Startup Delegation Trip: Explore Germany – How to set up a business and identify partners in Germany

13th December 2021

Reviewing the Startup Delegation Trips and the Demo Day

In November and December, we hosted two Startup Delegation Tours to Germany in collaboration with CEFE International powered by Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Invest India, NASSCOM and MeitY Startup Hub. The two Startup Delegation Tours gave 20 Indian startups with ambitions in Germany the opportunity to explore the German market through an exclusive and comprehensive digital program to plan their expansion and find potential and interested partners. The first tour, from November 8-12, was attended by 8 Indian startups from the healthcare sector or startups that had developed solutions to combat the Covid 19 pandemic. The second tour, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, included 12 Indian startups from the Tech4Good sector that had gone through a rigorous selection process. With a program of 11 simple steps and assigned experts as mentors, the delegation tours provided the startups with a very good foundation for entering the German market and overcoming its pitfalls.

The program was structured along 11 pratical steps and included interactive workshop elements:

The 11-Step-Programme:

Step 1 thematized “Regional Opportunities”. Here, startups were given an overview of the German startup ecosystem, its advantages and regional differences, as well as the opportunity to interact with stakeholders from different regions.
Step 2 focused on “Intercultural Business Communication”. This session highlighted cultural barriers between India and Germany and presented solutions to overcome these barriers.
Step 3 addressed the “Market Strategy”. During the workshop, the startups received support in developing their own expansion plan.
Step 4 “Setting Up A Business” was a session built around the topic of legal framework for setting up a company. The startups received support in choosing the legal form for their respective business activities, as well as insights into the visa to be selected and the bureaucratic rules.
Step 5 included sessions on “Marketing & Sales”, which aimed to help the startups identify important sales channels and to develop messages for the acquisition of German customers as well as to create a personal sales conversation for the German market.
Step 6 “Know Your Sector” experts gave insights about sector trends and pointed out suitable opportunities for the individual startups to build on.
Step 7 included a session on “Cooperation With Companies & SMEs” and offered practical guidance on successful cooperation with companies and SMEs in Germany.
Step 8 “Identifying Partners & Programs” was a session that informed about partners and programs and helped to identify the right ones for the respective needs of the startups.
Step 9 thematized “German Bureaucracy”. In this session, two already successful Indian founders shared their experiences in setting up a company in Germany and how they navigated the issues regarding German bureaucracy.
Step 10 “Settling in Germany” opened up helpful tips on finding an apartment, where to register once you arrive in Germany and how to integrate in the German community successfully.
Step 11 was the last step in the delegation tour program. In the “Funding” session, the startups were given an overview of the different sources of Funding in Germany as well as helpful tips for attracting investors and tips while working with them.

In addition to these 11 steps, the startups also had regular one-on-one sessions with their mentors to discuss their market entry strategy as well as to define milestones and clarify outstanding issues.

After the 20 startups of the two cohorts had successfully completed the program, the grand finale that rounded off the two delegation trips took place on December 6: the Demo Day! On this day, all participating startups had the opportunity to pitch in front of investors, incubators, other companies, interested parties and a jury.

At 10 am we started the Demo Day. After a brief welcome and introduction by Julian Zix and Eileen Trenkmann from GINSEP, we had the pleasure of receiving insights and keynotes from three speakers who were closely involved in the delegation trips: Shankar Kumar (GIZ India), Navratan Katariya (NASSCOM) and Jitendra Vijay (MeitY Startup Hub). At 10:20am we started with the 8 healthcare startups and their 5-minute pitches, followed by a short Q&A session by the audience and our jury consisting of Maren Lesche (Founder & Program Director, Vision Health Pioneers), Klaus G. Kammermeier (CEO & Founder of InnovationLabs. Berlin) and Ferdinand Mühlhäuser (Managing Director, Founder Institute Berlin).

The startups that participated in the tour and their pitches can be found here:

HEALTHCARE STARTUPS

Carbon Hubs is a B2B-focused healthcare product and service provider that is focused on solving the problems of microbial infection and air-related problems in the B2B sectors.
Future Wave Technologies offer an early warning, action and control system that serves a larger purpose and helps to detect covid19 and cardiac diseases.
Intpurple Technologies is an intelligent solution that connects patients, doctors as well as hospitals, provides chronically ill patients with a continuum of treatment in a holistic approach and automates post-hospitalization compliance tracking, allowing doctors to focus on diagnostics and medical treatments.
Nuverse Health Solutions offers an easy to use vital sign monitoring tool which allows anyone to measure crucial vital signs, simply by facing the front camera, or by placing the finger on the back camera.
Onward Assist helps improve cancer treatment outcomes by solving the problem of accurate and timely diagnosis based on cancer pathology and simplifying the process.
SyMetric (deck on request) offers an integrated cloud-based solution for digital transformation in clinical research to provide a real-time view of Study Data, a modularized configurable system for faster study setup, earlier filings and cost efficiency.
Life and Limb is a company from India which offers customised prostheses with adaptive grasp!
CogniABle is a Machine learning-driven assistive technology for early detection and affordable treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder.