The 2025 WHU Accelerator: A Kickstart for Start-Ups

Founding one’s own company comes with several challenges—and for some entrepreneurs, one of them is the WHU Accelerator. Between May 10 and June 26, 2025, a group of start-up teams (all with at least one founder from WHU) had the opportunity to pitch their business idea to a group of experienced mentors previously selected by the WHU Entrepreneurship Center. With these mentors offering valuable advice, the teams refined their business models and discussed potential investments. The finale of the initiative came with the Demo Day, which took place at the headquarters of Zalando, one of WHU’s most successful start-ups, in Berlin. There, the teams came together with notable names from Germany’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as angel investors and venture capitalists.

By all accounts, there was excitement in the air at Demo Day. “With the high number of applicants this year, we were able to choose from an outstanding roster of teams,” noted Niklas van Bömmel, Head of Start-Up Coaching at the WHU Entrepreneurship Center. Supported by a strong network of 80 experienced mentors, the entrepreneurs prepared persuasive and well-structured pitches. After the presentations concluded, there was ample opportunity to exchange ideas and make valuable contacts while networking at the Zalando headquarters. Who knows—maybe the world’s next unicorn found its footing that day.

Vaestro received special recognition and 3,000€ from confluentes e.V. – The Student Consultancy of WHU for its business idea.

WHU Accelerator 2025 Participants:

arcos

Through their company arcos, Louis Wübben and Linus Wetzig (both BSc 2025) are developing Europe’s first fully integrated infrastructure for incoming alarms, which is intended to assist the digitalization of emergency control centers.

DocuZero

DocuZero, founded by Jaro Müller (BSc 2023), Kajo Kratzenstein, and Viktor Presber, allows for automatic documentation. Their goal is to help users more quickly understand software.

Kivo Games

Franziska Harzheim (BSc 2022) and Oscar Kerscher are bringing AI to gaming studios through their company Kivo Games. Their platform analyzes gaming behavior in real time and allows for the tailoring of prizes, rewards, and offers directly in-game.

nyka Technologies

nyka Technologies, founded by Adam Sylejman Bekteshi, Jamil Hashemi, and Pierre Chami (all BSc 2024), uses AI to provide end users personalized health and wellness recommendations, suggesting nutritional supplements and offering tips for illness prevention.

Orbion

Çağlar Bozkurt and Aniruddh Goteti (MBA 2024) have founded Orbion, which is turning the study of protein into an exact science. Specifically, their predictive AI-supported platform identifies stabilizing mutations and thus accelerates protein validation and optimization.

vaestro

Henri Voigt (BSc 2018) and Nils Bartig offer apartment building landlords a way to modernize heating systems sustainably and without high initial investments. Vaestro not only takes care of the operative and technical side of things; it also contributes to the costs.

ZULA Kids

ZULA Kids, founded by Janine Vanessa Heinrich (MSc 2022) and Alain Missala, a data-driven publishing platform for children’s books. Their system brings inclusive content from top creative minds to the family room quickly, directly, and easily.