FROM DÜSSELDORF TO THE WHOLE WORLD
The Düsseldorf region has become a key hub for innovative companies across Europe with a thriving startup scene. Some of the firms founded here have also grown to become highly successful scaleups. VIVID tells two stories of growth.
It all started with the idea of making a teddy bear talk: Sascha Poggemann was working in the smart home sector when he came across the first prototypes of voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa. ’That immediately caught my interest,‘ says the Cognigy co-founder. In 2016, he moved to Düsseldorf where he met Philipp Heltewig. The tech enthusiast was working as a CIO in the field of content management systems at the time. ’We joined forces, founded our company Cognigy and started thinking about what we could do with talking devices – for example, developing a teddy bear,‘ Philipp Heltewig continues. The aim was not just to make the teddy bear talk, but also to enable it to interact and remember things. ‘We soon realised that we could use the result – not for a talking teddy, but for a platform that develops so-called voice and chatbots used by companies,‘ they explain.
Initially, they programmed voice-based systems capable of interacting with users. In the following years, Sascha Poggemann and Philipp Heltewig benefited from the rapid technological advancements in the field of artificial intelligence. ’We were able to continuously improve the communication capabilities of our bots while simultaneously building an exciting company. We quickly decided to focus on large-scale projects – that was a growth accelerator.‘
The Cognigy founding team: Benjamin Mayr, Philipp Heltewig and Sascha Poggemann consider Düsseldorf the perfect location for startups.
Cognigy succeeded in attracting top investors from Europe and the US, as well as many clients and analysts. Just one year after its launch, the company also entered the American market and set up its own team in San Francisco. ’At the time, a great many German managers were travelling to Silicon Valley to explore highly innovative technologies. We already had our networks in place there, so we were able to pitch to these circles. Many innovators and investors were very surprised at the time that cutting-edge technology could also come from Germany,‘ says Sascha Poggemann.
Cognigy reached its most significant milestone to date last year when it was sold to the US AI service provider NiCE for $955 million. NiCE is currently transforming into an AI company. In addition to merging the products of both companies into a single AI platform, NiCE is establishing an even stronger presence in the European customer segment – one of the reasons for the strategic acquisition of the Düsseldorf-based company, in which the two Cognigy founders remain in decision-making positions.
With so much German engineering expertise being sold to the US, are the two of them concerned that too much expertise is moving overseas, particularly when it comes to AI development? ‘The exact opposite is true. We have significantly strengthened our presence here and are currently hiring a lot of staff across Europe. So the expertise isn’t going anywhere; rather, NiCE is investing heavily in the development teams based here.‘
Sascha Poggemann and Philipp Hertewig see Düsseldorf and the entire region as the perfect location for startups, partly due to the excellent universities in North Rhine-Westphalia. ‘You can recruit very talented people in the region. The more we work on creating a solid foundation, the more successful companies will set up here. We have very strong venture capital funding in Europe,‘ the founders are certain.
Claudia Lührs, General Manager DACH at tonies: “With the Toniebox 2 and Tonieplay, we have created a new category: interactive, screen-free games, quizzes and adventures that offer children a completely new way of playing.”
The success story of the Düsseldorf-based scaleup tonies didn’t begin with a talking teddy bear, but with an innovation for the children’s room that was equally exciting. Around ten years ago, founders Patric Faßbender and Marcus Stahl wanted to enable their children to listen to stories entirely independently. So they replaced fragile CDs with robust, interactive figures – an idea that revolutionised the entire audiobook industry in one fell swoop – with a box. ‘When a child places a Tonie figure on this box, the corresponding audiobook, the matching music or, since the launch of the Toniebox 2, the desired game starts automatically – intuitively, haptically and without a screen,‘ explains Claudia Lührs, General Manager DACH at tonies. The range now comprises around 1,500 Tonie figures and more than 3,500 digital titles, including in-house productions, but above all content from around 460 licensing partners worldwide, including Disney, Warner and Marvel. ’The Toniebox is now available in over 100 countries, and in the DACH market we have an aided brand awareness of over 80 per cent,‘ says Claudia Lührs. ’Because the concept is so intuitive, it appeals to families in Düsseldorf just as much as in New York or Sydney.‘ With its new product, the Toniebox 2, tonies has also been able to significantly expand its target audience and now aims to reach children aged one to nine and above.
In the 2025 financial year, the Düsseldorf-based scaleup achieved consolidated turnover of 630 million euros – a 31 per cent increase on the previous year. The company now employs more than 630 staff. tonies went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange back in 2021, paving the way for the company’s journey from a niche product to a global bestseller. ’It’s a deeply emotional journey – and that’s how it should stay. Despite all our growth, we’ve retained the inventive spirit that has defined tonies from the very beginning.‘
Claudia Lührs is a mother herself and pays close attention to how her children play with the Tonie products and what their needs are in the process. tonies also invests in research and development – such as the Toniebox 2 and Tonieplay. In collaboration with Hasbro, Tonieplay versions of classic board games like Monopoly will be released this summer. In partnership with the German Football League, the new game “Stadion Duell Bundesliga” was recently launched. ’Of course, there are also products for the very young children. With My First Tonies, we have developed products that support babies and toddlers from the age of one in language acquisition through an audio-tactile experience,‘ says Lührs. The ultimate goal is to develop tonies into an iconic brand, similar to LEGO or Disney. ’That’s no modest goal, but we’ve laid the foundations for it and are well on the way to achieving it. In doing so, we remain true to our values. We will always offer age-appropriate listening and play experiences for children that encourage imagination and independence. That was the idea from the outset – and it’s the standard by which we measure ourselves every day.‘•
Text: Katja Vaders
Pictures: tonies SE, Fiona Egan
