Munich Startup: It's been two years since our last interview. What's happened at Plug & Play since then?
Frederike Rohr, Plug & Play: A lot has happened. On the one hand, we We've grown tremendously: We now have 48 locations worldwide, with ten new ones added in the last year alone. We now have over 20 offices in the EMEA region. Within Germany, we are represented in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Munich. We've just opened or are planning to open our newest office in Düsseldorf. And in all of these locations, we play a dual role: On the one hand, we're a venture capital fund, making investments in the industries represented at the respective locations, and on the other hand, we're the largest global innovation platform for corporate innovation.
Our range of services has expanded over the past few years – also here in Munich – has evolved enormously. From a traditional accelerator, we have shifted much more towards dedicated services for our corporate partners. For example, the pilot projects between the departments of our partner companies and the startups are less about showcases and more about concrete collaboration. In this way, our accelerator program has now transformed more into a business development program. We also offer many individual workshops for our corporate partners. From "How to identify the right startup" and "How to choose a focus topic" to "How to Pilot," our program truly covers everything related to startup collaboration. But with topics such as internal transformation and culture change, we also go beyond that. We organize Innovation Days at our partners' offices or virtually, senior executive coaching sessions, and much more. Our range of services has truly evolved significantly.
“This is about extremely early-stage investments”
Munich Startup: And what has been happening in your startup sector?
Frederike Rohr: We have evolved in terms of our funds and our investment strategies. Plug & Play has various vehicles from which we invest. For example, we recently launched “Startup Camp EMEA” launched, a program that has been around in the US for some time. This involves extremely early-stage investments, where we provide founders with financing from day one. This is the classic €50,000 for 5 percent equity approach.
In addition, we are of course still investing from the family office of the Plug & Play founder's family. The sweet spot here is between €50,000 and €150,000, but investments have also gone up to €500,000. We have also raised two additional funds: the "Future of Commerce Fund" and the "Supply Chain Fund." Both are very industry-specific, have capital in the double-digit millions, and we also want to invest with them in later stages.
All in all, we want to support startups from day one: first with the Startup Camp, then through our traditional family office investment arm, and finally with the "Future of Commerce Fund" and the "Supply Chain Fund." In this way, we are continually expanding our startup portfolio, which is already very, very large.
No thematic restrictions for the Plug & Play Startup Camp
Munich Startup: What exactly is the Startup Camp looking for?
Frederike Rohr: We are looking for founders who want to build significant traction with Plug & Play and provide support from day one. Firstly, the team is of course very important to us. Secondly, we pay attention to market size and timing, and we want to solve a real problem. Universities and their entrepreneurship programs are much more important to us than before, for example, in Munich. CDTM or Manage & MoreWe're looking for candidates across a wide range of topics. We ourselves are represented in all industries: From fintech, mobility, energy, supply chain, sustainability, food tech, retail and agriculture to Industry 4.0 and enterprise, we're active in all areas. With the Startup Camp, we want to help founders from day one. With our corporate network, we can provide them with excellent support in acquiring customers, conducting initial pilots, and gathering feedback.
Munich Startup: How are the startups selected for the camp?
Frederike Rohr: For this purpose, as in EMEA, we have implemented an IC, or Investment Committee, which makes the investment decisions. And these are also the decision-makers for the Startup Camp. However, the suggestions initially come from the many offices we have in the EMEA region. We also want all team members to be motivated to get involved in the Startup Camp. Of course, each of us has our own extensive network, for example, to the universities where we studied, and can therefore assess everything regionally very well. This means that, for example, the Munich location first decides whether we bring something to the IC, and only then does it go to the committee. The IC itself consists of four people, including one of our colleagues from Munich, Carolin Wais. She heads our Brand & Retail vertical and is a fantastic investor with a lot of energy and a wealth of expertise in various industries.
“The region itself is growing extremely”
Munich Startup: Plug & Play is considered the most active VC for early-stage startups globally, and the Startup Camp has been running in Silicon Valley for significantly longer than here in Europe. Are there any differences between the business in the US and Europe?
Frederike Rohr: Of course, we have a longer history in the US. And we celebrated strong successes there very early on with companies we invested in, such as PayPal and Dropbox. This has continued in Europe, with N26, for example. Overall, we now have several Unicorns and Soonicorns in our portfolio in the region, such as Flutterwave, Vestoo, IDnow and many more. And we've also had a lot of exits in recent years.
We operate very independently here in the EMEA region, and our portfolio companies are growing steadily. We've made over 18 investments from Munich alone in the last two years, and we also manage the entire Axel Springer portfolio for Plug & Play. This means the region itself is experiencing tremendous growth. And that's why we can very well imagine launching our own fund for the region one day.
Munich Startup: Which Munich startups have you already invested in?
Frederike Rohr: We have already invested in many startups from Munich, but not only in Munich startups, of course, but globally. We also have portfolio companies from Singapore, England, and the USA, for example. But we have also invested in many startups from Munich, including Presize, Cliniserve, Wellabe, IDnow, Zelros, Chatchamp, Celus, Minqi, Buzzlab and VirtonomySome of them are now based in our 2,000-square-meter office. We have a large coworking space here—and, incidentally, an event space that anyone can book. It's great for us to have our companies so close to us.
The Germany Summit of Plug & Play
Munich Startup: The Germany Summit, scheduled for June 28 and 29, is your first major live event since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. What exactly is it about?
Frederike Rohr: This year, we're focusing on the areas of healthcare, brand & retail, and fintech. We're expecting fantastic guests from our startups and companies, who will be presenting their pilot projects together on stage. This means that, for example, departments from Roche will be on stage and will report on their achievements alongside the startups. And on the second day, the focus will be on the future of brand and retail. This will also cover topics like Web3 and the metaverse. Naturally, many of our major corporate partners will be attending, from the Schwarz Group to Mediamarkt-Saturn, Biotronic, Novo-Nordisk, and Accenture. We expect guests from all over the world.
Munich Startup: Is the Germany Summit a new event concept for you?
Frederike Rohr: We have three verticals in Munich – Insurance, Retail, and Health – and we've always held a joint summit, because there's naturally a lot of overlap within these three areas. This year, however, the Insurance team is holding its summit in Amsterdam, concurrently with a major conference on the topic taking place in the city. This time, we're bringing our Frankfurt colleagues with us from the Fintech vertical, and we're particularly pleased to be able to implement this together. And that's exactly what's new: that we're now holding our summits jointly with our various locations in Germany, allowing us to better showcase the overlaps and synergies between the individual key topics.
Contact person in the Munich office
Munich Startup: Last question: Has anything changed regarding your contact persons for startups?
Frederike Rohr: We have 25 people on our team. I manage the entire office and our Health vertical, Xenia takes care of Insurtech, and Carolin, as mentioned, handles Retail. And, of course, we're always open to inquiries and new contacts. The Venture team is really new. There are, of course, different colleagues in each vertical who do this.
