Having already heard a lot about our activities and about the startups from our Accelerator program, the State Secretary now came to have a first-hand look. Our founder Carsten Gerhardt started with a short presentation about the activities of the Circular Valley Foundation, followed by Dr. Michael Kroh from our partner Vorwerk Gruppe, who provided insight into the company's efforts towards sustainability and circularity.

Afterwards, representatives from CARBOLIQ GmbH, Polycare, Space Era Germany and BIOWEG presented their respective startups. They all pointed out their desire to succeed with their companies in North Rhine-Westphalia. Some of them have come to NRW from other German states - and even continents - to do so. In the subsequent discussion, the State Secretary asked the startup representatives what challenges and obstacles they encountered and what concrete steps could be taken to improve the overall conditions for startups in NRW.