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).
Ever-increasing property prices are making the dream of owning your own home more and more difficult. Maximilian Mindermann founded Terra Fidelis in July 2021 to make this dream possible again. Together with an experienced team of shareholders consisting of Victor Moftakhar (former CEO of Deka Invest), Hans Enssle (former Director of Morgan Stanley), Johannes Burkhardt (Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group) and Ulrich Lembeck, Of Counsel (lawyer at Clifford Chance), he has developed a smart business model based on the so-called "heritable building right": ‘Terra Fidelis buys land and makes it available to homebuyers in perpetuity (990 years instead of the usual 99!) for a monthly fee. Owning the land is not necessary to live in your own home. This reduces the equity requirement by up to 50 per cent and creates more financial freedom,' explains Max Mindermann. ‘A homeowner with hereditary building rights can sell, lend, rent or bequeath the house. Any increase in the value of the building benefits him alone. And if he should ever no longer own the property, he has the right to purchase it from Terra Fidelis,' says Mindermann. After a successful proof-of-concept phase with the purchase of the first plots, the Terra Fidelis team is now focusing on the next financing phase in order to further scale the model. Over the next few years, the company plans to launch a property fund that will offer investors the opportunity to invest in developed plots for the first time. •
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