EWG was launched as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) in 1991. The shareholders are – each with a 50% stake – the City of Essen and IEW - Interessengemeinschaft Essener Wirtschaft e.V with their approximately 50 renowned member companies and institutions. This focussed expertise makes EWG the ideal partner in Essen for businesses, investors and start-ups. In a nut shell, for you.

InvestHorizon is a programme financed by the European Commission, in association with Eureka, to facilitate series A funding for selected deep tech companies boosting their investment readiness and investor relations. The programme is run by a consortium coordinated by Tech Tour.

NRW.BANK is the state development bank of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its mission is to support its owner – the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – in the completion of its structural and economic policy tasks. For this purpose NRW.BANK uses a wide range of promotion tools – from lowinterest promotion loans to equity financing to advisory services. It cooperates with all banks and savings banks based in NRW on a competition neutral basis. The clients of NRW.BANK benefit from favorable conditions as well as from long maturities and fixed interest periods. Regional seed funds and the “NRW.BANK.Venture Fund” support early-stage financing in NRW. Young high-tech companies are promoted with up to five million euros. In addition to that the NRW.BANK provides contacts to private investors within the “win Business Angels initiative”. Furthermore there is the “NRW.BANK.Venture Center”, a unit specialized in advising technology-oriented founders in universities and research institutions.

Euronext is the leading pan-European exchange (and 6th largest globally) with 1’300 listed issuers worth close to €3.9 trillion in market capitalization as of end June 2018, an unmatched blue chip franchise consisting of 24 issuers in the Morningstar® Eurozone 50 Index™ benchmark and a strong diverse domestic and international client base. Its total product offering includes Equities, Exchange Traded Funds, Warrants & Certificates, Bonds, Derivatives, Commodities and Indices. Euronext operates the regulated markets, Euronext Growth and Euronext Access, which facilitates SMEs’ and Tech companies’ access to capital markets. There are 950+ listed SMEs on Euronext markets, of which 348 can be considered as listed Tech companies operating in TMT, Cleantech and Life Sciences. Overall over 5’400 institutional investors provide a deep investor pool; 1000+ institutional investors specialize on SMEs and the tech segment, coming from 40 countries.

SME Instrument, part of the European Innovation Council Pilot, supports market-creating innovation in small and medium-sized businesses that have significant growth potential and global ambitions. Each applicant SME goes through a rigorous review and selection process: Over 50,000 have applied but less than 6% have been selected. Besides funding, which starts at 50,000 Euros and can grow to 2.5 million Euros, each SME participant receives world-class business coaching, training and support services, from idea development to product launch in the market.

The BioCampus Cologne (BCC) and the Rechtsrheinische Technologie- und Gründerzentrum Köln (RTZ) represent two well established hubs for innovative technology companies. Since 2020 both locations have been merged in a cooperative way to create one institution for fostering high-tech innovation within the Rhineland. André van Hall has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of both locations. This is intended to establish a far-reaching startup network and a sustainable business incubation. A hotspot for innovation and technology, directly in the beautiful Cathedral City of Cologne. More than 70 technology companies are supported, mentored and expanded by the cooperation. Among these companies are the highly innovative startups such as CEVEC, b.fab, Rimasys, BioEcho, BluCon or InfanDx. Not only startups have joined the company network, but also globally established companies such as Bayer, Lonza, Evotec or Myriad. The BCC offers space of over 40 acres for unlimited growth of a comprehensive high-tech cluster. For realising this vision, the BCC is constantly working on expanding and extending its office and laboratory buildings, as well as creating completely new buildings, ensuring that startups and technology com panies always have enough space to develop. The RTZ is a business incubator which is directly located in the center of Cologne. The RTZ has established itself as an incubation venue for startups with innovative ideas. In addition to the spacious laboratory areas, the RTZ also offers coworking space and a young community of innovative technology startups. BCC and RTZ are embedded in a versatile network of strong partners within the region Rhineland. The combination of all advantages between the BCC and RTZ, therefore, offers the ideal environment for future expansion, development and growth for technolo gy companies and furthermore supports the vision of establishing Cologne as an international hotspot for international technology & innovation.

As one of the six DWNRW hubs, the ruhr: HUB was launched at the end of 2016 as part of the Digital Economy Initiative in North Rhine-Westphalia to act as a central office for digitization in the Ruhr region and as a match maker between the actors and in particular to promote the founding culture and community.

The Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry is an institution financed by traders, merchants and private companies; statutory membership and fees enable it to represent the general interests of industry, trade and the service sectors. The CCI contacts government and public authorities, parliaments and courts. A dialogue that is beneficial for both sides. For Startups the CCI offers a huge range of services: support in creating your business model or business plan, advice on how to cope with loan and other support programs, information on alternative ways like venture capital and crowdfunding to finance your business, consulting you in questions of growth. Your startup matters are our business!

E.ON is an international investor-owned energy company, which focuses on energy networks and customer solutions. As one of Europe's largest energy companies, E.ON plays a leading role in shaping a clean, digital, decentralized world of energy. To this end, the company develops and sells products and solutions for private, commercial and industrial customers. Around 50 million customers purchase electricity, gas, digital products or solutions for electric mobility and energy efficiency from E.ON. E.ON is headquartered in Essen, Germany. For more information, please visit www.eon.com.

Evonik stands for attractive business and innovative prowess. Our corporate culture is geared toward results, profitable growth, and increasing the value of the company. Operating in over 100 countries, we benefit from close customer relationships and leading market positions. Over 32,000 employees are united by the understanding that no product is so perfect that you can't make it better.

The RAG-Stiftung is a private foundation that was established in 2007. At the beginning of 2019, the RAG-Stiftung took over the responsibility for financing the perpetual obligations of the German hard coal mining industry in the Ruhr and Saar regions and in Ibbenbüren. In addition, the RAG-Stiftung supports numerous projects in the areas of education, science and culture in order to promote progress in the former mining regions. Further information on the RAG-Stiftung is available at: www.rag-stiftung.de

Tengelmann Ventures is firm with a focus on early growth stages, i.e. after a company has shown first traction in its respective market, looking to partner with entrepreneurs that change the life of millions across the globe in the areas of Consumer Internet, Digital Services and Emerging Technologies. Their focus lies on investments with initial capital ranging between EUR 3-8m, occasionally we also do seed. They are a stable companion for those they partner with and are able to invest up to EUR 40m over the lifecycle of an investment. TEV started in 2009 with an initial focus on investments in E-commerce, but we have grown to much more and today cover everything digital. They partner with entrepreneurs with the ambition to build companies that become household names and affect peoples’ lives for the better, enable digital business to run more smoothly or are the infrastructure foundation of the next technological wave.

PitchBook is the premier provider of data on the public and private equity markets. We arm our clients with unprecedented insight into the flow of capital across the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A landscape to help them capitalize on opportunities in the private markets.