Hesse receives ten million euros for start-ups

The money comes from an EU funding program and is primarily intended to support young companies in their seed phase.

Hessen's start-up scene can rejoice: the Kapital III fund of Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen (BMH) is receiving ten million euros from the EU REACT funding program, which was set up to deal with the coronavirus crisis and its consequences. This increases the volume of the fund to 43 million euros. "The additional tranche of funding from Brussels increases our funding options and shows the EU's confidence in Hesse as a business location," says Minister of Economic Affairs Tarek Al-Wazir.

The fund is aimed at SMEs, but also explicitly at start-ups, and provides the money primarily to structurally weaker parts of the state. The BMH invests between 100,000 and 1.5 million euros in companies, either quietly or openly. The money now coming from the EU is earmarked exclusively for supporting start-ups in the seed phase. Start-ups can also benefit from collaborations with universities such as HIGHEST in Darmstadt and incubators such as Techquartier in Frankfurt.

"The investments in start-ups are intended to contribute to the sustainable, positive further development and diversification of the Hessian corporate landscape," says Michael Reckhard, part of the management of Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen (WIBank), through which the financial support from the state of Hesse is provided. "The new seed tranche gives young companies more financial freedom and is another important step towards strengthening the financing ecosystem for start-ups in Hesse," concludes Reckhard.