On May 28th and 29th we were invited to participate at the HTGF Family Day in Bonn. The HTGF Family Day is organized every year to bring together the entire HTGF network and to enable a lively exchange about challenges and developments in the founder's everyday life. In August 2018 the HTGF decided to invest in FairFleet to our great enthusiasm. We are especially happy to be part of the big networking event for the first time this year. More about our admission to the HTGF family can be found here.

The Family Day is the largest venture capital or private equity event in Germany. With more than 1100 international participants, including managers of the entire startup portfolio and members of the international venture capital ecosystem, the Family Day connects pioneers of the startup industry with financially strong investors. The event offers participants the opportunity to gain interesting insights into current technological trends and to exchange ideas casually and on an equal footing. The nearly 300 companies in the HTGF portfolio were offered a stage and showcase at the same time. On the one hand, renowned investors with an investment capital of around 10 billion euros were gathered on site, on the other hand, a lively exchange among start-ups is an enrichment, as one often has to face the same challenges and discuss them. The opportunity to cultivate and establish contacts often amounts to cooperation between individual start-ups. Ideas are shared, experiences are exchanged, similarities and interfaces are discovered.

Lectures, discussions and presentations by various start-ups round off the event. The Federal Minister of Economics, Peter Altmaier, was one of the keynote speakers at the HTGF Family Day 2019. To welcome the guests, he gave a speech on global competition and the resulting necessity for cross-departmental innovations. In addition, other well-known personalities also provided input and new ideas, such as Frank Thelen, an entrepreneur and major tech investor known from the TV show "Höhle der Löwen", Joey Kelly, a well-known musician, extreme athlete and entrepreneur, and Urs Meier, a former football referee, who is now a much sought-after speaker at corporate events.

However, the core of the events were the 1:1 meetings in order to exploit the growth potential of one's own company with the help of new contacts and potential donors. Over 2300 1:1 meetings took place this year, where founders took the opportunity to present their business ideas to investors. In addition to many one-on-one meetings with our CEO Florian Waubke and our CBDO Alexander Engelfried, Florian even had the opportunity to pitch our business model in front of the entire audience.

Mutual support and a dynamic exchange of know-how are the key to the growth and success of young companies. We are curious to see what will come out of the newly established contacts and will of course keep you up to date!