Sixty German tech startups applied for the next US round of the German Accelerator. Now, 14 young companies from the fields of AI, IoT, platform technology, enterprise software, fintech, proptech, geotech, e-commerce, and digital health have been selected to launch their US expansion in Silicon Valley and New York starting in January 2019. Four Munich-based startups are also participating.
For the 15th time, the conference, supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics, German Accelerator to its flagship event "Celebrating Innovation." The German Accelerator teams from New York, Silicon Valley, and the Singapore location, which opened in March, gathered at the RheinEnergieSTADION to welcome the new participants to their program in front of 250 guests. Sally Menken, German Accelerator Silicon Valley, hosted the evening and shared her experiences with the startups. In addition to the CEOs of the locations, Michael Meirer (Silicon Valley), Christian Busch (New York), and Claus J. Karthe (Singapore), German Accelerator alumni also shared their experiences in the USA.
About tornadoes & playing golf
“You should have built a stable business in Germany, because you will encounter some tornadoes over there,”
advised Dr. Madjid Salimi, CEO and co-founder of AMBOSS, about the new startups. He continued:
"Go to the US feeling like you're running a new startup. Nothing that keeps you mentally in Germany too much. So hand over as much as possible to your colleagues. The program allows you to work operationally in the US from day one."
Exciting insider knowledge also brought Johannes Emigholz, COO and co-founder of SILEXICA — in 2016, the Cologne-based software startup participated in the German Accelerator program in Silicon Valley. He reported:
"In Europe, you wait three months for an appointment with companies; in Silicon Valley, a colleague's neighbor was playing golf with the CTO of Intel — and the next day we had a pitch with him."
Whether the German unicorn Celonis, which launched in 2013 with the German Accelerator in Silicon Valley, New York Alumni My Postcard, or N26: The support program, which has existed since 2012, has more than 165 alumni companies, offering access to more than 200 mentors and an extensive local network. The new startups launching in January at the German Accelerator in New York and Silicon Valley also aim to build on these successes. Participating from Munich: CQSE, IDnow, Usercentrics and YFood.
Benjamin Kremer, Co-CEO of the meal replacement drink startup YFood, founded in 2017, sees great potential for his young company:
“The US is the perfect market for our product—it’s four times larger than the German market, and customers are much more open to convenience products and innovations in general.”
All 14 new participants at a glance
IDnow (from Munich): offers an identity verification platform for the Now Economy.
YFood (from Munich): sells a drink for Generation Y that replaces entire meals.
CQSE (from Munich): Founded as a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich, the startup uses its central product Teamscale to control newly written software in companies.
Usercentrics (from Munich): helps companies manage their customers’ consents in a legally compliant manner with its “Consent Management Platform”.
Aklamio (from Berlin): is Europe’s largest recommendation platform.
Humanitec (from Berlin): builds a platform that allows companies to easily develop program code and applications.
Medici Living (from Berlin): develops and operates innovative residential and co-living concepts worldwide.
Mimi Hearing (from Berlin): develops digital hearing tests on smartphones to individually adapt the playback of music and sounds to the results.
Acomodeo (from Frankfurt): provides fully furnished apartments for people who are moving to a new location for business or study purposes.
Cognigy (from Düsseldorf): offers a software platform that enables companies to seamlessly integrate Conversational AI into existing or new communication processes.
dc-square (from Landshut): operates in the field of networked industry. The team works around the MQTT software protocol, which enables machines to communicate with each other.
fine (from Kassel): offers services related to consumer finances – from account analysis to home financing.
InfluencerDB (from Cologne): offers data and software to help companies conduct more successful influencer marketing.
Intrapore (from Essen): offers the use of state-of-the-art geotechnical methods for high-resolution site investigation, precise monitoring and effective remediation of soil and groundwater contamination.
