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For Companies

The Innovation Forge for Family Businesses

We are your central point of contact in the UnternehmerTUM ecosystem and strengthen the future readiness of your family business.

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Partners in Our Network

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FamilienUnternehmerTUM strengthens Germany’s Mittelstand. This is how we help secure innovative strength and prosperity for future generations. We connect family businesses with startups, researchers, and investors, creating concrete exchange in a trusted setting, tailored to your company.

As a long-term partner, we help you actively shape change.

  • 1,000+ Family businesses and family offices in the ecosystem
  • 150+ Family businesses in active collaboration
  • 350+ NextGens in active collaboration
  • 20+ Events per year for family businesses

How We Support You

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Projects on Innovation and Technology Challenges

Together, we tackle concrete questions from your company, from future strategy to AI applications.

  • AI transformation, from first use cases to quick wins
  • New growth areas and business models
  • Training, such as AI bootcamps for employees
  • Building your own innovation units
Learn more
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Access to the Ecosystem and to Technologies

You connect with startups, research, and other family businesses and gain access to the technology expertise of the UnternehmerTUM ecosystem.

  • Four targeted introductions per year to relevant contacts
  • Exclusive events such as Techforum, AI Breakfast, and Alphazirkel
Learn more
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For Entrepreneurial Families & NextGens

The next generation of entrepreneurial families prepares for tomorrow with us, through exchange with more than 350 NextGens and the NextGen4Bavaria succession program. Find out more on our Succession page.

Go to Succession

Industry and Technology Fields

Through FamilienUnternehmerTUM, you gain access to the technology expertise of the entire UnternehmerTUM ecosystem, with insights from our startups, companies, and research.

How a Collaboration Works

  • 1. Initial Conversation

    We get to know you and your company and build a shared understanding of your current challenges.

  • 2. Choosing the Right Path

    You decide how to work with us: continuously on your topics in a strategic partnership, or in an implementation project with a defined outcome.

  • 3. Finding the Right Formats

    In a three-hour orientation workshop, we analyze your previous innovation activities, develop a shared vision, and derive the right formats.

  • 4. Long-Term Support

    For twelve months, a dedicated contact person supports you in sparring sessions, connects you within the ecosystem, and gives you access to exclusive FamilienUnternehmerTUM events. We regularly review progress and impact with you.

Insights Into Our Work

Riedel Success Story

RIEDEL Immobilien: An AI Roadmap for the Premium Business

Together with RIEDEL Immobilien, we developed an AI roadmap for the premium real estate business: ten AI use cases, four of them already implemented as quick wins.

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Truma: Building the Innovation Unit Next

UnternehmerTUM supported Truma in building its digital innovation unit Next, from vision to the incubation of its first use cases.

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Würth: Product Search for Sales Representatives

An interdisciplinary team developed a semantic search for more than 100,000 items for Würth’s field sales app. A new feature went live at Würth after the program.

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The HEINZ Group and UnternehmerTUM
Family Tradition Meets Ecosystem

Since 2023, the HEINZ Group has used the UnternehmerTUM ecosystem for knowledge transfer, its AI transformation, a startup investment, and developing the next generation.

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Working with UnternehmerTUM is above all about looking beyond the boundaries of our relevant industries and getting a sense, at leadership level, of which developments might shape the economy over the next three to four years. We want to further develop this exchange with science and universities in the coming years.

Josef Heinz, Managing Director, HEINZ Gruppe

Let’s Talk About Your Family Business

Tell us what is on your mind. Together, we will find the right starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is FamilienUnternehmerTUM for?

FamilienUnternehmerTUM is for family businesses and SMEs, investment companies and family offices, as well as entrepreneurial families and the next generation. More than 1,000 family businesses and family offices are part of our ecosystem, and we actively work with more than 150 family businesses on innovation and technology challenges. Our network includes companies such as Festo, Würth, Krones, and Hörmann.

How does exchange in the network work, and how confidential is it?

Exchange takes place in formats of different sizes, from the Techforum with more than 200 family entrepreneurs to a meeting of 50 family entrepreneurs from the current and next generation at Forum UnternehmerTUM. We connect partners with relevant contacts four times a year. For confidential exchange on succession and transformation, there is the NextGen and NowGen network.

What offerings are there for the next generation?

For the next generation, there are formats such as keynotes and hackathons, and we actively work with more than 350 NextGens. In the NextGen and NowGen network, you can exchange ideas confidentially with like-minded peers on succession and transformation. For successors in Bavaria, there is also NextGen4Bavaria, the program of the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs that we run. You can find out more on our Succession page.