Futury presents new start-up campus “Bertramshof” in Frankfurt at a pre-launch

Frankfurt am Main, 22.11.2024 — The Rhine-Main region is being enriched by an important institution for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit: With Bertramshof as a startup campus, Frankfurt is creating a central location for high-tech and research-intensive start-ups as well as groundbreaking innovation projects. As of September 1, 2024, the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management leased the Bertramshof site from Hessischer Rundfunk. This will be the new home of Futury, the Future Factory for Rhine-Main.

On November 21, the time had come: Bertramshof, as a future startup campus, opened its doors for the first time at a pre-launch event as part of a private Christmas market. Around 190 invited guests, including founders, researchers, investors and partners from industry and science, received exclusive insights into the new premises from Melissa Ott (Managing Director) and Charlie Müller (Co-Founder and Managing Director) of Futury, Prof. Dr. Nils Stieglitz (President of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management) and the start-up representative of the state of Hesse Holger Follmann.

Strong signal from the state of Hesse

The project is particularly well received by Holger Follmann, the newly appointed start-up representative of the Hessian state government. In this role, he coordinates strategic measures to strengthen Hesse as a business location, in particular by promoting, networking and targeted settlement of startups, scaleups and international companies.

“Hesse has enormous potential: With cutting-edge research, strong industry and as an international hub, Hesse and the Rhine-Main region offer ideal conditions for startups. For me, it is essential that we nominate a winner of the BMW lighthouse competition 'Startup Factories'. With our two finalists in the decisive round of the competition, we must bring politics, business, science and society together to facilitate, anchor and scale start-ups locally. Thanks to the support of Hessischer Rundfunk and in particular Florian Hager, Director of HR, Bertramshof was the ideal location for the Startup Campus,” said Holger Follmann.

Follmann's appointment as the first start-up representative in Hesse is a strong signal for the future of the innovation ecosystem in Hesse and beyond.

A meeting place for partnerships, innovation and entrepreneurship

Futury's Startup Campus creates a home for founding teams and startups who want to shape the future with their ideas. Together with Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, TU Darmstadt and the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, which stand behind the Factory, Futury is setting a new standard for strengthening Rhine-Main as an innovative location.

“We need a new start-up mentality in Germany to address economic challenges,” says Professor Dr. Nils Stieglitz, President of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. “With the new Startup Campus, we are taking an important step towards strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit in the region. ”

“We are delighted to open the Startup Campus in Bertramshof today. In doing so, we are creating a physical space where founders and visionaries can meet like-minded people to put new ideas into practice and develop them further locally,” explained Charlie Müller, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Futury.

Melissa Ott, also managing director of Futury, added: “From mid-2025, up to 180 jobs for startups, investors and rental companies will be created on over 2,000 square meters of office space. This creates a unique location for new innovations. We also want to open up the startup ecosystem to the outside world through various events and events. ”

Program highlights of the pre-launch event

The Christmas pre-launch event marked the start of a new era in the region's startup ecosystem. The guests were able to look forward to the following highlights:

• Networking & sharing: Meet and network with students, researchers, founders, investors, industry partners and media.

• Exclusive insight: Insights into the future design and restructuring measures of the Startup Campus
• Special culinary highlights: Tasting of innovative food from individual food startups and catering from gourmet partner WISAG.

Shaping the future in the Rhine-Main region

By moving into Bertramshof in the future, Futury is manifesting its leading role in the innovation landscape of the Rhine-Main region and invites all players to strengthen and further develop the start-up ecosystem together.