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Dossier

Dossier

Digital founders

In the digital world, founders need much more than a good idea to successfully establish their products or services in the market. KfW Stories has visited several start-ups and talked with the founders about their first steps, their visions and about obstacles on their way. Find out in our dossier about made-to-measure glasses, planted walls that filter the air in the city, and about apps that change local transport.

Image-Reference

On our website, pictures taken, among others, by the following photographers/photo agencies are used:

Agentur photothek.net, Deutsche Messe Hannover, Andreas Arnold, Jörg Böthling, Dominik Butzmann, Carsten Costard, Susanne Esche, Charlie Fawell, Rendel Freude, Torsten George, Gaby Gerster, David Greedy, Peter Himsel, Barbara Högner, Frank Homann, Fred Hoogervorst, Steffen Jagenburg (BRANSCH EUROPE), Thomas Klewar, Studio Kohlmeier , Florian Kopp, Georg Lopata, Jürgen Lösel, Kirsten Milhahn, Rüdiger Nehmzow, Rolf Obertreis, Rubén Arnaldo Farina Ortiz, Holger Peters, Joachim Röttgers, Mika Schmidt, Bernhard Schurian, Jens Steingässer, Pietro Sutera, Uwe Tölle, Jan Zappner.

Fotolia.com: amandare, Yuri Arcurs, Kitch Bain, Ingo Bartussek, Sergio Donà, drizzd, Dmitry Ersler, eyewave, Zoltán Futó, Eric Gevaert, Fotolia XXV, Friedberg, goodluz, Dirk Hoffmann, imageteam, Christian Jung, Abdelhamid Kalai, Sergej Khakimullin, Vladimir Kolobov, krizz7, Kzenon, lumen-digital, marog-pixcells, Mindwalker, Miredi, mirpic, Nebuto, Tino Neitz, Christian Pedant, Franz Pfluegl, prognone, Gina Sanders, Henry Schmitt, spree berlin, SVLuma, Kheng Guan Toh, tom, Torbz, typomaniac, VRD, Joachim Wendler, Sreedhar Yedlapati.

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Sabine Pfeiffer

The perfect fit

Whether you’ve got a narrow face or a bigger nose, finding a pair of glasses that fits perfectly is now possible thanks to the company You Mawo. Glasses are made-to-measure using 3D scanning and printing technology developed by the company itself.

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Smart local transport

They call themselves the "visionaries of public transport": start-up firm door2door from Berlin is working on the digital transformation of mobility. The goal: local transport that adapts to people – not the other way round.

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Founder Till Janczukowicz

Enjoying classical music – digitally

Bach and Beethoven in the digital era: streaming service Idagio delivers classical music by means of a mobile phone app. Music enthusiasts can carry out specific searches – by conductor, piece or period. But it works in other ways too: titles can be chosen depending on the mood of the listener.

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Founders from Clark

Digital insurance broker

Clark analyses its clients’ insurance data and compares it with the offers available from other insurance companies.The insurtech company uses various tools, including an app aimed at making the topic of insurance more interesting for young people.

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Founders from Clark

The power of cinema

The two apps "Greta" and "Starks" make a trip to the movies a matter of course for the blind and deaf. Seneit Debese won not only the KfW Entrepreneurs' Award for these apps, but also captured the hearts of the audience.

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HitchOn Mainz

“Like Tupperware parties – but digitally”

HitchOn, an agency for YouTube and influencer marketing, supports companies in utilising the new advertising market for themselves in a fair way. The start-up company of Sarah Kübler was chosen as the winner of the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2019.

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Start-up founders from Munich are developing 3D ultrasound sensors

When cars navigate like bats

The start-up founders of MEYSENS from Munich are developing 3D ultrasound sensors to give machines and robots the power of echolocation. This technology will also be important for autonomous driving.

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Start-up founders from Munich are developing 3D ultrasound sensors

Online lost-and-found office

Three entrepreneurs want to revolutionise the lost-and-found industry with their start-up "Have it Back". They operate a meta search engine that tracks privately reported lost-and-found items. "Have it Back" was recently awarded the KfW Entrepreneurs' Award for this technology.

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Betterspace founders

Hotels of the future

It all started with intelligent heating control systems. Today, Betterspace offers an extensive portfolio for the digitalisation of hotels. The portrait of a start-up that continues to be in demand, even in times of corona crisis.

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The founders

Make yourself at home

The start-up Homelike finds furnished apartments for business travellers looking for a temporary base. The idea behind their booking portal was inspired by countless corporate trips abroad. The story of how a company was founded.

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Founders of start-up Daheim

Digital language café

Video telephone platform "Daheim" (“Home“) enables refugees in particular to learn German in a virtual environment. A profile of the start-up and its contribution to social participation among refugees.

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A CityTree in front of a train station

Clean air for city dwellers

Moss and IoT technology for clean city air – this is the basis for the CityTrees project being undertaken by the founders of the start-up company Green City Solutions.

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Die Firma Sonotec aus Halle fertigt Spezialgeräte für Ultraschalltechnik an.

Ultrasounds for everything

SONOTEC is a German firm that manufactures special devices for ultrasound applications. Innovation has been a fixture in its day-to-day operations for almost 30 years. We take a closer look at this cradle of invention.

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nurse

Protection against hospital germs

Patients become infected with pathogens as many as 700,000 times a year during a stay in hospital. In order to optimise hand hygiene in hospitals, the start-up GWA Hygiene relies on artificial intelligence.

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The clever shoe retailer

Small owner-managed specialist retailers can sell their shoes on the online platform Schuhe24 and thus continue to survive alongside large mail-order companies. We would like to introduce the company that was crowned the national winner of the KfW Entrepreneurs' Award 2018.

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VMRay, RIPS Technologies and Rhebo: Young enterprises address the dangers of cybercrime

Cybersecurity

How start-ups address the dangers of cybercrime with expertise and creativity: We present VMRay, RIPS Technologies and Rhebo - three inventive IT security providers who received promotion from KfW.

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The personal fitness sat nav

Founders in Munich have developed software for electronic fitness equipment, which recognises every member of the gym via a chip. People can then view their progress on the app or train competitively with friends. The eGym founders are hoping that this can revolutionise the fitness market around the world.

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Defending against invisible attackers

Industry 4.0 is the future. But digital networking also creates risks. Rhebo GmbH has developed a product that monitors digital systems in industrial environments and identifies, reports and documents anomalies.

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Custom-made furniture

Not a good fit? That's impossible. With the online program form.bar, everyone can create their own furniture and have it made by a local carpenter. And it works – even despite the price war in the furniture industry. A portrait of the Okinlab start-up.

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