This presentation at the G-Forum conference in 09/22 in Dresden, Germany gives an overview of the new developments regarding corporate accelerator programs in Germany. A unique result is that we discovered the new corporate accelerator category of scaling partner. Overall there are only 16 CA programs in Germany that fit our definition.

1. The State of Corporate
Accelerators in Germany
Presentation by Prof. Dr. Christian Schultz (cschultz@th-wildau.de)
Submission by Anastasia Mihaijlova, Christian Schultz, Christoph Rasche
G-Forum Conference 2022
Dresden, Germany

2. 09/22/22 Slide 2
Agenda
Introduction
Theoretical Background
Methodology
Results
Conclusion

3. 09/22/22 Slide 3
Practical Problem:
Dinosaur meets Unicorn!
Large Corporations Start-ups

4. 09/22/22 Slide 4
Introduction
! Different organizational modes of collaboration for established corporations to take advantage
of the ingenuity and flexibility of start-ups is summarized under the catchphrase of Corporate
Startup Engagement (CSE) (Jackson and Richter, 2017). Those modes include (Kohler, 2016):
corporate hackathons, business incubators, corporate incubation, corporate venturing, M&A
and corporate accelerator.
! Corporate accelerators (CA) act as a bridge from resourceful but slow large corporations to
agile but resource-depleted start-ups. Although they fulfill this unique role in the start-up
ecosystem the literature base on their designs and strategies is rather scarce.
! Starting from the existing categorization system of Kanbach and Stubner (2016) we conduct a
qualitative content analysis of corporate accelerators in Germany.
! Research Questions
- How has the CA Landscape developed in Germany from 2013-2020?
- Is the classification of Kanbach and Stubner (2016) for CA in Germany still valid?

5. 09/22/22 Slide 5
What is a Corporate Accelerator?
No. Term Definition Literature
1 Corporate
Accelerator
Cohen and Hochberg (2014) outline an accelerator as a program of limited
duration where start-ups, grouped into cohorts, receive support through capital
injections, coaching or training and that ends with a public pitch event or demo
day. When an already established corporation (“parent company”) provides capital
or other resources for an accelerator program the managing organization qualifies
as a CA.
Cohen and Hochberg,
(2014)
Integral parts of a CA are the selection process and their flexible organizational
models that typically cover three to six months of coaching, mentoring, and
networking for a group of start-ups. The average investment by the parent
company in the start-up is about 25.000 U.S. dollars.
Miller and Bound,
(2011)
The founding of the US startup accelerator "Y-Combinator" by Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston in 2005 is
consistently cited in the literature as the beginning of the emergence of modern accelerator programs (Cohen &
Hochberg, 2014; Kohler, 2016; Regmi et al., 2015). These differ significantly from earlier forms, which began in the
1950s with business incubators and extended to corporate venture capital and the so-called "startup factories" in
the 1990s (Cohen & Hochberg, 2014; Kanbach, 2016; Kohler, 2016).

6. 09/22/22 Slide 6
Agenda
Introduction
Theoretical Background
Methodology
Results
Conclusion

7. 09/22/22 Slide 7
Some Corporate Accelerators in Germany

8. 09/22/22 Slide 8
Market Overview of Corporate
Accelerator Programs in Germany in 2021
No. Accelerator Corporate Establ. Start-ups Location(s)
1 Airbus Bizlab Airbus 2015 50+ Hamburg
2 APX Axel Springer
Porsche
2018 80+ Berlin
3 DB Mindbox Deutsche Bahn
(engl. German Rail)
2015 150+ Berlin
4 ESA Business
Incubation
European Space Agency 2007 160+ Darmstadt,
Reutlingen,
Friedrichshafen
5 F-Lane Voafone Institute 2017 N.N. Berlin
6 G4A Bayer 2013 150+ Berlin
7 Helios Hub Helios Clinics 2015 N.N. Berlin
8 hub:raum Telekom AG 2012 40+ Berlin
9 Main Incubator Commerzbank 2013 23 Frankfurt a.M.
10 Merck Accelerator Merck 2015 N.N. Darmstadt
11 Microsoft Scale Up Microsoft 2018 N.N. Berlin
12 Next Media
Accelerator
DPA
(engl. German Press Agency)
2015 77 Hamburg
13 Seven Accelerator ProSieben Sat 1 2013 50+ Unterföhring
14 Siemens
Technology
Accelerator
Siemens 2001 12 Munich
15 Vodafone Uplift Vodafone 2017 30+ Düsseldorf
16 Xcel Metro 2015 70+ Düsseldorf

9. 09/22/22 Slide 9
Qualitative Content Analysis with MaxQDA
Research
Question
Phase 1
• Initiating text work
• Marking important passages in
the text
• Writing memos Phase 2
• Developing main categories
Phase 3
• Coding the data with main categories
Phase 4
• Compiling all text passages
coded with the same main
category
Phase 5
• Inductive determination of
subcategories in the data
Phase 6
• Coding of the data with the
complete category system
Phase 7
• Simple and complex
analyses
• Visualizations
Methodology:
! Qualitative content analysis
according to Kuckartz (2018).
! Inductive-deductive category
formation.
! Application and evaluation in
MaxQDA.
Secondary Data:
! Website information
! Interviews
! Newspaper articles

10. 09/22/22 Slide 10
Differentiating features of CA
No Main Categories Subcategories
1 Primary Goal of the CA ! Financial
! Strategic
! Other
2 Design of the CA program ! Industry Focus
! CA Place
! Place of Innovation
3 Participation in the Start-up ! Yes
! No
4 Startup Development Phase ! Open
! Pre Seed
! Early Stage
! Later Stage
5 Program organization ! Internal
! External partners
6 Involvement of the company ! Integration in the Corporation
! Independent Unit

11. 09/22/22 Slide 11
Categories of Active CA in Germany
No. Categories Name
1 Listening Post F-Lane
2 Listening Post ES Business Incubator
3 Value Chain Investor DB Mindbox
4 Value Chain Investor Merck Accelerator
5 Value Chain Investor G4A Advanced Track
6 Test Laboratory hub:raum Prototyping Campus
7 Test Laboratory Helios hub
8 Test Laboratory Siemens Technology Accelerator
9 Test Laboratory Airbus biz Lab
10 Unicorn Hunter Next media accelerator
11 Unicorn Hunter APX
12 Unicorn Hunter Seven Accelerator
13 Unicorn Hunter Main Incubator
14 Scaling Partner Microsoft Scale Up
15 Scaling Partner Vodafone Uplift
16 Scaling Partner Xcel
CA Typ Kanbach and Stubner (2016)
Listening Post • Strategic objective
• Identification of market & technology trends
• No participation
• Directly in the parent company
Value Chain
Investor
• Strategic objective
• Identification of innovative products & business
models along their value chain
• Own profit orientation through financial
• participation
• External and internal execution
Test
Laboratory
• Strategic objective
• Protected environment for testing business ideas
and innovation
• No investment and no participation
Unicorn
Hunter
• Financial objective
• Startup inventment aims to deliver financial returns
• Unicorns
• Financial participation
• Startup affiliation is industry agnostic
• Own subsidiary

12. 09/22/22 Slide 12
Results

13. 09/22/22 Slide 13
Scaling Partner as a
New Category of CA in Germany
The new CA format focuses on later-stage startups that are in the scaling and internationalization phase
with a functioning business model. The aim is to establish a long-term relationship through partnerships
with the products and sales channels offered by the company.
The following CAs fall into this category:
! Microsoft ScaleUp selects startups for its program that are in the process of technological scaling. In
addition to coaching and mentoring for the growth strategy, Microsoft offers access to its sales and
partner network and co-selling. Co-selling at Microsoft is defined as the joint appearance of partners
and Microsoft in front of customers. The additional focus is on offering usage of the Microsoft Azure
cloud platform.
! The focus of Vodafone Uplift is on industrial startup collaborations in the field of IoT and web-based
applications. Vodafone offers its start-ups sales and marketing partnerships, as well as access to their
infrastructure.
! Metro XCel is the latest evolution of the Metro Techstars Accelerator. The aim of the accelerator is to
select start-ups in the later-stage phase that find new solutions in the retail and hospitality industry. In
particular, pain points of METRO stores and their customers are addressed.

14. 09/22/22 Slide 14
Conclusion
CA market trends:
! Evolution of CAs (eg. APX, MetroXcel).
! Flexible and customized programs to coach startups.
! Companies run their own CAs instead of partnering with others.
CA types of Kanbach and Stubner (2016) still valid
! 13 of 16 CAs fit the typology of Kanbach and Stubner (2016).
! CA 2020: 2 Listening Posts, 3 Value Chain Investors, 4 Test Laboratories, and 4 Unicorn Hunters.
New CA Category: Scaling Partner for later-stage start-ups
! Focus: Growth and internationalization phase.
! Long-term partnership with the corporation.
! Co-selling (joint service and sales channels).

15. 09/22/22 Slide 15
Limitations
! Only one aspect of the CSE ecosystem examined.
! Sample of 16 CA in Germany is rather small.
! Published material might be considered mainly subjective and
part of a corporate marketing campaign.

16. 09/22/22 Slide 16
Literature
Cohen, S. & Hochberg, Y. V. (2014). Accelerating Startups: The Seed Accelerator Phenomenon. SSRN Electronic Journal.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.2418000
Jackson, P. & Richter, N. (2017). Situational Logic: An Analysis Of Open Innovation Using Corporate Accelerators. International
Journal of Innovation Management, 21 (07), 1750062. doi:10.1142/S1363919617500621
Kanbach, D. K. & Stubner, S. (2016). Corporate Accelerators As Recent Form Of Startup Engagement: The What, The Why, And
The How. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 32 (6), 1761. doi:10.19030/jabr.v32i6.9822
Kuckartz, U. (2018). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Computerunterstüt- zung, Beltz Verlagsgruppe
Kanbach, D. K. (2016). Corporate venturing activities of established companies.
Kanbach, D. K. & Stubner, S. (2016). Corporate Accelerators As Recent Form Of Startup Engagement: The What, The Why, And
The How. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 32 (6), 1761. doi:10.19030/jabr.v32i6.9822
Kohler, T. (2016). Corporate accelerators: Building bridges between corporations and startups. Business Horizons, 59 (3), 347–
357. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2016.01.008
Kuckartz, U. (2018). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Computerunterstützung. Weinheim: Beltz Verlagsgruppe.
Miller, P. & Bound, K. (2011). The startup factories. NESTA. http://www. nesta. org. uk/library/documents/StartupFactories. pdf.