FRESH IDEAS FROM DÜSSELDORF
20 per cent of green startups in Germany are based in North Rhine-Westphalia! This is a remarkable finding of the 'Green Startup Monitor 2024', a study published by the German Startups Association (Bundesverband Deutsche Startups e.V.) in collaboration with the Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability. This puts North Rhine-Westphalia ahead of Berlin (17 per cent), Bavaria (12 per cent), and Baden-Württemberg (11 per cent). It is also interesting to note that women are more likely to be part of the founding team of green startups than of non-green startups (24 per cent versus 17 per cent). Another striking finding is that greentech startups collaborate more closely with universities and research institutions, who support them more frequently during the startup phase. According to the study, one of the biggest challenges remains, hardly surprisingly: financing. Düsseldorf, which has been the GreenTech Hub of the nationwide Digital Hub Initiative for a number of months now, offers founders a particularly attractive ecosystem for growth. Three startups, two of which are in the greentech sector, can confirm this: curtains up for ESG-X, Qualimero and Co-reactive!
AI-OPTIMISED SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT
The founding team of ESG-X: Valentin Aman (CEO), Paolo Mazza (CTO) and Jean Phillip Bauer (COO).
In times of advancing climate change, the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) framework is becoming increasingly important. However, 'Through our own experience and discussions with companies, we realised that 80 percent of the sustainability management budget was usually spent on bureaucratic processes without achieving any impact for the company, the environment or society,' explains Jean Bauer. Bauer, who is also the sustainability manager at the DEG ice hockey club, joined forces with project developers Valentin Aman and Paolo Mazza from Munich to beta test new ESG software in 2024. The three of them founded ESG-X GmbH in the same year. Their AI-based software supports companies throughout the entire ESG reporting process by providing automation, guidance, calculations, text suggestions and improvement recommendations. "This relief enables companies to dedicate more time to their core business and the implementation of sustainability," says Valentin Amann. This would particularly benefit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often have little in-house expertise and cannot afford expensive training or consultancy. The response to ESG-X has therefore been very positive: 'All of our pilot customers in 2024 want to continue working with us. We have achieved good results, particularly in the automotive industry, which is currently struggling, and we were recently named ‘Best Sustainability Startup in Automotive’ by Springer Nature Publishing,” says Paolo Mazza. Looking ahead, the three founders intend to double their workforce and develop new products in order to remain pioneers in the field of ESG AI. •
ESG-X GMBH
C/O TECHHUB.K67
KASERNENSTRASSE 67
40213 DÜSSELDORF
WWW.ESG-X.COM
The founding duo of Qualimero: Lasse Lung and Marco Andersen.
DIGITAL EMPLOYEES, HUMAN-LIKE RESULTS
When major tech providers made their large language models publicly available at the end of 2023, Marco Andersen, Lasse Lung and Kevin Lücke founded the startup Qualimero.com. Their goal was to help companies use AI not just as a tool, but as digital employees. "We witnessed first-hand during our time in e-commerce just how much potential this has. AI complements human work and replaces it in some areas, and does so very effectively. That's why we decided to start developing our own AI employees for product consulting, customer service, recruitment and sales,' explains Marco Andersen. The internal solution quickly became a scalable product: AI-based virtual employees who can work alongside humans. After just eight months, Qualimero had become profitable thanks to its forward-looking business model. “Of course, there is still some uncertainty in the market about exactly what AI can do – many are not yet aware of its full potential. However, our active customers report significant efficiency gains because our AI employees answer calls around the clock, respond to emails, interact with human colleagues, and take care of tedious tasks. This frees up time for creative and strategic work,” explains Lasse Lung. In the medium term, the plan is to offer AI employees specialising in areas such as purchasing, finance and supply chain management. Qualimero's long-term vision is even bigger: “We want to run entire departments, or even small companies, with a team of AI employees controlled by human top management. We call these companies “AI-first organisations”, and we want to play a key role in shaping this transformation,” says Kevin Lücke. •
QUALIMERO TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
C/O TECHHUB.K67
KASERNENSTRASSE 67
40213 DÜSSELDORF
WWW.QUALIMERO.COM
CO2 TURNED INTO VALUE
Willi Peter (CCO), Orlando Kleineberg (CTO) and Dr Andreas Bremen (CEO) want to make the cement industry more climate-friendly with Co-reactive.
The end product at Co-reactive: Co-SCM, a CO2-negative cement substitute.
Around eight per cent of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions come from the cement sector. Founded in 2024, startup company Co-reactive is tackling this problem. “We have developed a revolutionary technology for CO2 mineralisation. It converts CO2 into high-performance cement additives that improve the strength and durability of cement-based building materials,” explains CEO Dr Andreas Bremen. In his doctoral thesis, Andreas concluded that, while CO2 mineralisation is ecologically sound, it is not currently profitable. Together with CTO Orlando Kleineberg, he has now combined these ecological advantages with an economical production method at Coreactive. “This could transform an entire industry. That's why we left our “conventional” careers as industrial engineers and decided to take responsibility for driving decarbonisation forward ourselves,” says Orlando. The building material produced by Co-reactive reduces the carbon footprint and lowers material costs by reducing the use of expensive clinker. This benefits the cement industry and downstream industries, including those manufacturing concrete, plaster, adhesives, and specialty chemicals. Over the next few years, the multi-award-winning startup will be working with partners to further develop the technology for large-scale application. Düsseldorf is the perfect location for this. “On the one hand, we have a strong network of customers, suppliers and associations, such as the Association of German Cement Works (VDZ), and on the other hand, we have optimal logistics connections for large-volume material flows via the Rhine.” The city's appeal to our employees also plays a huge role,' says Andreas. •
CO-REACTIVE GMBH
VON-GAHLEN-STR. 47
40625 DÜSSELDORF
WWW.CO-REACTIVE.COM
Text: Tom Corrinth
Pictures: ESG-X GmbH, Qualimero, Co-reactive GmbH