Several government-run programs, you might say VCs, e.g. the largest is probably https://www.htgf.de/en/ , finance these ideas more easily than the private sector would. Some are backed by large players in the pharma, chemistry or such industries hoping to get early access to the outcome of research. The universities offer free offices (limited to one year afaik), access to laboratories, help with patent filing. A typical such startup, as you said, has an unproven idea for a product, the product might be an improvement to some industry process or a formula, and needs 6-18months for a prototype. Some use 6 months of the free office just to write their business plan. Source: I went to a HTGF road show presentation at a nearby university. I have only worked with IT/internet startups so far.
Check if they're incorporated as UG or GmbH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurial_company_(Germa... The UG is the simplied version. If they chose GmbH and thus put 25.000 Euro down (can be used for laptops, but not salary) they're either well financed or very confident of success.
Several government-run programs, you might say VCs, e.g. the largest is probably https://www.htgf.de/en/ , finance these ideas more easily than the private sector would. Some are backed by large players in the pharma, chemistry or such industries hoping to get early access to the outcome of research. The universities offer free offices (limited to one year afaik), access to laboratories, help with patent filing. A typical such startup, as you said, has an unproven idea for a product, the product might be an improvement to some industry process or a formula, and needs 6-18months for a prototype. Some use 6 months of the free office just to write their business plan. Source: I went to a HTGF road show presentation at a nearby university. I have only worked with IT/internet startups so far.
Check if they're incorporated as UG or GmbH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurial_company_(Germa... The UG is the simplied version. If they chose GmbH and thus put 25.000 Euro down (can be used for laptops, but not salary) they're either well financed or very confident of success.