Dr. Sebastian Köffer

The rise of various start-ups around Europe has triggered a discussion among policy-makers on how to support these new businesses in the later stages of their development. These companies, known as “scale-ups”, can have a major impact on their local economy. Most importantly, scale-ups create jobs, retain and attract talent and start paying business tax to local governments. All of these benefits tend to occur when start-ups grow, not when they start. However, start-up ecosystems often focus their efforts on the early stages of a company’s development. At the same time, creating regional support structures for scale-ups is not an easy task. In his presentation, Sebastian will provide an overview of strategies to support scale-up development. He will also take a closer look at the Euregio region and discuss what regional start-ups currently need most in the scale-up phase and how they view the current support infrastructure.

Dr Sebastian Köffer works as a managing director at the Digital Hub münsterLAND and promotes the networking of established companies with start-ups to push the digital transformation in Münsterland. He obtained a doctorate from the European Research Center for Information Systems at the University of Münster and has worked as a consultant for business intelligence systems. Sebastian organises numerous start-up events, including the ERCIS Launch Pad and the NRW Hub Battle. He holds a diploma in Business Information Systems from the University of Paderborn.