The path from startup to global company leads through the stock market. Facebook and Twitter led the way, and German companies like voxeljet, Rocket Internet, the 3D printer manufacturer SLM Solutions, and Zalando followed suit. "There should be significantly more German IPOs!" say entrepreneurs, investors, and VC experts.
UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Munich, invited to this year's Forum UnternehmerTUM with the question: “Startups on the stock market – How to make an IPO a success?” 650 guests came to BMW Welt, including startups, aspiring founders, DAX entrepreneurs and investors.
“An active stock market is essential for the economy as a whole,” Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Chair of Entrepreneurial Finance at TUM, said in her welcoming remarks, "We need to bring together newly founded and established companies; this will create a new ecosystem. Startups create jobs – an average of 1.8 in the founding phase and 181 in the later-stage phase. The sale to an investor and the IPO are twins; they can happen one after the other."
Startups need to “understand the game”
Helmut Schönenberger, founder and managing director of UnternehmerTUM, explains how important know-how and assertiveness are for startups: "When you have 20 international competitors, it's all about winning the race. As an entrepreneur, you have to understand the game and know the criteria for success. Founders need a clear understanding of how the international tech startup scene works. What are the mechanisms, the rules of the game, and the international environment in which tech founders operate?"
Schönenberger believes that ten IPOs of German tech startups per year are realistic in the medium term. For tech startups, UnternehmerTUM offers targeted access to established companies, for example, through its startup accelerator program. TechFounders, to investors and other young companies. Every year, UnternehmerTUM supports around 50 startups in their founding – from the initial idea to market entry. The company's own UnternehmerTUM fund also invests in promising technology startups such as FlixBus.
Read more on the UnternehmerTUM website.
