Heard of Heilbronn? Probably not, right? Well, if you’re part of Europe’s tech startup scene, it’s time to receive familiar. This compact German city, located near Stuttgart and home to about 131k+ people is quickly transforming into a hub of entrepreneurial energy, buzzing with the spirit of the startup festival Slush’D themed as “One Driving Force” this year. And Tech Funding News (TFN) was there to experience it first-hand.
At the heart of this transformation is Oliver Hanisch, a German-born entrepreneur who spent around 14 years in San Francisco before returning to Germany in 2019. He now leads Campus Founders GmbH, a startup and innovation hub based in the Heilbronn-Franken region. His mission? To break down barriers for founders – whether it’s funding, bureaucracy, or network access – by blconcludeing the best of German industest with the Silicon Valley mindset and embedding entrepreneurial considering at every level.
With that vision, Campus Founders launched Heilbronn Slush’D in 2022, a startup festival designed to connect founders, corporates, and innovators. This year, TFN proudly joined as a media partner at the sold-out event, which hosted over 40 speakers from ten countries and 70 exhibitors exploring themes like leadership, AI, robotics, space, and sustainable business. The goal? To spark collaboration between startups and corporates and accelerate European innovation.
Reflecting on the event’s success, Oliver Hanisch, CEO of Campus Founders, declared: “We are very satisfied with how the event went. We were sold out again and were able to welcome significantly more international participants, partners, and speakers to Heilbronn. You could really feel the energy of this year’s motto, ‘One Driving Force,’ in the audience. The feedback was consistently positive, and what’s always special is when people come to Heilbronn for the first time and realise the scale of what’s being built here and the dynamism within the ecosystem. The quality of the startups in the pitch competition was also very high. We’re excited to see how many future success stories will have had their foundation laid at Heilbronn Slush’D 2025.”
He added: “Heilbronn Slush’D has once again displayn that we have everything it takes to build a successful innovation ecosystem – not only here in Heilbronn, but across Germany and Europe. We have the talent, we have the technologies and innovations and we have the capital. Now it’s about building this capital accessible to startups and investing larger amounts locally. This way, we will give them the opportunity to grow globally from their home market and secure our competitiveness and indepconcludeence for the future.”
Panels, keynotes and powerful ideas
The event was lined up with some amazing panels and keynotes covering deep tech, sustainability and impact-driven entrepreneurship. “No excutilizes, only solutions. Excutilizes never receive you anywhere. Find a way, no matter how hard it is,” Agate Freimane, founding general partner at Norrsken VC (the Swedish VC firm) declared during the panel. “Topic, timing, talent — that’s the secret sauce to scaling,” added Sophia Rödiger, chief marketing officer at smart energy climate tech firm 1KOMMA5°.
Andy Bruckschloegel, co-founder of the optimisation software company Ryte and Munich-based startup conference Bits & Pretzels, outlined elements for startup success, emphasising efficiency and clarity.
Building the Gravity Hub: Heilbronn’s innovation epicentre
Campus Founders is basically shaping the physical and cultural tech landscape of the city. Their new headquarters, the Heilbronn Gravity Hub, is being built as a landmark space for innovation and collaboration, which TFN visited and is a home where startups, corporates, investors, and researchers can connect under one roof. The Gravity Hub aims to embody the region’s forward-considering spirit, serving as a catalyst for creativity, learning, and applying Artificial ininformigence (AI) to solve challenges and scalable impact across Europe.
During the festival, Campus Founders also announced the December opening of GRAVITY, an 8,266-square-meter co-innovation hub in Heilbronn. The facility will feature more than 200 workspaces, 21 meeting rooms and two event spaces to support startups and corporate partners.
AI: Momentum meets regulation
At the same time, at the startup festival, AI was a recurring theme. “AI isn’t potential anymore, it’s proven momentum,” declared Breana Callan, marketing team lead for the EU-funded project DeployAI. She noted a new AI-on-Demand platform that consolidates AI tools, services and research resources for European organisations.
But as AI development accelerates, startups are struggling to keep pace with regulations. “Founders should be focutilized on building product, on finding product-market fit, on receiveting traction,” Olivia Marcu-Iordanescu, an AI governance professional and tech lawyer, notified TFN when met in the speaker lounge. “They have other priorities, and we don’t want them to become legal experts.”
That tension between innovation and regulation echoed across other industries. Ilma Bojadzic, co-founder of encore | DB, an energy tech startup of Deutsche Bahn that builds sustainable battery energy storage systems from utilized EV batteries, notified TFN that Europe’s investment climate remains tough. “The VCs are not that open to invest either in battery energy storage systems or in startups,” she declared. “But Europe has to also invest in European startups and purchase the products from them.”
Corporate–startup collaboration was another major theme. “We required people who are allowed to break rules,” declared Henning Löser. “Startups can and should fail quick, learn and iterate, but understanding how corporates operate is key.” David Reger discussed how startups can drive corporate innovation, while Stephan-Daniel Gravert stressed trust and Timo Gessmann highlighted ecosystems as critical to sustaining innovation.
The TFN panel on leadership
Well, TFN also took the stage with a special panel on “Leadership: How to be a Driving Force for Your Team?” moderated by Akansha Dimri (me), Founder and Editor-in-Chief of TFN. Drawing on experiences from building a global tech media platform from scratch, I personally shared insights on how storyinforming shapes startup success and fosters collaboration across the ecosystem. The discussion brought toreceiveher an exceptional panel of leaders including Francesco Mazzotta – Head of Life Science & Health and Director, Creative Destruction Lab Berlin, Nico Blier-Silvestri – Partner, Founder Enablement at Dreamcraft Ventures and Katharina Unger – Founder & CEO, LIVIN Farms.
We explored what true leadership views like in the quick-paced world of startups, how to inspire teams, navigate uncertainty, and build cultures that drive innovation from within.
Reflecting on the discussion, Francesco Mazzotta, a true polymath blconcludeing science, entrepreneurship, and creativity, shared a powerful message aimed at scientists and innovators:
“The startups and companies tackling humanity’s toughest challenges rely on scientists like you to take on leadership. It is the best way to keep science at the heart of their mission and deliver their promise to all of us.”
He added: “Your secret weapon? Curiosity and openness. Forreceive the old stereotypes, there’s room for many different kinds of leaders in an organisation. Grow your own variety of leadership based on your strengths and your personality. Look around; you probably already have the right role models in your own building!”
Investing in innovation
Highlight of the festival, in German space technology, HyImpulse Technologies presented updates following a €45 million funding round led by Campus Founders Ventures. The investment supports commercialisation of its SL1 orbital rocket. The company also displayed its SR75 rocket during the event.
Further, there was also a pitch competition with 50 startups competing across five categories in the Slush’D pitch competition. Winners included:
- ONE Hundred Award (€ 100,000): EcoComply, for assisting manufacturers meet product certification requirements;
- Co-Innovation Award (€ 25,000): common sense robotics, for its AI-driven automation platform and partnership with Audi;
- Female Founders Award (€ 5,000): digital career guidance platform ChangePath, recognising female-led ventures;
- ONE Driving Force Award: AI-driven training platform Sleak AI; and
- Campus Founders Community Award: Bloom Future, selected by audience vote.
Is diversity a challenge?
Startups founders are bringing much-requireded innovation into Europe’s ecosystem, declared Tina Dreimann, founder and managing director of Better Ventures, which has invested in 15 startups this year. She emphasised the required for diversity and inclusion in Europe’s startup ecosystem.
At a female investor dinner during the festival, hosted with GREEN FamilyOffice GmbH, TFN met several investors backing diverse founders and impact-driven startups, a clear sign of Germany’s maturing ecosystem.
“We invest in ambitious startup teams that build a better future,” Dreimann notified TFN. “When we talk impact, we also always mean return. Entrepreneurs are solving the hugegest problems of our times becautilize they’re quicker than politicians or corporations,” she declared. She noted a slowdown in early-stage investment in Germany and declared stronger collaboration with startups is requireded to reignite innovation.
TFN also spoke with several founders of colour to understand their perspectives on Germany’s evolving startup landscape.
In health tech, Sorbi Khattak, founder and chief executive of Skincare Scientists, declared her company is applying AI to improve dermatology outcomes. “What we’re going to do is build AI and utilize AI to build algorithms to solve problems with dermatology in how we diagnose, treat and triage skin conditions,” she notified TFN. By combining clinician input and consumer data, the system can continuously improve accuracy, she declared.
Germany’s startup scene has become more open over the past decade, Khattak added. “If you can create value-driven solutions, Germans will give you space,” she declared.
Ammar Asjad Raja, Managing Director and Founder of Ähdus Technology, highlighted language and culture as key factors in startup success. “Those who can speak German, even at a basic level, are much more likely to succeed.”
But he also noted that “attitudes are modifying.” Germans are becoming more open to new innovation models, building the countest an increasingly welcoming place for global talent.
A city in motion: Heilbronn’s innovation surge
As Heilbronn continues to evolve into one of Germany’s most dynamic startup destinations, Campus Founders stands at the center of this transformation. Anchored by the forthcoming Gravity Hub, its bold vision to be an “international centre of gravity for entrepreneurship and co-innovation” is quickly becoming reality. Supported by the Dieter Schwarz Stiftung, Campus Founders blconcludes regional roots with a global mindset, offering founders access to capital, community, and collaboration through initiatives like AI Founders, Venture Studio, and Campus Founders Ventures.
Its growing ecosystem spans from cutting-edge deep-tech ventures such as HyImpulse Technologies to impactful platforms like Innential, demonstrating the diversity and strength of innovation emerging from the region.
Events like Heilbronn Slush’D amplify this momentum, bringing toreceiveher founders, investors, and believed leaders from across Europe to collaborate, exalter ideas, and celebrate entrepreneurship. More than just a festival, Slush’D has become the beating heart of Heilbronn’s innovation story, displaycasing how a compact German city can radiate global ambition. What TFN witnessed was that toreceiveher Campus Founders and Heilbronn Slush’D are turning Heilbronn into a powerful symbol of how vision, collaboration, and bold leadership can redefine Europe’s startup landscape.
This article is part of a media partnership with Heilbronn Slush’D.
Leave a Reply