Munich Startup: What does Volulink do? What problem do they solve?
Moritz Hall, Co-Founder Volulink: Volulink aims to mobilize one million hours of digital expertise from universities and companies for non-profit projects. IT students and corporate mentors are matched with suitable projects via a single platform. This empowers social organizations to embrace digitalization and simultaneously connects businesses with IT talent.
Digital bridges between universities, businesses and NGOs
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Moritz Hall: Of course, student projects and hackathons already exist. Nevertheless, the need among social organizations and associations is enormous – especially regarding digitalization. By connecting students with relevant experts from companies, we also create synergies that offer significant added value to all involved. Furthermore, our approach has shown us that grant management is a major challenge for many non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We have developed a proprietary software solution for this, which is already in use by several organizations.
From idea during studies to funded start-up
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Moritz Hall: We founded VoluLink alongside our studies in business informatics, inspired by the Pledge1% initiative, which Moritz encountered during his semester abroad in Australia. We were initially unsure whether to take the plunge into startup creation. Fortunately, we received fantastic support, including through the 5-Euro Business competition and funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Moritz Hall: The main challenge of our project is building a three-party platform approach. To implement successful projects, we rely on long-term partnerships and the participation of non-profit organizations, universities, and companies. Furthermore, we aim to achieve a successful go-to-market for our software.
Initial successes and concrete impact
Munich Startup: How are things going?
Moritz Hall: Through Volulink, over 3,000 hours of digital expertise from universities and companies have already been mobilized for non-profit projects. For example, a team of students and a mentor from Amazon developed an AI chatbot for the German Association for the Protection of Nature (Bund Naturschutz) to support the preparation of workshops for schoolchildren. This is exactly what motivates us every day!
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Moritz Hall: Fantastic! We find incredibly valuable support here, through mentoring, accelerator and incubator programs like the Munich Impact Incubator or our partner network.
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Moritz Hall: Depending on the situation, we take advantage of both.
