German battery start-up incubator launches at TUM

1/16/2025
Reading time 2 min.

To strengthen Germany's technological sovereignty in the field of battery technologies, the Battery Start-up Incubator (BaStI) is being established at TUM. Funded with 3.3 million euros by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), BaStl, as an integral part of the TUM Venture Labs, will support and advise start-up applicants from all over Germany in the first phase. The aim is to accelerate the market entry of new battery technologies from research and thus reduce dependence on imports.

Electrochemical research is of great importance at TUM.

TUM Venture Labs CEO Dr. Philipp Gerbert emphasizes: "Batteries are key to the energy transition and electromobility, but so far, at least 70% of global production comes from China. This dependency harbors risks we want to overcome through the targeted promotion of domestic initiatives. Germany has an enormously strong research position in this field, but the transfer to commercial enterprises is weak. With BaStI, we are creating for the first time a Germany-wide networked ecosystem that supports technology-oriented start-ups in the crucial start-up phase."

BaStI offers a unique combination of scientific expertise and practical support. Prof. Jennifer L.M. Rupp, Head of the TUM Chair of Solid State Electrolytes and herself founder of the battery start-up Qkera, explains: "With BaStI, we are focusing on holistic support that combines technological innovation with entrepreneurial thinking. The aim is to transfer scientific findings more efficiently into market-ready products, thus strengthening Germany's competitiveness. To achieve this, we need industrial production here on site."

UnternehmerTUM, Europe's leading start-up center, is contributing proven training formats such as XPRENEURS and XPLORE to the project and supplementing the offer with practical access to a broad industrial and investor network. In concrete terms, this involves the placement of mentors, companies as initial customers, and fundraising support. BaStI (BMBF reference number: 03XP0640) is being implemented with the support of TUMint.Energy Research and Jennifer Rupp as project coordinator. With the Munich Cluster of Excellence e-conversion, the incubator has a unique concentration of energy science expertise directly on site.

A challenge for hardware battery start-ups producing material components or even entire batteries is the high initial investment required. The development phase, scientific validation of an idea, the actual start-up phase, and the construction of prototypes are funded beyond BaStI and TUMint.Energy Research with independent BMBF funding instruments as part of the umbrella concept for battery research.

Further information and links

The TUM Venture Labs are a joint venture of TUM and UnternehmerTUM. They support start-up teams of students and researchers in turning their innovative discoveries and developments into products - from brainstorming to seed capital for market launch.
TUMint Energy Research is a non-commercial, non-university, and interdisciplinary research institution at the Garching research campus. An international team works on innovative battery technologies in materials science, electrochemistry, chemical process engineering, physics, and production technology. The company is mainly financed by funds from the Free State of Bavaria.
UnternehmerTUM was named Europe's best start-up center by the Financial Times in London.
Other successful battery start-ups from the TUM ecosystem besides Qkera include Twaice and Tozero who received the TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award, respectively the TUM Entrepreneurs of Excellence Award.
The e-conversion Cluster of Excellence - funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) - is concerned with research into the fundamental mechanisms of energy conversion processes.
TUM School of Natural Sciences research area Clean Technology Solutions