Meeting place: Hall 13
A look at how German and Indian startups are linking up and the role that Hannover Messe plays in this.
The next big gathering is taking place at Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade show for industrial technology, from the beginning of April 2019. At Young Tech Enterprises, the startup hub in Hall 13, founders can again try to persuade investors, partners or customers of the efficacy of their business idea. “This is the platform for our clientele,” says Julian Zix, the project manager at the German Indian Startup Exchange Program (GINSEP) who is attempting to network German and Indian startups or enable them to enter the market in the respective other country.
Great interest in Indian startups
What makes India’s startup scene so interesting? In 2016, Prime Minister Modi presented the Startup India Action Plan. It envisages the establishment of over 10,000 startups by the year 2020 – an ambitious target. But momentum is steadily increasing. According to a current market study by Germany Trade & Invest, over 1,200 new startups were registered in 2018 alone. In 2017, the German Startups Association founded the German Indian Startup Exchange Program with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. Julian Zix, who lived in India for five years and advises German companies on market entry, has been with the organisation since 2018.
Today, he and his team are barely able to keep up with the rising number of enquiries or pass them on to appropriate experts. The GINSEP Ambassadors Network now encompasses roughly 75 specialists – from founders to CEOs of prestigious Indian and German companies. “The enquiries are very specific,” says Zix. They range from basic questions to concrete searches for business partners.
Successful Indo-German partnerships
Several concrete projects are already running. Peat, a German startup for the early detection of plant damage in agriculture that has won several awards, has just founded a subsidiary in India. Smartivate, a German-Indian startup from Karlsruhe, is developing an online marketplace for smart home products. Blinkin, an Indian startup, is already cooperating with a German partner in the area of artificial intelligence after it was able to make valuable business contacts last year at the Hannover Messe.
