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Stefan Franzke, 51, is the boss of the capital's location promoter Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH.
Its job is to get as much money as possible and as many jobs as possible to Berlin and the neighboring communities.
His most resounding success was probably the establishment of Tesla in Grünheide, which he helped to promote, a spectacle with almost international appeal.
In addition to the Gigafactory on the outskirts of the city, Tesla is now also planning a design and development center in Berlin itself. As always, Stefan Franzke pulls the wires.
WELT:
Mr. Franzke, you advise and support companies setting up in Berlin, support their development, promote the transfer of information and technology between science and business and much more.
What effects does the corona crisis have on your work?
The measures taken to contain the pandemic have left many companies in ruin and industries struggling to survive.
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Stefan Franzke:
There is no doubt that the last exceptional year had and still has dramatic effects on our business.
In March 2020, overnight we developed from a business development agency to an aid organization for Berlin's economy.
We have advised entrepreneurs in thousands of phone calls and immediately felt the need and despair.
The most severely affected, cultural workers, event organizers, retailers, restaurants and hotels are not even part of our target group.
The innovative companies, and that is also part of the truth, are in some cases even better off today.
Even if the start-up ecosystem is suffering, it will get through the crisis well.
What you can also see from the fact that we had more financing rounds in Berlin than ever before.
WORLD:
80 companies settled in Berlin in the Corona year 2020, Sony Music and Siemens Energy were among the best-known.
But companies like Korg Synthesizer or Körber Digital have also settled on the Spree.
How high are the investments that Berlin Partner made for the city in the year of the crisis?
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Franzke:
They amount to around 873 million euros and mark a new high - even though the investor money was understandably not that easy.
WELT:
The investment volume plays a role, but the number of newly created jobs is also a proof of the success of your work.
Franzke:
We settled 80 companies in the past year, usually around 100 annually. The number of newly created jobs has also fallen by around 20 percent to 6,866 compared to the previous year.
But, as I said, this decline was offset by the amount of total investment and, of course, the fact that Siemens Energy, another DAX company, has relocated its corporate headquarters from Munich to Berlin.
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WORLD:
Siemens Energy continues to pay its taxes in Munich, at the company headquarters.
Franzke:
Yes, Munich remains the tax seat, but Berlin is the seat of the board of directors.
And we are very proud of that.
Incidentally, this also applies to the strategic partnership that Mercedes-Benz and Siemens recently announced.
The partnership is a real pact for the future and underlines the importance of Berlin as an industrial location, which is not a place of smoking chimneys, but of smoking heads.
No city fits this project so well, no city is so suitable for it, no city has internalized these issues as much as Berlin.
Berlin is thus definitely the future capital of the republic of ideas Germany.
In short, it's going well.
WORLD:
What do the newcomers cite as the main reasons why they move to the capital?
Franzke:
Today companies know that they have to work with people from different cultures in order to manufacture good products.
And people from 190 different nations live and work in Berlin.
In addition, two thirds of the people who move to Berlin have above-average qualifications and speak three or more languages.
That means: Berlin is getting more and more colorful, more and more clever, more and more successful.
And everyone benefits from this - but above all the companies.
WORLD:
Proximity to government agencies and interest groups is no longer crucial?
Franzke: In the
past, 15 years ago, proximity to the federal government was the main reason for companies to come to Berlin.
Of course, it still plays a role today.
But the most important thing is now something completely different: that you can do good business in Berlin and find good people quickly.
Typical example: The entrepreneur from the Black Forest who manufactures measuring instruments and now wants to sell the data that his measuring instruments collect - here in Berlin he finds people who understand something about them.
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WORLD:
Many companies promise themselves financial benefits in return for the investments they provide and the jobs they create.
Franzke:
I think those days are over.
Seriously, people like to say that, but let's not kid ourselves.
The de minimis rule only allows grants that are to be regarded as minor.
Any additional aid must be approved in Brussels.
And what we offer is nothing more than what Munich or Lisbon offers.
No, companies do not come to Berlin for financial support.
You have to be clear about that.
WORLD:
But also not because of the good reputation of the city administration: Anyone who wants to register their car in Berlin or extend their passport needs nerves like wire ropes.
The city and its bureaucracy were reviled as dysfunctional, as a “failed state”.
What do you say to the people who think Berlin is scary?
Franzke:
I say to them: It's good that you came to see me, because I have 21 trained mediators who solve your problems. If someone has to register five cars, we organize the appointment. And if an entrepreneur wants to hire a chief programmer who is not an EU citizen, we guarantee that the State Immigration Office will inform him within five working days whether it will work or not. In Munich or Hamburg it takes half a year.
Of course I would be happy if we didn't need the mediators.
But it is also true that more than 1,300 founders have chosen Berlin as the best start-up location in Europe.
At least that is the result of the start-up heatmap survey in 2021. Berlin has thus overtaken London as the front runner and takes first place in the annual opinion poll for the first time.
WORLD:
For years, its inability to open Berlin-Brandenburg Airport played a role in the city's reputation.
In the meantime, contrary to expectations, it has started operations, and Tesla has also settled in the district.
How helpful is that for your work?
Franzke:
The commissioning did not surprise me. But yes: both events are a huge boost for the capital region. Above all, the settlement of Tesla has an impact on the entire German industry. We were in conversation with the company for over three years - like probably many other regions across Europe. Lower Saxony, for example, had already announced that Tesla was coming there.
But it was clear to me: Tesla can actually only build the Gigafactory near a metropolis.
I am convinced that German industry can experience how alternative mobility is developed in the capital region.
And I am convinced that the quick decisions that were subsequently made at Volkswagen or Mercedes on the subject of electromobility also have something to do with it.
#gigaberlin has set a process in motion that cannot be reversed and that will change Autodeutschland for the long term.
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WORLD:
You hear that Tesla is also planning a design and development center in Berlin.
Franzke:
To be honest, I would like to tell you about it. But I've signed a big confidentiality agreement During the settlement process, we saw how important absolute confidentiality is. This doesn't just apply to Tesla, that was the case with the Siemens campus, that was the case with Sony Music, and so on. The companies know that they can rely on us. Just this much: I have no reason to doubt Elon Musk's announcements - neither with regard to the design and development center in Berlin nor to the techno club in Grünheide.
WORLD:
Elon Musk is the most famous founder in the world.
Berlin is, at least numerically, the German capital of the founders and, as you say, has been voted the best start-up location in Europe.
What are you doing to keep it that way?
Franzke: A
lot.
We support the various facets.
Just take the area of business immigration: 40 percent of Berlin founders are foreigners.
That is why we have set up a service that takes care of residence permits.
Around 300 companies use this service.
In addition, we provide access to donors, we have a very, very good network of private and institutional investors all over the world, whether they are sovereign wealth funds in China or Singapore or venture capitalists such as Union Square Ventures in New York.
Investors call me and ask: "Stefan, I want to invest in the food sector: can you give me a few names?" We also help founders on their way into foreign markets and bring them together with important people in the established industry, especially in fintech -, mobility and energy sectors as well as artificial intelligence.
WORLD:
The importance and attractiveness of a location for founders is also measured by the opportunities to raise growth capital in so-called financing rounds.
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Franzke:
Berlin was again the hotspot of the German start-up scene last year - by a large margin: with 314 financing rounds, Berlin start-ups recorded almost half of all financing rounds counted in this country.
Berlin has recently benefited greatly from the fact that very large financing rounds took place: Four of the five largest deals were initiated in Berlin, for example with the Auto1 Group or Tier Mobility.
In total, the financing volume amounted to more than three billion euros.
WELT:
With this amount, Berlin has fallen back to third place in Europe - behind Paris with 3.9 billion euros and far behind London with 10.5 billion euros.
Franzke:
When it
comes
to financing, London is clearly ahead, that's right. You have to add that you need three times as much capital there for the same services, because life in London is simply three times as expensive. And, as I said, the question of which cities is the most attractive place to start a company has now for the first time answered the majority of European founders with Berlin.
In terms of ecosystem dynamics, networking of the industry, availability of developers, price-performance ratio on site and simple business transactions, Berlin is ahead of the curve this time.
The success of the leading start-up communities in London and Berlin is based on close cooperation based on the values of creativity, innovation and diversity.
The sporting competition for first place in the professional league is also part of it.
WORLD:
In Germany, Munich is on your heels, where - apart from Facebook - all major US Internet companies have a branch.
Then there are the high-tech and DAX companies, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus.
And now Apple also wants to invest around one billion euros in a development center.
Franzke:
Well, first of all, as an economic developer, I think it's incredibly good about Germany that we are not centrally positioned as in France or Great Britain, but rather have different cities with different profiles.
I do not deny that I would perhaps like to see one or the other of what you have mentioned in Berlin.
But we don't have to hide: Berlin has grown above the national average over the past six years.
But the most important thing is: Berlin is not in competition with Munich, Hamburg or Cologne, but with London, Paris and Stockholm.
Berlin is no longer so lucrative for start-ups
Which city is best for startups depends on many factors.
The consulting firm Startup Genome compared them.
Berlin is doing much worse than it was three years ago.
Source: WORLD
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