Start-up idea from computer science receives EXIST start-up grant

This gives maevsi a decisive market advantage, as data, preferences and activities can be evaluated across all events for the first time. With the help of maevsi, event organizers can address their target groups precisely and save significant costs compared to marketing based on the scattergun principle. People interested in events are suggested events tailored to their preferences by maevsi instead of being flooded with non-personalized information and offers.

"With us, nobody has to search for events anymore. We bring communities together through our event suggestions," says Jonas Thelemann, who completed his Master's degree in computer science at the University of Kassel last month. Placing among the top ten in the UNIKAT ideas competition in 2020 and the valuable feedback from the reviewers encouraged him to turn his product idea into a start-up four years ago. In the first half of 2023, he received six months of funding for maevsi through the HESSEN IDEEN scholarship. Here, Jonas was able to build up his start-up skills and further develop the original business model. In addition, he used the time after the scholarship to build a seven-person, interdisciplinary team, which has already created a prototype. A pilot project will take place next spring in the North Hesse region, and the first strategic partnerships have already been agreed. The aim of the EXIST funding will be to bring the prototype to market maturity, develop a business plan and subsequently found the company.

For the 12-month EXIST funding period, Prof. Dr. Andreas Mann, Head of the Department of Marketing, will support the team as an EXIST mentor with his expertise and network. The Department of Marketing is part of the Institute of Business Administration at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and deals, among other things, with the acceptance of new products. The maevsi product idea therefore fits in perfectly with the work and research focus of the department.

EXIST is a funding program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The aim is to improve the start-up climate at universities and non-university research institutions. It also aims to increase the number and success of technology-oriented and knowledge-based start-ups. To date, around 50 projects at the University of Kassel have already been supported by the EXIST funding program. The funding amount includes personnel, material and coaching resources.

The teams are supervised by the UniKasselTransfer Incubator, the University of Kassel's central start-up support program. The incubator accompanies young scientists, employees, students and alumni of the University of Kassel with a wide range of support services in the phase from brainstorming to founding.

Further information:

about maevsi: www.maev.si/de

about the EXIST start-up grant: www.exist.de

to the offers of the UniKasselTransfer incubator/start-up support: www.uni-kassel.de/unikat

Contact:

Contact:
Sandra Wilhelm
University of Kassel
UniKasselTransfer Incubator
Tel.: 0561 804 7252
E-mail: sandra.wilhelm[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Gabriele Hennemuth
University of Kassel
UniKasselTransfer Incubator
Tel.: 0561 804 1859
E-Mail: hennemuth[at]uni-kassel[dot]de