H-BRS start-ups

Founding team: Daniel Hepting and Valerie Kottmann

Link to H-BRS: Daniel is a graduate of H-BRS.

Year founded: 2021

Business model: 14N14 stands for sustainability and ethically produced fashion that, above all, brings awareness to your wardrobe. With a mix of second-hand and upcycled clothing alongside new collections, we promote a genuine circular economy and campaign against the exploitation of people and nature.

Founded by: Jan Bornemann and Tim Bornemann

Connection to H-BRS: Tim Bornemann is a graduate of H-BRS

Period: 2019–2023

Business model: 3D Druck Bornemann is an online manufacturing platform that provides its customers with access to additive manufacturing processes – from prototypes to small-batch production. 3D BO combines on-demand manufacturing with its own 3D printing centre to offer tailored solutions, cost-effective components and short lead times using the latest technologies and materials.

Founded by: Dr Dustin Feld, Philipp Rinner, Vanessa Wolff and Eric Schicker

Connection to H-BRS: Eric Schicker is a graduate of the university. Dustin Feld was a lecturer in the EMT department. 

Year founded: 2019

Business model: Adiutabyte focuses primarily on fleet planning. Adiutabyte is a software programme that uses optimisation algorithms to find the best solution for complex planning processes. This is intended to reduce the workload on staff and avoid unnecessary effort. The software is currently used primarily in the healthcare sector.

Other: Finalists in the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW Award 2021

Founded by: Martin Hensel, Michael Sczepanski and Finn Herpich

Link to H-BRS: Martin Hensel is a graduate of H-BRS

Year founded: 2015

Business model: Software project planning; software projects from start to finish (planning, development & implementation, operation & maintenance)

Founded by: Aleksander Sadowski

Connection to H-BRS: Student, Mechanical Engineering (Product Development)

Year founded: 2020

Business model: FreeCAD training courses for mechanical engineers,&Development of new FreeCAD add-ons and further development of existing modules, pproject-based consultancy for machinery manufacturers on FreeCAD, Development of FreeCAD-based 3D online configurators

Founded by: Achim Rehahn together with students from the university

Connection to H-BRS: Achim Rehahn is a graduate and lecturer

Period: 2020–2022

Business model: One-stop pet funeral services: Cremation and tree burial for pets; biodegradable urns from which a tree grows in memory of a beloved pet; ceramic urns for pets

Founder: Christian Küster 

Link to H-BRS: H-BRS graduate

Year founded: 2019–2022

Business model: Germany’s first online marketplace for upmarket menswear

Founded by: Pascal Eßer, Robert Gerber, Ronald Gerber

Connection to H-BRS: Ronald and Robert Gerber completed their Bachelor’s degrees in Business Management at H-BRS. Pascal Eßer is a student at H-BRS.

Year founded: 2023

Business model: CareDoc offers a user-friendly software solution that enables pass/fail assessments in the care sector to be created digitally and efficiently

Other: 

• DIGITALHUB.de accelerator programme
• 1st place in the H-BRS Start-up Cup 2023

Founded by: Clemens Christen, Danyal Iqbal, Kevin Engels

Link to H-BRS: Clemens Christen and Danyal Iqbal are graduates of H-BRS

Year founded: 2019

Business model: Custom software – tailor-made through an individually adapted solution concept. “The company focuses on developing industry-specific software solutions, mobile apps and cloud computing.” – cheveo.de

Founder: Felix Bröhl

Connection to H-BRS: Alumnus of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

Year founded: 2024

Business model: circles is an app for efficient household organisation (finances, tasks, shopping) for flat-shares and couples. In addition, bespoke software is developed for clients in the areas of apps, web and full-stack development.

Founded by: Dennis C. Eck and Max Knorreck

Link to H-BRS: Dennis C. Eck is a graduate of the university

Period:&2021–2026

Business model: Football learning platform. Online football lessons from professional footballers, available to stream.

Other:

• Supported by the DIGITALHUB Accelerator Programme.DE
• Gründerstipendium.NRW

Founding team: Miriam Mertens and Peter Goeke (until 2024)

Connection to H-BRS: Miriam Mertens is a graduate of H-BRS and worked as a lecturer on the MBA Start-up Development programme. 
Peter Goeke was also a lecturer and works as a start-up consultant at CENTIM.

Year founded: 2020

Business model: DeepSkill offers digital people development for people-centred leadership. The programmes are tailor-made for leadership development, talent retention and digital transformation.

Other: 7-figure pre-seed funding from HTGF and Kienbaum (July 2022)

Founding team: Dr Reza Esmaillie and Dr Robin Bayer

Link to H-BRS: Reza is a research associate in the Department of Natural Sciences and a student on the Start-up Development (MBA) programme

Year founded: 2022

Business model:  Detechgene offers a PCR-like point-of-need test for the rapid, mobile and cost-effective detection of viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens.

Other: Winner of the Start-up Cup 2022 (1st place) and winner of the Innovation Special Prize (scholarship for the MBA in Start-up Development)

Founded by: Lukas Böhm and Felix Peters

Connection to H-BRS: Lukas Böhm and Felix Peters are research associates in the Department of Management Sciences

Year founded: 2017

Business model: With evemo, anyone can become a mobility provider in no time at all. Whether it’s car, bike or scooter sharing, evemo offers the right software and hardware. Even innovative ideas and individual requirements are no problem.

• Founded by: Katharina Tesch
• Connection to the H-BRS: Katharina is a graduate in Business Administration
• Period: 2020–2025
• Business model: The flower industry has little to do with sustainability! Cut flowers are either flown halfway around the world or grown in greenhouses in a process that generates huge amounts of CO2. All this for 5 days on the living room table or 3 hours at the next event. As a result, 300,000 tonnes of floral waste are produced every year in Germany alone. That’s why FLOREL exists – no cut flowers, but Growing Bouquets instead! Thanks to our new concept, our flowers actually stay alive. And they’re the very same flowers you’re familiar with from conventional bouquets! They’re potted, grow, thrive and eventually bloom – just like they do in a bouquet. Once you’ve enjoyed them, we’ll plant them for you at one of our social partners – whether that’s a green belt, a care home or another social facility.

Founded by: Tobias Hamacher

Connection to H-BRS: Tobias Hamacher is a graduate of H-BRS.

Year founded: 2018

Business model: flower, our first product, is a digital ecosystem for plant care. It consists of physical sensors, a smart cloud platform and an app for Android and iOS. flower takes care of real-time monitoring and watering of our customers’ plants.

Other information:

• Supported by: Alpha Accelerator Digital Hub
• Supported by: Technology Transfer & Start-up Centre at the University of Paderborn
• formerly Gründerstipendium.NRW

Founded by: Vincent Dittrich, Anton Henkelmann

Connection to H-BRS: Vincent is a graduate of H-BRS

Year founded: 2020

Description: HydroPlants aims to become the world’s largest data collection, evaluation and analysis tool for hydroponic cultivation – a smart and simple hydroponic system for EVERYONE.

Other details: supported by the DIGITALHUB.DE accelerator programme

Founder team:  Jan Sieger, Manuel Joao and Juri Kunsagi

Link to H-BRS: Jan Sieger is a student at H-BRS.

Timeframe: 2021–2023

Business model: Individual Collective is a streetwear brand with a focus on sustainability. The garments are produced in an environmentally friendly manner; furthermore, for every garment purchased, a tree is planted somewhere in the world to help combat climate change.

Founder: Axel Ifland

Connection to H-BRS: Alumnus

Year founded: 2018

Business model: inmex GmbH specialises in innovative plastics technology and offers plug-and-play, energy-efficient plasticising technology for injection moulding machines and extruders, in which the heating elements are integrated into the cylinder. Energy efficiency analyses are also offered as a service.

Founded by: Prof. Dr Erwin Prassler

Year founded: 2020

Link to H-BRS: Professor

Business model: KELO Robotics provides a collection of modular industrial robot components as building blocks, which can be used to design mobile robot platforms with the performance of mobile industrial robots in a very short time.

Other: Winner of the DACH division of the Entrepreneurship World Cup 2021 (Top 100 start-ups worldwide)

Founded by: Oliver Kattwinkel and Christian Klassen

Affiliation with the H-BRS: Oliver Kattwinkel was a research associate at the H-BRS

Year founded: 2019

Business model: Kleenecode specialises in the development of software systems for more efficient and environmentally friendly agriculture. By utilising new technologies, the company is able to offer technologically advanced software solutions.

Founded by: Sebastian Kawelke, Tim Bastin, Frédéric Noppe

Link to H-BRS: H-BRS students

Year founded: 2020

Business model: Bespoke and secure software with user-friendly design, as well as consultancy on all IT-related matters.

Other information:

• During the COVID-19 pandemic: Development of an app for staff planning and provision of this app free of charge to COVID-19 testing and vaccination centres
• Funded as part of the DIGITALHUB Accelerator Programme.DE
• Funded as part of Telekom’s TechBoost programme

Founded by: Christopher Kossack (until 2024), Fabian Mierau and Sergio Cancela Moreira

Link to the H-BRS: Christopher Kossack is a graduate of the H-BRS

Year founded: 2021

Business model: meinefasssauna.de is a central booking platform for the hire of mobile barrel saunas.

Other: 3rd place in the Start-up Cup 2022

Founded by: Kissia Groot Bramel, Randitya Arika Dewa and Andru Thifaldy

Link to H-BRS:&Kissia is studying Business Administration at the Sankt Augustin campus

Year founded: 2022

Business model: Meramanis is a coffee roaster that roasts exclusively Indonesian coffee beans. The green coffee beans are imported from Indonesia for this purpose. The coffee and the freshly roasted beans can be purchased at Café Meramanis in Cologne. 

Founded by: Dennis T. Franken and Christoph Ritschel

Link to H-BRS: Dennis T. Franken and Christoph Ritschel are graduates of H-BRS

Year founded: 2016

Business model: MöbelFirst is an online sales platform for specialist furniture retailers. MöbelFirst aims above all to simplify access to online retail for small and medium-sized retailers. To this end, the platform handles, amongst other things, order processing,  customer contact and enquiries, as well as online marketing and payment processing. Drawing on its extensive expertise and experience, MöbelFirst is able to professionally manage various channels such as OTTO and eBay, and even offer customer support and logistics services internationally.

Other: Sold to The Platform Group in 2021

Founded by: Julian Schulte, Josua Schulte, Jonathan Schulte

Connection to H-BRS: Julian is a graduate of FB03 and Josua is a graduate of FB01

Year founded: 2019

Business model: MotorschadenVergleich.de is a comparison portal for replacement engines, engine reconditioning and vehicle sales. We help you find the best option and the best deal for your engine damage.

Founded by: Valentin Kaymer and Bünyamin Sarikaya

Connection to the H-BRS: Valentin Kaymer is studying business psychology at the H-BRS

Year founded: 2020

Business model: The Nessy Swimming School teaches children in Hennef how to swim. Through a variety of course formats, children are introduced to swimming in a friendly atmosphere, free from fear and without pressure. In addition to baby swimming and water familiarisation for the very youngest, junior and ‘Seepferdchen’ courses as well as swimming sessions for advanced swimmers are also offered.

Founding team: Christopher Kossack, Carina Raddatz, Johannes Radschinski

Connection to the H-BRS: Christopher is an alumnus and lecturer at the H-BRS.

Year founded: 2017 (Obstkäppchen e.V.), 2020 (Obstkäppchen gUG)

Description: Obstkäppchen is a social start-up founded in 2017 with the aim of supporting older people affected by poverty in old age to maintain a healthy and balanced diet, as well as promoting intergenerational dialogue and a sense of responsibility. In addition to poverty in old age, the organisation focuses in particular on the loneliness that often accompanies it.

Founding team: Jakob Lindner, Alexander Sarellas

Connection to H-BRS: Jakob Lindner and Alexander Sarellas are graduates of the university. Both completed their Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the Department of Management Sciences.

Year founded: 2011

Business model: PAJ is a retailer, manufacturer and consultancy specialising in GPS tracking. We offer GPS tracking devices for almost any application. Using accompanying software, users can track in real time where, for example, a vehicle, a person, a pet or other objects are currently located or have been in the past.

Founder team: Mehdi Pourfallahi and Saba Fallah

Link to H-BRS: Mehdi Pourfallahi is an H-BRS graduate.

Year founded: 2015

Business model: Qimia supports clients in implementing IT projects using next-generation technologies.

Founded by: Natalie Chirchietti

Link to H-BRS: Alumna and research associate

Year founded: 2020

Business model: Radeln ohne Alter Bonn e.V. organises free rickshaw rides for older people to promote a greater zest for life and social inclusion.

Founded by: Tobias Hagemann, Sebastian Stenzel and Christian Schmickler

Year founded: 2016

Link to H-BRS: Sebastian Stenzel and Tobias Hagemann are graduates

Business model: Development of encryption and IT security solutions. To this end, Skymatic has developed a piece of software called Cryptomator, which can be used to encrypt files in the cloud.

Other information: The Cryptomator software was awarded the CeBIT Innovation Award 2016.

Founding team: Kadir Bacak and Lisa Onkes

Link to H-BRS: Kadir Bacak is a graduate of the university.

Year founded: 2020–2023

Business model: The Squareware is a code studio based in Bonn specialising in apps and web apps. From concept through to design, prototyping, UX testing and programming, The Squareware offers everything from a single source.

Founding team: Mark Mühücrcüoglu, Paul Richrath

Link to H-BRS: Mark Mühürcoglu is a graduate of the Department of Management Sciences

Year founded: 2018

Business model: SD Sugar Daddies distributes innovative food products to European retailers and wholesalers. The umbrella brand encompasses several brands. They sell through retail outlets, outsource production and essentially operate as a sales and marketing agency.

Founder team: Frederik Steen and Michael Mennicken

Link to H-BRS: Frederik Steen is a student on the Start-up Development (MBA) programme

Year founded: 2021

Business model: Suppondo offers moderation, streaming and technical support for small and large online and hybrid events.

Founder team: Tom Wypior and Nick Wypior

Link to H-BRS: Nick Wypior is a graduate of H-BRS.

Year founded: 2017

Business model: Development, production, marketing and distribution of vegan organic soft drinks. TOM BROLIN® is a low-calorie, caffeinated, vegan organic soft drink with an orange and vermouth flavour.

Other: Featured in the Netflix series ‘How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)’

Founding team: Roman Finke, Kolja Heskamp, Robert Hinsch, Moritz Schlageter, Muzi Yilmaz

Link to the H-BRS: Moritz Schlageter is an H-BRS graduate and former research associate. 

Year founded: 2020

Business model: torq.partners is a management consultancy specialising in finance, MA and back-office processes and issues for fast-growing start-ups and ‘grown-ups’.

Founding team: Inga Koster, Marco Knauf and Nicolas Lecloux

Link to H-BRS: Alumni

Year founded: 2006

Business model: TrueFruits sells smoothies and ginger shots with no frills. With a suitable range of upcycled products, the glass bottles can also be reused as spice shakers or soap dispensers. 

Other:

• 2nd place in the 2006 NUK Business Plan Competition
• 2009 German Start-up Award
• Founder of the ‘Eier aus Stahl’ Award
• Market leader by turnover in the chilled fruit sector since 2015

Founder: Lea Bockem

Link to H-BRS: Lea is a student at H-BRS.

Year founded: 2021

Business model: The zero-waste shop in Neunkirchen-Seelscheeid sells regional products largely in bulk, i.e. without packaging. The aim is to reduce food waste and packaging waste.