Start-up City Heidelberg: A lot of companies are founded here

Heidelberg is the city in Germany with the most new companies founded in relation to the number of inhabitants. This emerges from current statistics from the “Startup Association”. According to the association, there is an increase in the number of start-ups, especially where universities and research institutions shape the economic environment.

Heidelberg moves into first place in the ranking

Heidelberg reached first place in these statistics for the first time and moved ahead of Berlin and Munich in the per capita ranking. In absolute terms, the two major cities are of course still ahead of Heidelberg. But calculated per capita, it shows that smaller, research-related locations are also at the top of the list of start-ups, according to the association. Heidelberg has always been in the top six in the ranking since 2019.

According to the startup association, there have been almost 115 newly founded companies in Heidelberg in the past five years, a good 20 of them last year. The focus of new companies is on the medical sector, followed by the software sector.

Fertia – app from Heidelberg for unfulfilled desire to have children

One of the new start-ups founded in 2024 is “Fertia Health”an online fertility clinic that uses a platform and app to help women with an unwanted desire to have children, fertility disorders, miscarriages or high-risk pregnancies. The Heidelberg entrepreneur Anna-Lena Hudalla and two reproductive medicine specialists from Heidelberg, Kilian Vomstein and Ruben Kuon, founded the company. The company now has 15 employees, including doctors and psychologists. The team will probably grow to 30 over the course of the year, says the founder.

The “Fertia” app will be available to download from the end of January. Among other things, the platform is intended to relieve the burden on doctors and also give women in rural regions quick access to reproductive medicine and thus improve the care structure in Germany, explains Anna-Lena Hudalla.

She sees the advantage of Heidelberg and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region in the high density and expertise on site. But Heidelberg also has. Disadvantages Especially in the creative sector, for example, it is difficult to find enough staff quickly and the staff required is less diverse than in cities like Berlin:

Nevertheless, the company will remain in Heidelberg. The employees from the creative and tech sectors, however, are based in Berlin.

AI start-up “Kausable”: AI first thinks and plans and then acts

Benjamin Herdeanu studied physics at the University of Heidelberg and received his doctorate and founded an AI company with two other physicists and AI experts in 2024 through the start-up institute of the SRH University. They want to develop and build an AI technology in which the AI ​​“continuously thinks, learns, plants and then acts,” explains Benjamin Herdeanu. They train their AI to develop a causal understanding from any sensor data. This could be used to make predictions or make decisions with little data.

They also chose Heidelberg when they founded the company because Heidelberg is a small town, but it has a lot to offer, such as a huge network and a high quality of life, says Benjamin Herdeanu. There is a lot going on and you can go anywhere by bike in ten minutes.

Proximity to the university, research institutes and colleges

According to the spokesman for the “Startup Association”, a particularly large number of companies are being created in Heidelberg due to its proximity to the university and other universities such as the private SRH University. This is also confirmed by the Vice Rector of Innovation and Transfer at Heidelberg University, Katja Patzel-Mattern.

Heidelberg has a very lively knowledge landscape, especially in the health and medical sectors and in the area of ​​artificial intelligence, where high-end research is carried out and innovations are developed.

On the other hand, there are many companies that offer people jobs in knowledge-based professions. And so a separate ecosystem is created that is favorable for starting up companies.

Innovation is preceded by a long research process. This is done at scientific institutions. And the companies can then implement this into a business solution in the technical area, for example.

Another argument in favor of starting a business in Heidelberg is that there is a lot of capital, a good middle class and highly qualified companies in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region. This is what you need in order to actually be able to implement your own business idea, says the head of the start-up institute at the SRH University in Heidelberg, Bernhard Küppers.

In order to take the first steps, get the first funding and make the first contacts with the corporate world, you are better positioned in such a region than perhaps in Berlin, where there is a lack of German medium-sized businesses.

Heidelberg has a start-up culture

“Heidelberg has a cool start-up culture,” says Jonathan Wagner, who is currently founding a neuro-feedback company: Using virtual reality software, people with ADHD will learn to concentrate. He came to Heidelberg specifically to start his company at the start-up institute at the SRH University.

Heidelberg is a very young city and it just has such charisma.

Marko Albrecht founded the software company “Appose” Founded in Heidelberg in 2019. There is a real scene and also a startup scene in the area of ​​software and artificial intelligence.

The Heidelberg location is a bit like Silicon Valley. People will enjoy being here.

Heidelberg is international

When a company is founded, a certain degree of international visibility is important at some point, says the head of the start-up institute at SRH University Heidelberg, Bernhard Küppers. Heidelberg has many sister cities, including Palo Alto in California, home of the famous Stanford University.

There is also an extremely high proportion of academics and researchers from all over the world, including at universities and the University of Heidelberg as well as IT companies in the region, such as SAP, says the founder and current CEO of the Heidelberg software company “Amaria “, Albrecht Metter. And many new ideas arise in this international research environment.

Heidelberg is also in close proximity to Frankfurt Airport and many other dynamic cities.

We can quickly reach Mannheim, Frankfurt or Karlsruhe with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT. Heidelberg is extremely closely linked throughout this entire metropolitan region.

The city promotes business start-ups

“The city of Heidelberg specifically promotes the founding of companies,” says Katja Patzel-Mattern from Heidelberg University. The city of Heidelberg has, among other things, created innovation parks where start-ups can settle, such as the Heidelberg Innovation Park, and has also made laboratory space available.

In doing so, the city of Heidelberg has created places where young companies can learn from each other. And that promoted the founding spirit again.

Those who want to start a business also receive a lot of support from the Heidelberg city authorities, says one of the founders of the Bildbrauerei company, Christopher Dengler. The city of Heidelberg also awards a start-up prize to honor start-ups. This concern for visibility and recognition, says Katja Patzel-Mattern from Heidelberg University.

SRH start-up initiative and university support program

The University of Heidelberg opened a transfer agency a few years ago founded to support and accompany students, doctoral students and post-docs if they want to start a company. The start-up institute at SRH University Heidelberg also offers support. It advises and supports people who want to start a business, including when applying for funding, provides contacts in the industry and also provides support for founders in Heidelberg.