On February 2nd, 2017, the grand finale of the Gründungsgarage volume VII took place. Six student teams presented their start-up projects in the Skyroom of the Styria Media Center.

What is the Gründungsgarage?
Gründungsgarage directly translated means, “Founding Garage”. In the Gründungsgarage students work on real start-up ideas and develop their business models throughout a semester. Students from all study fields and universities can participate. They are supported by experienced mentors, who are experts in various business areas and are very interested in helping start-ups voluntarily. The students can take advantage of the various core competencies,the experience of each mentor and benefit from them in individual consultations. Within a semester, consulting services worth approximately € 25,000 will be made available for students for free.

Team_Gründungsgarage

Team Gründungsgarage (from left: M. Ruhri, B. Weber, StR G. Rüsch, M. Mader, R. Taferner, T. Zapf (Styria), H. Höller, VR P. Riedler (KFU), S. Vorbach)

Since the launch of Gründungsgarage in 2013, more than fifty teams have been supported in it, around 20 of them were already founded or are currently in their foundation process. The resulting start-up rate of around 40% can be seen in national and international comparison. Some companies already passed their first large financing rounds. A few days ago, timeular (founder: Manuel Bruschi, Gründungsgarage Vol. IV) was able to start a pre-seed financing round with Pioneers Ventures and others.

 

 

Who is behind it?
The course is organized by the Institute of Corporate Leadership and Entrepreneurship of the University of Graz, together with the Institute of General Management and Organisation of the technical University of Graz within the framework of WTZ Süd.

What happened?
On Thursday, February 2nd 2017, the student start-up teams of Volume VII presented their projects to a select group of judges, who are entrepreneurs, opinion leaders and leaders from business, politics and society. The range of ideas are wide and go from highly innovative and already internationally award-winning rescue systems for drones, to Virtual Reality CRM tools, or prototyped car ski holders, which will put the problem of scratched cars to the past.

Winner Drone Rescue (from left: M. Manninger, A. Likar (RA-Kanzlei Likar), A. Ploier, S. Vorbach)

Around 100 invited guests chose Drone Rescue as winner of Volumes VII Gründungsgarage in the completely filled Skyroom.  For the winning pitch, the start-up received prizes worth more than € 6,000. Arno Likar, CFO of Likar Rechtsanwälte (lawyers), not only offered the winning team a legal advisory package worth € 1,000 but also worked as a mentor in the “garage” throughout the semester.Additionally, the winning team got tickets for the Fifteen Seconds Festival. Finally, they got the prize for 6 months of free co-working that is made possible by and at possible AulaX. There the founders of Drone Rescue will be able to pursue their entrepreneurial goals. Special appreciation was not only given to the victorious team Drone Rescue but also to the generally represented entrepreneurial spirit of the students, who convinced the entrepreneurs, politicians and guests of their ideas.

Further information to the Gründungsgarage can be found at www.gründungsgarage.at (available in German only).
The application process for Vol. VIII is open online from now on.

 

Pictures: Gründungsgarage

Written by: University of Graz, RT
on: 06/03/2017

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