New partner for Stuttgart network

Startup Autobahn was able to win the Schaeffler Group as a new company for its own platform. The company wants to use the network to find start-ups to work together on pilot projects in the future.

Supplier Schaeffler becomes a new anchor partner of the Startup Autobahn network. Since 2016, established companies have been connecting with start-ups via Startup Autobahn in order to jointly advance pilot projects to market maturity in the best case scenario. The Stuttgart-based network currently comprises 30 partners and 30,000 start-ups.

Experts from the company choose who Schaeffler works with. Together with the start-ups, they then initially want to develop pilot projects. Schaeffler has various innovation clusters in the areas of "Hydrogen & Energy Transition", "Electric & Automated Mobility", "Robotics & IoT", "Bearing Technologies", "Material & Surface Science" and "Artificial Intelligence".

"We are delighted to welcome Schaeffler as the latest anchor partner on our platform," says Sascha Karimpour, co-founder of Startup Autobahn. He expects Schaeffler's expertise and "diverse product and system portfolio" to be beneficial for the start-ups.

Schaeffler is also looking forward to the opportunity: "Startup Autobahn is a perfect fit for Schaeffler and is an important milestone in our innovation strategy. Through strategic cooperation with start-ups, we can identify growth markets, further develop our core business together with strong partners and offer innovative, sustainable future technologies," says Uwe Wagner, Chief Research and Development Officer at Schaeffler.