Venture Lab of the TUM receives 1.4 million euros

Munich-based BayWa AG invests €1.4 million in TUM's so-called "Food-Agro-Biotech" venture lab.

Partnership in Munich: BayWa AG is supporting the Venture Lab Food-Agro-Biotech (FAB) of the Technical University of Munich with 1.4 million euros. "For us as BayWa, supporting start-ups is an important contribution to accelerating innovations and bringing them into practice," says Klaus Josef Lutz, CEO of the group, which is active worldwide in the agricultural, energy and construction industries.

The FAB offers an advanced training and incubator program for start-ups in the fields of agriculture, food and biotechnology. "In this field, which is important for the environment and health, we expect forward-looking innovations through the combination of natural and life sciences with artificial intelligence, robotics and sensor technology," says TUM President Thomas Hofmann.

In addition to financial support, the Group and the Venture Lab will also share knowledge. TUM offers start-up teams the infrastructure for laboratory experiments, prototype construction and management on its campus. The goal is not isolated start-ups, but "start-up families," as it says in a statement. To this end, the TUM establishes contacts in research, with companies and investors: "A decisive characteristic of success of important innovation locations is their ecosystem, in which the different players complement each other with their strengths, generate dynamism and creativity in their interplay and produce something truly new," explains Hofmann.

In addition to the FAB, the TUM Venture Labs Aerospace, Built Environment, ChemSPACE, Healthcare, Quantum, Robotics/AI and Software/AI were launched about a year ago.