Promoting and creating start-ups as well as strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit are for us an economic necessity, economic foresight and matters of the heart – in any order.

Through our cooperations such as with the innovation and start-up center HIGHEST, the Frankfurt TechQuartier and the start-up incubator StartUpSecure I ATHENE, we want to pave a possible way for the students – from the first innovative idea to their own start-up.

The close cooperation enables the committed founders to receive comprehensive and confidential advice as well as a variety of opportunities to experiment, make mistakes and yet find a clarifying way.

For more than ten years, we have been cooperating with the Israeli Reichman University (opens in new tab) (formerly IDC Herzliya) in the context of our courses. Especially the Venture Creation Course shows how much we can learn from the start-up nation Israel!

Another important offering is bringing together start-ups and commercial enterprises of different sizes. In this way, we enable companies from business and science to collaborate with start-ups from research – for example, within the framework of pitch events, mentoring programs, accelerator programs or other start-up-related formats.

If you are interested, please feel free to contact us!

Contact: Dr. Nihal Wahl

Our partners in the start-up sector

Innovation and Start-Up Center HIGHEST

HIGHEST (opens in new tab) is the Innovation and Start-up Center of the Technical University Darmstadt. Its goal is to transfer innovations that make the world a better place into practice: In particular, it aims to create the best conditions for start-ups in the fields of high-tech and digitalization to lead them to success.

Prof. Buxmann headed HIGHEST for five years before joining the advisory board as chairman.

TechQuartier

Frankfurt-based TechQuartier is a cross-industry innovation platform focused on FinTech that brings together startups, companies and new talent to meet, learn and collaborate.

»We create opportunities for disruptive technologies, new ideas and modern business models.«

Prof. Peter Buxmann is seating in the steering committee with Harald Holzer. Vice President Jens Schneider represents TU Darmstadt in the shareholders' meeting.

Start-up incubator StartUpSecure I ATHENE

StartUpSecure (opens in new tab) is a startup incubator at the ATHENE Center, the National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity in Darmstadt, supports startups around the topics of cybersecurity and privacy – from the idea phase to their elaboration and development of marketable products to the establishment of firms.

Prof. Peter Buxmann is the head of the startup incubator together with Prof. Michael Waidner, head of Fraunhofer SIT.

Digital Hub for Cybersecurity

»We are the leading innovation community for cybersecurity in Germany. We connect players from established companies, research and the startup area and create awareness among influencers, investors and stakeholders.«

The Digital Hub for Cybersecurity (opens in new tab) in Darmstadt is part of the German government's Digital Hub Initiative and, together with its twin hub in Frankfurt, the TechQuartier, one of 12 Digital Hubs in Germany.

The StartUpSecure I ATHENE startup incubator works closely with the Digital Hub for Cybersecurity to join forces in supporting startup projects in the field of IT security.

hessian.AI – AI Startup Rising

With AI Startup Rising (opens in new tab), as part of the Hessian Center for AI, a platform for high- and deep-AI startups from academia is created.

The mission of hessian.AI is »Understanding the interplay of AI algorithms, AI systems, and synergies between artificial and natural intelligence provides the foundation for AI transformation.«

A special focus of the offers and measures is to transfer AI-based research potentials from the hessian.AI network into start-ups. The hessian.AI initiative is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWi).

hessian.AI is the cross-university center for AI in Hesse, headquartered at TU Darmstadt.

StartHUB Hessen

StartHUB Hessen (opens in new tab) is the central point of contact for the Hessian startup community and is dedicated to bringing the Hessian ecosystem together.

On behalf of the State of Hessen and as part of Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH, StartHub Hessen benefits from a grown network of companies, incubators, sponsors and mentors, and brings them together.

A list of the start-ups we support

In cooperation with the innovation and start-up center HIGHEST:
Capital Day 2021 Booklet (opens in new tab) (german PDF)

StartUpSecure startup incubator| ATHENE:
StartUpSecure funding program (opens in new tab)