Startup Profile
RentenNavi

Introduce yourselves

Tell us in three sentences who you are

RentenNavi is an AI agent to support prospective pensioners with their pension application. Using various messengers, text, voice and image information is collected and integrated into the pension application. The project has been running since 2023 and is currently being developed as a scalable solution for other pension-related use cases.

What challenge does your startup address and how did the idea for it come about?

The idea came from a personal experience: when Woldemar’s father retired, it became clear how complicated and incomprehensible the application was – regardless of the level of education. The biggest challenges we had to overcome were adjusting and combining models.

How does RentenNavi work and to what extent does AI support this project?

RentenNavi is an application built entirely on AI agents. In the interaction between different AI models, a complete pension application is created in cooperation with the user. Our architecture is based on different layers. The OpenStack layer combines different types of hardware. These instances enable a cloud environment for the microservices. These are then orchestrated via Kubernetes. All in all, this enables us to create a powerful combination of CPU, RAM and GPU. This makes the application redundant and scalable.

What motivated you to simplify the pension application process?

There are four main motivators that led us to set up RentenNavi.

Firstly, it is the gap between the growing number of prospective pensioners and the pension advisors who are themselves retiring. The problem is becoming more acute by the month and is socially explosive.

Secondly, most prospective pensioners have little or no idea about pension applications and the special technical terms. After all, you only apply for a pension once in your life and not everyone studies social law. As a result, there is a risk that pensioners will not claim all their entitlements.

Thirdly, the forces of differentiation are at work in a liberal society. This means that even if politicians have been promising to reduce bureaucracy for decades, it will, on the contrary, continue to increase. But there are ways of dealing with it. Artificial intelligence can understand texts and derive logical conclusions and procedures from them. In our view, this is the best way to counter the increase in bureaucracy.

Fourthly, many people in the workforce have a migration background. There are often gaps in language and text comprehension. Furthermore, languages are frequently spoken in hybrid form. This creates particular difficulties when filling out institutional, standardized documents.

Can you take us through the process of how RentenNavi guides users through the pension application process?

As we take a messenger-first approach, RentenNavi is accessible to everyone via a pension mobile number. Most people text “hello”, which activates the application’s agents and responds to the user with customized information, tips, and counter-questions. Users can interact in their language style, knowledge, and language level. Nevertheless, the agents guide users safely through the pension process. Ultimately, users receive offers such as a completed pension application and further guidance through the pension process. After all, pensioners have many more options than just the statutory pension itself.

Germany is known for its high level of bureaucracy. Is RentenNavi tailored to the German market, or would applications outside Germany also be possible?

We are initially focusing on the German market. At the same time, our infrastructure has a modular structure so that we can also transfer the system to other countries. This means that applications outside Germany are only a question of country-specific pension knowledge data.

What is your most important goal for this year? And where do you see your startup in 5 years?

This year we will publish the MVP. In 5 years, RentenNavi will be a household name for prospective pensioners and the younger generations. After all, pension provision doesn’t just start before you start your pension.