Driving Innovation Together Through Venture Clienting

To kick off this year’s Startup Week Düsseldorf, Bessem Ayari, Head of Innovation Strategy & Scouting at ERGO, writes about the interplay between startups, established companies, academia, and public institutions. ERGO is once again a “Unicorn Partner” of Startup Week Düsseldorf this year. The article originally appeared on the Startup Week blog (here).

When people talk about innovation, most immediately think of new technologies. In my experience, that’s only half the story. Innovation happens where people are willing to work together on concrete challenges. It’s the interplay between start-ups, established companies, academia and public institutions that creates solutions which prove themselves in practice and move businesses forward.

At ERGO, we have been committed to Venture Clienting for many years and actively support Düsseldorf’s start-up ecosystem. For me, Startup Week Düsseldorf is a reflection of this collaboration within the ecosystem: it brings together founders, corporates, investors, as well as representatives from research and the public sector. This is how initial conversations turn into pilot projects, and successful pilots into long-term partnerships.

As a Unicorn Partner, we are delighted to be part of Startup Week once again in 2026 and to help Düsseldorf shine as a beacon of innovation.

From pilot project to scale

As an insurer, our business is built on assessing risks correctly and acting quickly and reliably in the event of a claim. AI helps us analyse large amounts of data – for example on risks, claims or customer enquiries – faster and more accurately, simplify processes for our customers, and make the expertise of experienced colleagues accessible across the company. Start-ups with the right technologies are an important source of momentum in this journey.

ERGO is one of the leading international insurance groups and is represented in more than 20 countries worldwide. The company offers private and corporate customers a broad product portfolio across all major insurance lines as well as comprehensive assistance and service solutions. Under the umbrella of ERGO Group AG, three entities manage the businesses and activities of the ERGO Group: ERGO Deutschland AG, ERGO International AG and ERGO Technology & Services Management AG. They each bundle the German and international business as well as the management of IT and technology services. More than 36,000 people work for the Group as employees or independent sales partners. In the 2025 financial year, ERGO generated insurance revenues of €21.7 billion and a result of €917 million. ERGO is part of Munich Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurers and risk carriers. Learn more at www.ergo.com.

In my team, “Innovation Strategy and Scouting”, we have built our venture clienting unit from the ground up. Our focus is to systematically connect start-ups with our business units and guide them from the identification of concrete problem statements, through structured validation, all the way to implementation. The path is rarely straightforward. Regulation, legacy IT landscapes and different speeds between corporates and start-ups are real hurdles we work with every day.

In 2024, our unit launched the ERGO ScaleHub together with the Startup Unit of the Düsseldorf Economic Development Agency and the community space TechHub.K67.

This corporate accelerator programme is an integral part of our innovation approach and helps us scale proven solutions efficiently across different markets and business units. Over the past two years, it has grown into a gateway and expanding platform that connects international start-ups and scale-ups with the specialist departments of ERGO Group. We see ourselves as a “connector, catalyst and communicator” – for ERGO, for start-ups, for the Düsseldorf ecosystem and beyond.

To date, we have successfully implemented more than 90 start-up collaborations, creating tangible value for the business.

ERGO ScaleHub – let’s scale the future of insurance

ERGO ScaleHub provides start-ups with access to the specialist units of ERGO Group and Munich Re. This collaboration is supported by a tailored mentoring programme with ERGO experts as well as workshops organised by Düsseldorf Economic Development on regulation, sales and corporate culture in the German market. At TechHub.K67, our community space, founding teams also have access to workspaces and the local event network.

For start-ups, this is far more than pure market access: they benefit from robust feedback based on real processes, a reference case for further enterprise customers, and a door-opener to Europe. Venture clienting combines the innovative strength of start-ups with the experience and scaling capabilities of an established insurer. Solutions don’t emerge in the lab – they emerge in direct contact with customers and colleagues.

Our network now includes companies from Germany, Finland, Spain, the UK, India, Switzerland and the USA – among them CamCom, Miss Moneypenny, rhyno solutions, chunkx, Eye-Able, REALYTIX ZERO, Simplifai, LifeLight, CardioSignal, Mediktor, Bayshore und Bitwarden.

What they all have in common: together with our business units, they develop solutions that make insurance, health services and business processes more intelligent and more customer-centric.

#welovetoscaleyou

I’m particularly pleased when a pilot turns into a long-term collaboration. Eye-Able is a great example: what started as a single project has now been rolled out across several ERGO Group entities. This fast-growing start-up offers an AI-based solution that automatically analyses websites and digital content, identifies barriers for people with disabilities and helps reduce them. This is exactly what we mean by successful venture clienting – innovation doesn’t end with the pilot; it only creates real value when it scales.

The Indian start-up CamCom – an AI-based image recognition solution that automatically detects and assesses vehicle damage to accelerate claims processing – has established its German base in Düsseldorf. This was made possible by clear expectation management during the pilot phase, genuine scaling potential and, above all, the shared ambition of all parties involved to offer our customers a better and simpler experience. Simple, because it matters.

Geetha Sham (CamCom Managing Director for EU, Ireland and UK) talks more about this in an interview.

The question we get most often from start-ups at ERGO ScaleHub is: “What exactly are you looking for, and who should we send our pitch deck to?” To answer that, we launched our ERGO ScaleHub Pitch Base.

Interested start-ups can apply there and upload initial information. Our innovation scouts then match their solutions with the needs of our business units.

Düsseldorf: short distances, real collaboration

For a long time, Berlin and Munich were seen as the start-up locations in Germany. Today, Düsseldorf shows that a strong innovation ecosystem doesn’t primarily depend on the sheer number of start-ups, but on the quality of collaboration on the ground and on access to further potential customers. The city now ranks second among German start-up locations (Düsseldorf Business / Düsseldorf Economic Development, “Düsseldorf auf Platz 2 der Startup-Standorte in Deutschland”, July 2026).

Here, international corporations, a strong SME sector and a growing founder community are all located in close proximity. Decision paths are short, networks are open, and access to corporate customers is more direct than in many other places. For international start-ups and scale-ups, this is a real advantage: winning your first corporate customer here often means having laid the foundation for expansion into Germany and Europe. We experience this proximity every day – one of the reasons why we deliberately based our corporate accelerator ERGO ScaleHub in Düsseldorf.

Innovation needs strong partners

Without strong partners, ERGO ScaleHub wouldn’t exist. Together with the City of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Economic Development and TechHub.K67, we have created an environment that makes it easier for start-ups and scale-ups to enter the German market while giving our business units access to new technologies. This only works if companies are willing to communicate their challenges transparently and start-ups get the chance to prove their solutions under real-world conditions.

When it comes to the question of “make or partner”, we take a differentiated view: we “make” where proprietary developments create strategic added value and differentiation – and we “partner” where specialised start-ups and scale-ups already exist for a specific use case and their technological speed, innovative strength and expertise can deliver faster and more sustainable value.

There are so many strong founder ideas in the market. These start-ups explicitly specialise in problem-solving and technological implementation. It’s a strength that more companies should leverage to keep pace with rapid change.

It is precisely this spirit of innovation that we are committed to supporting, which is why we are once again a partner of Startup Week Düsseldorf this year. We are also delighted to help shape the Future Tech Fest together with many other partners.

Pitch Party Vol. 2

A personal highlight of Startup Week for me is the ERGO Pitch Party Vol. 2

Here, start-ups, scale-ups, corporates, investors and key ecosystem players come together. The focus is not on the pitches themselves, but on the conversations that follow – about real use cases, collaboration and scaling. The most exciting ideas rarely come from the stage; they emerge from the discussions afterwards.

The future of successful innovation is never created in isolation. It emerges where strong companies meet bold founders – and where good ideas are turned into scalable solutions together.

This is what Startup Week Düsseldorf, ERGO ScaleHub and our partners stand for.

I’m looking forward to familiar faces, new impulses and, above all, to writing the next success stories together.
Let’s scale together.

ERGO Pitch Party Vol. 2
8. September 2026, 17:30–22:00 Uhr, TechHub.K67, Kasernenstraße 67, 40213 Düsseldorf