We are your external venturing unit.
We work with a broad network of corporates, startups and public partners and take operational ownership to bring innovation projects into structured implementation.
Hessen Innovation Summit · 2025At the heart of a publicly anchored ecosystem.
We work closely with ministries, funding institutions and public actors, creating access to stakeholders, co-financing and structures that purely private setups can't offer.
Visible for example at the Hessen Innovation Summit, which we host together with the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Our departments — and the people behind them.
Structured, but fast. Pragmatic, but methodologically sound. Every department with a clear contribution to one shared outcome: external innovation that actually reaches companies.
Founders
We are Justin and Nico, the founders of ekipa. Our shared journey began back at university, building an initiative and learning that real impact happens when people take ownership and get things done.
With ekipa, we set out to solve a problem we had experienced ourselves: plenty of innovation in theory, but little real implementation. It quickly became clear that it is rarely ideas that are missing, but structure, operational capacity and methodological leadership to successfully integrate external innovation into companies.
That is exactly where we come in today. As a Corporate Venturing Partner, we help companies identify, validate and operationally turn external innovation into concrete pilot projects, collaborations or strategic partnerships.
Consulting
The consulting team makes sure our innovation and venturing projects are set up to be strategically clear, methodologically sound and impactful. Together with our partners, we sharpen innovation needs and turn them into project approaches with clear target pictures.
Throughout the projects, we support our venture managers on substance, provide strategic impulses and keep evolving our approaches, so that innovation is not only steered efficiently but creates lasting impact.
Business Development
The business development team builds new partnerships with companies, public actors and international organizations. We identify relevant fields of innovation and translate strategic needs into concrete collaboration and venturing approaches.
A particular focus: public-enabled venturing as well as venturing-as-a-service offerings such as startup scouting, trend screening or capability building. The foundation for new markets, resilient partnerships and scalable innovation projects.
Venture Management
The venture management team accompanies companies along the entire innovation process, from identifying relevant potential to implementing concrete pilots and PoCs. We prioritize fields, define target pictures and create solid bases for decisions.
Building on that, we qualify and orchestrate innovators from our ecosystem, steer the collaboration between everyone involved and make sure that potential turns into concrete results.
Marketing
The marketing team makes visible what ekipa stands for: structured external innovation with a real implementation perspective. We convey complex content in a way that is clear, relevant and targeted.
Clear in message, consistent in appearance. With a focus on impact rather than attention for its own sake.
IT
The IT team builds the technological foundation for scalable innovation processes. Diverse stakeholders, complex projects and many interfaces need systems that simplify processes rather than create additional complexity.
This includes the ongoing development of our own tools and platform solutions, tailored to the needs of our ecosystem.
People
The people team creates the basis for people at ekipa to take ownership, grow and create impact together. We accompany new team members from their first contact well beyond onboarding.
The focus: a culture where ownership, trust and development are actively lived. Sustainable innovation happens where people can realize their potential.
Feelgood Manager
In the daily flow between projects, workshops and calls, feelgood management makes sure the human factor is not neglected. Or more precisely: Malibu takes care of that.
Between movement breaks, spontaneous office visits and shared lunches, she reminds us that good collaboration does not come from processes alone, but from energy, exchange and an environment where people enjoy working together.
The people who make ekipa what it is.
Alexander Schießer
Venture Manager
Anika Horaczek
Senior Marketing Manager | Design
Anika Lorenz
Business Development Support
Anna Nenninger
Venture Management Support
Aurelia Müller
Marketing Manager
Brian Rassmann
Marketing Manager | Video
Daniel Sander
Business Development Support
Hannah Werner
Senior Venture Manager
Jacqueline Cyba
Marketing Support
Justin Gemeri
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Katharina Heby
Head of Consulting
Léa Daiz
Senior Innovation Consultant
Lidia Welldeabzghi
Head of Venture Management
Linh Phung
Co-Founder, CTO & Developer
Luna Rudolph
People & Backoffice Manager
Magdalena Dresse
Venture Management Support
Mariya Denysenko
Venture Manager
Nico Heby
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Simon Buchwaldt
Venture Management Support
Sofia Gascon
Consulting Support
We want to positively change people, societies and our world.
With our own innovation programs and as a long-term partner for corporates, we work together with partners from business and politics on the major challenges of our present and future.
Keen to actively shape external innovation?
