The IT service provider adesso AG has founded a start-up incubator during its anniversary year – the company celebrates 20 years in May. And the name of the new incubator? inQventures. In setting up inQventures, adesso aims to pass on two decades of expertise and experience to promising young entrepreneurs and start-ups in the field of IT.
inQventures has set itself the objective of promoting innovative IT solutions for the B2B sector from the adesso Group’s core competences. As an incubator, this new company is supporting founders and start-ups in the early phase of their development by providing them with equity capital for start-up financing and the IT and management expertise of over 2000 adesso staff members.
In addition to this, inQventures will help these young entrepreneurs to set up their teams and will provide them with the necessary premises and infrastructure. And, because networking is important too, the new company will provide start-ups with helpful contacts in a range of sectors and introduce them to venture capital providers in order to secure further funding rounds. With all of these factors, adesso aims to make it possible for the start-ups to successfully position themselves in the market and with customers and investors more quickly.
Volker Gruhn, who founded the company in 1997 and is now chairman of adesso’s Supervisory Board, still remembers the early years: “Back then we had a lot of good ideas, but – of course – limited means. Every investment had to be earned first, because we made our living in those early years without any outside capital. This makes it even more wonderful that now, twenty years later, we are in a position to pass on our knowledge and experience to young entrepreneurs with exciting ideas and to support them.”
Frank Reinecke, who has been working for adesso as a senior IT and business consultant, has now taken on the management of inQventures. In addition to this, he himself has entrepreneurial experience as the founder of three successful start-ups. inQventures’ headquarters are located in adesso’s Berlin office. A network of contact partners at all of the adesso offices in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is currently in development.