Kick-off for new digital start-up platform

Today, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier together with KfW Chief Executive Officer Dr Günther Bräunig and Member of the KfW Executive Board Dr Ingrid Hengster officially launched the new 'Gründerplattform' digital start-up platform. The free platform initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and KfW is to provide even better support for new entrepreneurs in the critical business planning phase and to bolster the momentum of start-ups in Germany.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier: "Entrepreneurs help the SME sector thrive with daring, energy and fresh ideas, which is why I am showing my support for a new start-up initiative. Today we have taken an important step with the start-up platform because it supports entrepreneurs from the very outset. The tools make it easier for them to implement their new and creative business concepts and facilitate the processes, from the initial idea to the search for suitable support and financing."

Prospective business founders can find interactive tools to help them develop their idea, business model and business plan and to facilitate the search for suitable support and financing at www.gruenderplattform.de. The central actors involved in start-up financing — such as chambers of commerce, promotional institutions of the federal states, guarantee banks and credit institutions — are included on the platform with their services. Entrepreneurs are given direct contact information so they can obtain advice or feedback on their business model or business plan, or submit a financing application to a credit institution. The platform also invites entrepreneurs to exchange ideas with each other. These different possibilities for feedback give prospective business owners the opportunity to better assess the chances that their ideas will be successful.

"Germany needs a vibrant start-up process to remain innovative and competitive in the long term. As one of the most important promoters of business start-ups in Germany, we consider our role to be particularly critical: no good idea should fail because of a lack of support. In addition to our successful promotional programmes, we are therefore now making the digital start-up platform available to prospective business founders to give them comprehensive information, contacts and support for their projects," says Dr Günther Bräunig, Chief Executive Officer of KfW.

The new platform guides users through a standardised start-up process. Ideally, the founder of a furniture workshop should go through the same phases as a start-up in Silicon Valley. All the necessary digital services can be found directly on the platform. The focus is on learning from successful entrepreneurs: business founders describe how they got started in many videos.

The start-up platform was developed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and KfW together with the platform operator BusinessPilot. At the same time, 36 partners of the above-mentioned start-up promoters were closely involved in the conceptual phase. This broad approach strengthens the start-up infrastructure in Germany.

Dr Jan Evers, Managing Director of BusinessPilot: "Digitalisation has made starting a business much easier. This is further improved by the start-up platform because it can be digitally networked with virtually all actors involved in supporting German start-ups. This is a brand new approach."

The start-up platform can be accessed at www.gruenderplattform.de (only in German). Anyone interested can find out about current developments in the Newsletter(only in German).