University event

SRH Grenke Innovation Festival 2025

Thu 06.11.25

Anmeldung/Registration

The start-up festival for early stage projects | Experience pitches, meet founders and get inspired!

Your idea. Your pitch. Your stage.

Do you have an innovative idea that could change the world? Are you about to set up a company or are you already in the middle of it? Whether you are a student at SRH University or want to get started as an external founder - the SRH Grenke Innovation Festival is your stage!

Together with Grenke AG, one of the leading financial services providers for leasing, factoring and banking, SRH University Campus Berlin invites creative minds to present their visions and make valuable contacts.
Under the motto "Because innovation can't wait", we promote bold ideas in the early stages - open, practical and future-oriented.

What you can expect:

Live pitches: Present your idea in front of an experienced jury and an engaged audience.
Networking: Meet like-minded people, potential co-founders, mentors and experts from the start-up scene.
Panel talk: Get input on topics such as financing, start-up strategies and innovation trends.
Grenke Innovation Award: Gain visibility, recognition - and maybe even support for your project.

Who is the festival for?

Students with start-up ideas
Early-stage founders
Innovation enthusiasts who want to take the next step

Why you should be there:

Early support: Grenke AG and SRH University will support you right from the start - whether with expertise, a network or visibility.
Inspiring environment: The new SRH Campus in Berlin-Neukölln is a creative hotspot with direct proximity to the Berlin start-up scene.
Diversity & internationality: Meet participants from over 100 countries and expand your network globally.

Take the opportunity to put your idea in the spotlight - whether as an SRH student or external participant. Become part of a vibrant start-up scene and actively shape the future!

When & Where

SRH Grenke Innovation Festival

When: Thursday, 6 November 2025 (all day)
Where: SRH University Campus Berlin, Sonnenallee 221, 12059 Berlin

Wolfgang Grenke's own story makes him the perfect role model for the success story "From start-up to global player". At the age of eight, he started working in his parents' food retail business, occasionally giving his mother and father a helping hand. He directly experienced the difficulties of maintaining the small retail business against the growing pressure from the supermarkets. As a schoolboy, he no longer wanted to be on his parents' backs, so he started giving private tuition. He also earned his own living during his studies. He delivered industrial laundry in a lorry and drove a taxi. He then joined his brother-in-law's leasing company, where he successfully took care of some of the sales and got to know the business thoroughly: During his studies, he taught himself programming and with 1,800 Deutschmarks in start-up capital, Wolfgang Grenke bought a microcomputer from Olivetti. He built a "desk" from two wallpapering blocks and a board under the roof of his parents' house and began programming. His first business idea (the automatic printing of debit cards) convinced the savings bank.

In 1995, Wolfgang Grenke's business was already worth 110 million Deutschmarks. But then all his sources of refinancing collapsed! A stroke of luck: in the highly successful months before, IBM and Hewlett Packard had become aware of Wolfgang Grenke and his business and so HP agreed to help him with a bridging measure. At the end of 2008, Wolfgang Grenke and his team received an offer to take over the Hamburg-based private bank Hesse, Newman & Co AG. They acquired all the shares in the bank and renamed it Grenke Bank AG. Today, GRENKE Bank supports young entrepreneurs with favourable promotional loans from KfW Mittelstandsbank and L-Bank Baden-Württemberg. In addition, the bank is a partner of the German Federal Ministry of Labour in the granting of microloans and has implemented development programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Grenke Group now has branches in twenty German cities, nine branches in France, three in Switzerland and in Italy. The Group became a global player when it was first established in Brazil in 2012. Canada, Dubai, Chile, Singapore, Australia and the USA have since been added. Global expansion of the Group became the strategic goal of the former student with a wallpapered office in his bedroom under the roof. Wolfgang Grenke now gives a lot back through social projects. He is committed to his region with foundation, sponsorship and promotion activities and has the desire to give back some of what he has gained from society as a successful entrepreneur and invest in our social future Wolfgang Grenke himself says: "When I compare my start-up back then and today's start-ups, there are things that have remained the same: You need an idea, courage and optimism. You start small. You have to recognise opportunities and find gaps. You have to want it, including a certain willingness to take risks. You have to think not only about profit, but also about investments and innovations that generate customer benefits. Shareholder value as an end in itself is certainly not a sustainable motive for founding a company. Creative thinking is free thinking!

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