Munich Startup: How is Fraunhofer Venture positioned to bring founders and researchers together?
Chinyere Wirthmüller, Fraunhofer Venture: Ahead is our company builder within Fraunhofer. Colab is a sub-program that promotes collaborative projects between scientists and startups.
The process for startups looks like this: Colab offers a preparatory phase for Ahead for Fraunhofer startup cooperation programs, which begins with a Cooperation Kickoff. At the Cooperation Kickoff, the tandems learn what requirements must be met for Ahead funding and how best to start and implement the project. Furthermore, the respective partner institute can receive kickoff funding of €5,000 to apply for Ahead.
The tandems that meet the requirements will then be invited to our four-day Ahead Bootcamp. At the end of the bootcamp, there will be a pitch session to determine who will be accepted into the first phase of Ahead. If the pitch is successful, the startup's partner institute will be granted a project budget of €50,000, which will be used for the joint project. This first phase lasts between six weeks and six months.
The goal: to license Fraunhofer technology to the startup
During this phase, Colab also offers specific workshops specifically for Fraunhofer startup collaborations.
Once the tandem has reached a certain level of project maturity—there are several criteria regarding market, product, team, and legal issues—they can apply for Phase 2. Here, the institute can again request a project budget of up to €100,000 for the collaborative project. The goal should be to license an existing Fraunhofer technology to the startup at the end of Phase 2.
Munich Startup: Colab is planning to open the Ahead program to external startups – what exactly does that look like?
Chinyere Wirthmüller, Fraunhofer Venture: With the Colab, external startups not only have access to more formats and workshops within Ahead, but the project budget for the partner institutes is also significantly higher. If a tandem successfully completes all phases, its partner institute can receive funding of up to €155,000 for the joint project.
Munich Startup: How exactly does a collaboration between startups and Fraunhofer Institutes work within the framework of Colab? What benefits do startups have?
Chinyere Wirthmüller, Fraunhofer Venture: The goal of the collaboration is technology transfer. More specifically, existing Fraunhofer technology is to be integrated into the startup's product. Legally speaking, the goal is a licensing agreement between Fraunhofer and the startup: the startup receives Fraunhofer technology, and the institute receives licenses. You can find all benefits here.
But specifically, I would say: access to Fraunhofer technology and methodological and financial support for implementation.
How exactly a collaboration works varies. Once we've matched them and they've been accepted into Ahead, we view the tandem as a team that wants to bring a product to market and still needs to put in the work. This means regular meetings, task allocation, and so on.
Important: The startup must have a concrete technology requirement
Munich Startup: When is a startup the right fit for you? And what happens if a startup doesn't yet have concrete contacts with a cooperation partner on the Fraunhofer side?
Chinyere Wirthmüller, Fraunhofer Venture: Two conditions must be met:
- The startup needs a very specific technology requirement. And this technology requirement must be essential to the planned future business activities – a mere 'product feature' is not enough.
- There must already be existing technology at Fraunhofer that is protected and can be licensed out later.
It's not a problem if the startup has no contact with Fraunhofer. That's what we're here for. It just needs a very specific technology need. Startups can then Matching Contact us. We'll do the rest. We'll search for a suitable technology and then connect the startup with a potential Fraunhofer partner.
Munich Startup: Are there any success stories you can share?
Chinyere Wirthmüller, Fraunhofer Venture: Yes, there are. Since it still offers the same services as Techbridge is, there are success stories from Monitorfish, Mecorad, Occulavis, Adiutabyte and a few more.
Munich Startup: What is the ideal next step for startups after the collaboration?
Chinyere Wirthmüller, Fraunhofer Venture: After the Ahead program, startups have the chance to receive an FTTF investment. This 'Fraunhofer Tech Transfer Fund' is an early-stage venture capital firm that can invest early in startups that are significantly based on Fraunhofer technology. The venture capital firm has also already invested in four external startups that use Fraunhofer technology in their products.
