Fostering innovative startups in the pre-seed phase

As drivers of change, startups need facilitative environments for incubation and growth. This is especially true for entrepreneurs in the high-tech sector with an eye for societally relevant business ideas. Presenting examples of how startup activity is cultivated in the United States, Israel and Japan, our study examines the lessons learned with relevance for Germany and Europe. The study focuses in particular on the pre-seed phase of the startup process in which the trajectory of a newly founded business is set.

The results of this study are published as a results paper within the framework of the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2020 project, “Fostering Innovation. Unlocking potential.” This Bertelsmann Stiftung project is tasked with identifying promising mechanisms, institutions and strategies that could be applied to efforts advancing innovative capacity in Germany and Europe. The twofold aim of such efforts is to ensure, for one, that we remain technologically – and thus economically – competitive. But just as important is the need to address societal challenges while ensuring humane, democratic and inclusive economic development.

With this vision in mind, the Bertelsmann Stiftung conducted an extensive international good-practice research study and, in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, bundled the findings into four so-called results papers. Additional results papers in the “Innovation for Transformation” series address issues such as

• Good practices in mission-oriented innovation strategies and their implementation,
• Networking and exchange in mission-oriented innovation processes and
• Addressing societal challenges through disruptive technologies.

The final publication in this series, An agenda for the future: Innovation for transformation, presents a summary of the results papers’ overarching conclusions.