Incubators Connect 2023 – India meets Germany

16.06.2023 Daniela Musial-Lemberg News

At the beginning of June, we welcomed a high-ranking incubator delegation from DWIH New Delhi to KIT.

The delegation of the German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) New Delhi had travelled to Germany for a week as part of the Incubators Connect 2023 programme to promote Indo-German cooperation opportunities as well as professional exchange on the topic of entrepreneurship and incubation in higher education and research institutions.

Well-known start-up incubators from India took part in the trip. The focus of the delegation trip was on networking relevant stakeholders from India and Germany around the topic of entrepreneurship as well as the promotion of projects and cooperations with high innovation potential.

It started in Karlsruhe with an introduction to the German startup ecosystem. The workshop at KIT, which was attended by representatives of the Karlsruhe Economic Development Agency, Startup BW, TUM, Cyberforum and AXEL, among others, focused on funding mechanisms, incubator models, innovation management, international networks and challenges in the field of science-based entrepreneurship.

Our team from the Global Horizon Program (GHPro) had invited to an after-work event at the CUBE on the South Campus on 5 June. The special guest that evening was of course the Indian delegation, who were able to network with the Karlsruhe start-up community in a relaxed atmosphere.

The next day, it was on to the Entrepreneurship Hub at the TU Braunschweig. The final day was in Berlin. There, a visit to the Indian Embassy was on the agenda. This was followed by various meetings with relevant stakeholders, such as the German Accelerator, Angel-Netzwerk Berlin, Projektträger Jülich (EXIST), Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen (SPRIND) and Startup Asia Berlin.

DWIH New Delhi’s mission is to connect the Indian and German innovation and start-up ecosystem, with a focus on science-based start-ups. It is building and supporting an international network of incubators at universities and research institutions to promote cross-border innovation cooperation.
Due to the EXIST funding in the area of *Convincing Internationally*, the KIT Start-up Incubator plays a central role in the design and content conception of the programme. Together with relevant stakeholders, we develop formats to support start-ups at an early stage in their internationalisation.

India has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. There are over 80,000 startups and has produced more than 100 unicorns by 2022. About 12% of the startups use deep technology and a total of 27 thousand tech startups are active in this ecosystem.