of “investment readiness”. The final highlight of the program is a pitch at one of Germany’s largest start-up events – the Investor Days Thuringia, which will take place in Erfurt on June 14 and 15, 2022.
Already in 2019, the Thuringian Regional Innovation Program (TRIP) was launched by the Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia (STIFT) as part of the ThEx innovativ project to strengthen Thuringia’s startup community as well as to connect stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. Annually, TRIP advances innovation-driven projects and startups with a focus on investment readiness and open innovation.
TRIP is funded by the Thuringian Ministry of Economics through the European Social Fund (ESF) and state funds as part of the ThEx innovativ project.
