Berlin Startup Agenda 22-26

Updating the Berlin Startup Agenda

In my former position at the Entrepreneurship Center of Institute of Technology Berlin I was only slightly involved in the formulation of the “old” Berlin Startup Agenda in 2016. At that time it was about talents, infrastructure, and capital as well as local and global connectedness. In my opinion, the activities and categories named in 2016 still make sense today.

Within the "Richtlinien der Regierungspolitik" ("Govering framework") of the 2021/2022 newly established Berlin government there was a task to update the Berlin Startup Agenda.

"The Senate updates the startup agenda and ensures its integration with existing strategies and existing companies."
(from "Richtlinien der Regierungspolitik 2021")         

Luckily we just finished a report on the Berlin ecosystem which provided qualitative and quantitative insights, also from using curated data of startup-map.berlin. Together with additional feedback from the Berlin ecosystem, this time we made the agenda's focus less generic but more specific on impact, talents, enablement, diversity and cooperation.

Thus in March we pretty quickly came to a one-pager which I would call “Startup Manifesto” or "Eckpunktepapier". Press release and more here.

In the process of creation the final agenda, we had planned to remain agile and participatory. We used the structures of the Berlin Startup Unit and found enthusiasts who explicitly took ownership for the five topics — we call these enthusiasts “Kümmerer:Innen” or “caretakers”: Christian Nestler and me (Impact), Burkhard Volbracht and Marcia Schranner (Talent), Dr. Michael Mischke , Christian Stigler and me (Enablement), Sandra Thumm and Julia Gunnoltz (Diversity), Madlen Dietrich and Melina Hanisch (Cooperation).

The caretakers have ensured that the Berlin Government's startup agenda also became a document from the ecosystem. Far more than 100 persons from within the Berlin ecosystem gave their input. The agenda was finally approved by the Berlin Senate on 22 November 2022. Something really special! Because: The activities are now being tackled by the entire ecosystem - in close cooperation and in common will for Berlin.

Berlin - City of Impact

We all know that the climate crisis also affects the capital region. That’s why “climate change” — “impact” — “purpose driven” are terms startups often identify themselves with or characterise their work. In 2022, 46 % of all startups, in 2021 it was 42.8 %, consider themselves “green” (dsm). Regardless of how robust these own claims are, it remains to be seen that the proportion of green startups is growing.

We see that also in the rise of popularity of “mission driven economy”. According to my perception, more and more founders as well as employees in young startups are strongly interested in “purpose”.

The Berlin Startup Scholarship had already addressed the topic of sustainability in the past tenders — both because Berlin sees a need for action here and, perhaps more relevant, because the ecosystem strongly recognises the willingness to innovate in the impact direction.

Berlin startup industries

Which industries are especially robust and success bound in Berlin cannot be distinguished so clearly. Berlin’s unicorns often come from eCommerce and QuickCommerce, but also from Mobility and FinTech. But we also see scaleups like Thermondo or enpal, which can be classified as impact startups or scaleups.

Beyond the unicorns, of course, a lot happens. As soon as I would pick special industries here, other industries or technology fields would rightly be puzzled why not to be named. This is also a Berlin special feature: so many different startup industries are successfully at home here. Social startups, purpose driven startups and, of course, FinTech, IoT and also in crypto winter, blockchain continues to play an important role as well as artificial intelligence — and many more. We have an overview on special industries and technologies and sectors here - welcome to add more.

Berlin - City of Enablement

More than two years ago, the Senate Administration for Economic Affairs had organised further training for administrative staff in cooperation with the Compentence Center for Innovative Procurement in order to enhance procurement for innovation— of course within the legal framework. The modernisation of the Berlin administration is currently taking place in particular by the interior administration together with the Senate Chancellery. An important project is “Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin”, which outlines the Berlin digitisation and smart city process. In fact, we are in good and close coordination between “Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin”and the Berlin Startup Agenda. A caretaker for the area “Digitalisation of Administration and Startups” comes from “Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin” project team.

The goal is and remains, of course, to make the innovation potential of the Berlin digital industry and especially the startups usable for the further development of the administration.

There are some starting points, from awareness raising and further, to the Govtech Campus of the federal government, where Berlin is also involved, to simple intros between administration and startups. Together with “Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin” and other stakeholders, we are looking forward to taking further ideas and taking further steps.

Berlin - City of Cooperation

A lot of things happen on collaboration between startups, SMEs and universities of which we don't know about. And I'm not sure whether the cooperation between startups and universities and SMEs is hindered by the lack of physical spaces to meet.

We got hints that sometimes those willing to cooperate do not find one another. One goal is therefore to create more transparency about the searchers and also about “best practices”, which indeed already exists. IHK and UVB and others are very active in this area — that’s why we have two caretakers from these two institutions that promote the topic of cooperation.

Interestingly, at the roundtable startups of the governing mayor at the beginning of December 2022, the closer link between universities and Berlin startup ecosystem — in my opinion — has already been tackled promisingly. There is a lot moving, the startup agenda forms a kind of compass and bracket around evolving activities.

Future-proofing Berlin

Startups aren't waiting for the state to develop their business models and seek customer contact. The Berlin Startup Unit, especially Marcia Schranner and Christian Stigler from Berlin partners, but also myself and the other players, try to be responsive and to help wherever possible. An overview of public support can be found within the public service page of https://startup-map.berlin. The members of the advisory board of the Berlin startup unit are listed here.

What should become clear: It is not only about what Berlin can do for startups, it is also about what startups can do for Berlin, especially for future-proofing our community. The startup agenda should be used to leverage and better realize these innovation potentials.

Further activities, research and cooperation are planned in the coming months and years in order to make the support and the startups impact more effective overall.

In the Berlin Startup Unit and its advisory board, there was already a first meeting in which we structured the five fields of action of the Berlin Startup Agenda 2022. This means that the caregivers are to use a working group structure to further develop their handheld fields. That sounds more bureaucratic than it really is. It’s like this: those who wish to contribute and to co-develop are welcome. This also strengthens the exchange within the ecosystem, the “local connectedness” — while processing the startup agenda.

This article is a kind of translation of an article on the blog of #BerlinSmartCity. Thanks to Sibylle Kubale for asking the right questions.