Alongside the Director of Fraunhofer IZM, Klaus-Dieter Lang, Bernd Lietzau of the Senate Office of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, and CUBE Director Torsten Oelke welcomed the attendees to the day’s event.

The networking breakfast put nine table captains from many enterprises and organizations, including Berlin Partner, Tektronix, and Fraunhofer, in the spotlight to answer the many questions of the visitors.

Guided tours took the participants to the IZM lab facilities, where they had a chance to see the potential and capabilities of Fraunhofer IZM from up close. At the same time, three startups were given the opportunity to demonstrate their work to the attending crowd in the distinctive container facilities of Start-a-Factory. Another 25 startups attended the exhibition with their products and concepts at HALLE16 IZM Berlin.

A special highlight of the Founders’ Garage was the series of three-minute pitches, in which twenty startups had three rounds to showcase their ideas to a rapt jury. The three strongest ideas won the opportunity to cooperate with Start-a-Factory at Fraunhofer IZM. The happy winners were: Faraday Motion (top pitch), Sence Tech (second place), and ProGlove (third place).

Many high profile companies representing many sectors of industry, like SAP, Murata, West Tech Ventures, Join Capital, and INAM, were actively involved as table captains, speakers, or members of the jury during this unique and memorable event.