TUM spin-off achieves Unicorn status
Billion-dollar valuation for start-up EGYM
When they worked out in the gym after lectures, Florian Sauter and Philipp Rösch-Schlanderer often noticed that members were using the equipment incorrectly or soon gave up in frustration. The reason: the athletes did not know enough about the machines, lacked a training program matching their needs or were not getting feedback on their progress. This left them feeling demotivated.
In 2010 Sauter and Rösch-Schlanderer established EGYM. The start-up develops digital equipment for fitness studios that generates personalized exercise programs and supports training control. An app helps athletes to monitor their progress. EGYM also offers companies a program that gives employees access to thousands of sports facilities.
Start-up prepared at the CDTM
Florian Sauter, who studied electrical engineering and information technology at TUM, and Philipp Rösch-Schlanderer met at the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM). This joint institute of TUM and LMU offers a supplementary degree program in which students work in interdisciplinary teams to design new technologies, turn them into real products and prepare to establish companies. Another big factor behind the success of EGYM was the opportunity to exchange ideas with several research chairs.
Today EGYM has around 700 employees, operates in 25 countries and calls itself a global market leader in fitness technology. Following a billion euro valuation in a financing round, the company has joined the still relatively select group of unicorns in Germany. This is the term applied to start-ups that achieve a valuation of one billion euros without a stock market listing. EGYM is the 21st unicorn launched by TUM researchers or graduates. Among them is Celonis, which, with a valuation of over 10 billion euros, is Germany’s first decacorn.
Every year, more than 70 technology-oriented companies are founded at TUM. TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation, support start-ups with programs that are precisely tailored to the individual phases of founding - from the conception of a business model to management training, from market entry to a possible IPO. The TUM Venture Labs offer start-up teams from major technology fields an entire ecosystem in direct connection with research. Up to 30 teams can use the TUM Incubator to prepare for the launch of their company. UnternehmerTUM invests in promising technology companies with its own venture capital fund and offers the MakerSpace, a 1,500 square meter high-tech workshop for prototyping.
Technical University of Munich
Corporate Communications Center
- Klaus Becker
- klaus.becker@tum.de
- presse@tum.de
- Teamwebsite
