AI Launchpad at Cyber Valley

We welcomed Joao Santos (Tilect, Campus Founders), Marc Willhaus (Optohive, ETH Zurich), and Olof Woxenius (Atramen.to, KTH Innovation) to Tübingen. The goal of the week was to connect these start-ups with research institutions, scientists, corporates, and investors within the Cyber Valley ecosystem.

Program highlights 

Throughout the week, the three participants engaged in mentoring sessions, goal-setting workshops, and networking activities across Tübingen and Stuttgart. The start-ups presented their ventures, defined concrete objectives for the program, and explored the Cyber Valley ecosystem through guided tours and meetings with local stakeholders. 

Key highlights included a visit to Baden-Württemberg International in Stuttgart, where participants gained insights into doing business in Germany and into collaboration opportunities with corporate innovation teams in industrial AI. An investor insights session with Bosch Venture Capital provided perspectives on venture investment strategies, funding expectations, and positioning AI technologies for the market. 

Participants additionally benefited from high-level mentoring provided by Peter Gehler (Professor for Machine Learning Engineering and Technology Transfer at the Tübingen AI Center) and Kerstin Ritter ( Professor of Machine Learning for Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Tübingen and Director at the Hertie Institute for AI in Brain Health). 

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The program brought the local start-up community together, including at a Founders Breakfast that encouraged informal discussions and peer learning among founders. The week concluded with participation in the Next Frontier AI Roadshow, organized by SPRIND—Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation in collaboration with Cyber Valley. The event brought together researchers, founders, investors, and ecosystem partners for input talks from SPRIND, a Q&A session, and networking opportunities, giving the start-ups further visibility and access to the broader German AI community. 

Overall, the week served as a platform for collaboration between research-driven AI start-ups, industry stakeholders, and the broader AI innovation ecosystem, strengthening connections between European AI hubs and Cyber Valley and supporting our mission to turn excellent research into a sustainable future for everyone. 

Here's what the participants took away from the week, in their own words: 

Joao Santos (Tilect, Campus Founders)

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“It was inspiring to collaborate so closely with Cyber Valley and Tübingen AI Center throughout the week. Tübingen has a truly unique ecosystem, an impressive blend of state-of-the-art research and academia combined with a strong entrepreneurial spirit that fuels deep-tech start-ups working on some of the most advanced topics in the world. My biggest takeaway was seeing how naturally these worlds connect here, and how much that accelerates what early-stage founders can build.” 

Marc Willhaus (Optohive, ETH Zürich)

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"My personal highlight was seeing how active and fast-growing the Baden-Württemberg ecosystem is. We had the chance to dive in and connect with brilliant minds and entrepreneurs across the region. The exchange was genuinely inspiring and recharged our entrepreneurial energy. Cyber Valley is an impressive initiative, and I am confident many strong ventures will spark out of it. 

Europe stands strong in research, development, and entrepreneurship, but we too often operate in silos and underestimate what other European hubs are building. Being locally present matters, and a single in-person meeting can be the spark for something much bigger." 

Olof Woxenius (Atramen.to, KTH Innovation): 

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"I was very impressed by the diverse and welcoming ecosystem of founders, academics, and facilitators in Cyber Valley. I strongly believe that Tübingen is, and will continue to be, a positive example for European AI innovation. Visit Cyber Valley and see for yourself!"