The city of Leipzig is not only home to Germany's second oldest university, with a unique variety of courses and many international students, but also to an increasingly large and dynamic innovation and entrepreneurship scene.
The SEPT Competence Center at Leipzig University, through its SMILE initiative, supports start-ups founded by talented students as well as young people with innovative business ideas who want to start up in Germany with business coaching sessions.
In an interview with WirtschaftsWoche, Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger, director of the SEPT Competence Center and also SMILE coach, highlighted Leipzig's potential as a hub for international entrepreneurship and the university's role as a promoter of innovation in business:
"Every year, about 30 start-ups are founded at the University of Leipzig. They come from very different industries: Medicine, biology or pharmaceuticals. Many e-health start-ups have been founded here at the university," he told the business magazine.
Prof. Dornberger added that while his team is pleased with the positive results of their work in supporting local start-ups, there is still much more to be done to encourage entrepreneurship among young international talent studying in Leipzig.
"We still see potential, especially in start-ups by foreign students, and we are optimistic that Leipzig's good reputation will also pay off internationally. [...] Leipzig has grown dynamically in recent years, and student life is varied. All of this has an appeal to young people," he said.
In this regard, the head of the SEPT Competence Center highlighted the importance of inter-university collaboration to scale the positive impact of working with entrepreneurs, not only in Germany but also internationally.
"We are working together with the universities in Jena and Halle-Wittenberg on the 'International Start-up Campus'. Here we want to develop market potential in Asia together with founders. We even have our own locations for this in Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam," said Prof. Dornberger.
For him, there is no doubt that "Leipzig is a first-class location for start-ups" and that this will become much bigger over time.
Learn more about the SEPT Competence Center at the University of Leipzig, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022: SEPT Competence Center (uni-leipzig.de)