Next step for Germany’s AI ecosystem: hessian.AI and Futury launch strategic partnership to support AI startups
The Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI) and Futury announce a strategic partnership that creates a seamless path from AI research to market success. The complementary combination of AI Startup Rising | hessian.AI’s research-based approach with Futury’s industry-focused programs strengthens the end-to-end support system for AI startups in Hesse – from research idea to international scaling. This includes a coordinated financing process from early validation to growth financing. Startups also have access to a high-performance infrastructure that includes one of the leading AI clusters in Europe and a modern hub in Frankfurt. The targeted use of AI tools for startup funding is also a focal point.
Seamless support for AI startups from the idea to market maturity
The Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI) and Futury – The Future Factory are joining forces. The strategic alliance aims to close the critical gap between research excellence and market application in a more targeted manner. While hessian.AI’s AI Startup Rising (AISR) project contributes its strengths in research-oriented AI development and technical validation, Futury’s focus is on practice-oriented application with direct access to industry partners and growth capital.
The partnership aims to support the entire value chain of AI startups and facilitate the transfer from research to practice. In addition to the joint organization of events and an accelerator program, the collaboration will include a comprehensive range of services for every phase of startup development.
“We are expanding our support services for AI startups into a seamless support ecosystem that covers all development phases.Our joint accelerator at Bertramshof will be at the heart of this integration – this is where excellent research AI technologies meet industrial application expertise and scaling expertise.”
Tobias Kehl, Co-Head of the AI Startup Rising | hessian.AI
“With this partnership, we are building an end-to-end bridge between talent scouting in education, AI research and market maturity. The combination of our strengths – hessian.AI with its specialized AI expertise and Futury with our industrial application know-how – creates a unique offering for AI founders. In our new physical hub at Bertramshof, AI startups will have direct access to corporate partners and the opportunity for an active exchange on pilot projects and application space.”
Melissa Ott, Managing Director Futury
“This collaboration is another step towards establishing the Rhine-Main region as an important location for AI innovation in Germany and providing startups with the perfect platform for growth and scaling.”
Charlie Müller, CEO of Futury
Targeted use of AI tools for startup promotion
A key element of the collaboration is the innovative use of AI technologies to support the startups themselves. “We use AI not only as a research object, but also as a strategic multiplier for the startup ecosystem,” explains AI Startup Rising Co-Lead Carlina Bennison. The partners want to jointly develop AI-supported tools for automated scouting of research potential, personalized coaching approaches, intelligent talent matching processes and AI-based support in the creation of business plans and investor documents. Bennison continues: “These AI-supported methods will initially be used in hessian.AI’s AI cluster and will be rolled out to Futury’s entire offering in the future. In this way, we want to create a sustainable basis for innovation for the entire startup ecosystem.”
Strong infrastructure and optimized financing support
The collaboration offers AI startups access to an outstanding infrastructure: hessian.AI’s supercomputer clusters “42” and “43” are among the most powerful AI clusters in Europe and enable the efficient training of AI models. Futury offers the Bertramshof in Frankfurt, a 2,000 square meter physical hub with 170 workstations, which will open in August 2025.
In addition, the startups benefit from a coordinated financing path – from early Lean AI Startup Funding (€30,000 per team) from hessian.AI to Futury’s Factory Fund with a total target volume of €40 million. A joint mentor pool with over 100 experts from AI research and industry as well as access to international networks in Tel Aviv, Boston and Dubai complete the offer.
Setting the course for a strong AI ecosystem in Hesse and the entire Rhine-Main region
Developing the entire region into the leading ecosystem for safe, responsible and innovative AI startups – that is the shared vision of the two partners. With the goal of supporting over 1,000 startups in the region by 2030, AI startups will also form a central part of this project. By focusing on the promotion of innovative AI solutions, hessian.AI and Futury are jointly accelerating the further development of an internationally competitive AI innovation ecosystem in the region.
The first joint events will take place in April and May 2025:
The AIConnects event on April 23 at Centralstation Darmstadt and the Industry Kickoff in mid-June with a focus on cyber security, AI and data. The launch of the first joint accelerator is planned for the end of 2025.
About hessian.AI | AI Startup Rising
The Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI), located at the Technical University of Darmstadt, pursues the goal of conducting excellent basic research with concrete practical relevance and also promoting the transfer to business and society. The AI Startup Rising project manages the startup activities of hessian.AI. Since 2022, over 200 AI startup projects and startups have been supported, more than 160 teams have been listed on the AI Startup Landscape Hessen and programs ranging from AI Masterclasses to the Rising Accelerator have been offered.
www.hessian.ai
About Futury – The Future Factory
Futury is an innovation platform that brings companies and startups together to tackle transformative challenges and promote sustainable innovation. Futury supports talents and startups throughout the entire life cycle: from idea development to scaling. Futury offers a unique ecosystem that quickly translates startup ideas and research results into practice. Futury is backed by the Rhine-Main Universities (Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, TU Darmstadt) and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Transfer centers such as HIGHEST, Unibator, the Startup Center Mainz and the Entrepreneurship Centre of Frankfurt School are firmly integrated in order to efficiently support startups. Through a strong network of industry partners, scientific institutions and investors, Futury accelerates innovation processes and enables quick access to knowledge, capital and pilot projects. As a center of gravity for innovation, Futury connects science, business and founders and creates solutions for a competitive future.
Photo (by Jan Riedel) from left:
Anton Bahtinov – Head of Industry Programs & Partnerships at Futury
Tobias Kehl – Co-Lead AI Startup Rising | hessian.AI
Melissa Ott – Managing Director Futury
Carlina Bennison – Co-Lead AI Startup Rising | hessian.AI
Jan Seidemann – Chief of Staff at Futury
