Recent studies such as the Female Founders Report and German Startup Monitor clearly showed that the startup landscape is mainly white and male. Only 18 % of founders in Germany are women. Just five percent of these female startup founders received more than one million euros in funding, compared to 30 percent of men. Unfortunately, a lot of VC firms seem to be run with a "boys club" mentality, resulting in unconscious biases and systemic inequalities. As part of the 12th edition of the HHL SpinLab Investors Day, Bettine Schmitz (Auxxo), Dagmar Bottenbruch (Segenia), Petra Sokolová (Inven Capital) and Duc Quyen Tran (Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures) came together to discuss why more diversity in venture capital is needed. Dr. Tanja Emmerling (Hightech Gründerfonds) presented in her keynote: “Diversity -so what?!” Essentials for your Diversity Playbook: how diversity can be implemented in venture capital

Our cities are growing. Along with them, our current problems and challenges are increasing: Population growth, pollution, resource shortages, infrastructure bottlenecks. These challenges are slowly reducing the quality of life in the city. Therefore, we need more efficient ways to increase the quality of life for city citizens. Concepts are needed to distribute existing resources more effectively and to develop new ways to produce these resources in the city. The keyword is smart city. Smart City aims to offer citizens efficient, fast and innovative services and infrastructures. The stars of this new age are startups with innovative business models. In this blog article, we introduce you to 10 promising smart city startups that are shaping the city of tomorrow.

The e-health segment has been considered one of the up-and-coming topics in the startup scene for years. Digital transformation in the healthcare system is one of the major future issues of our time. The consequences of skills shortage, urbanization as well as demographic change require a modernization of the healthcare system. Digital technologies mean innovation and progress  for sustainable basic medical care and an improved quality of life.