ENGLISH WORLD PREMIERE: The City of Mainz Just Started on Its Way to Becoming a World-Class BioTech Hub
- Jörn Menninger
- Apr 6, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
This founder interview is part of our ongoing coverage of Scaleup Founder Interviews from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
What Is This About?
In a world premiere English-language interview, the City of Mainz reveals its ambitions to become a world-class biotech hub. This episode marks the first time Mainz officials discuss their biotech strategy in English, covering the city's growing life sciences ecosystem anchored by companies like BioNTech.
Premiere: This is the first time ever the city of Mainz talks in English about its intentions to turn itself into a biotech hub. This is an English language world premiere. — Stay ahead of the curve with Startuprad.io
Executive Summary
The City
Mainz's ambition to become a leading biotech hub is revealed in this exclusive interview with Felix Wälder. Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
The City of Mainz has a very long history, founded by the Romans on the right side of the river Rhine in the 1st century BC. It is the native city of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the movable type printing press. The city is the capital of the German state of Rhineland Palatine and home to several universities, including the research-heavy Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU).
Great brains came to Mainz and gathered around great minds … translating their knowledge in products [the COVID vaccine]Felix Wälder, Project Coordinator BioTech-Hub Mainz
The city is also home to a growing biotech cluster including spinoffs of the JGU, especially BioNTech, known as the brains behind the BioNTech Pfizer corona vaccines. The company is a smashing success, to a degree that this company alone increased the German GDP by 0,5% (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-biontech-idUSKBN2FB15A). Note that Germany has the 4th largest GDP in the world.
This success fills the coffers of the city with money, which in turn they will invest in turning the city into one of the world’s premier biotech and tech hubs.
We want startups and investors to come to Mainz, become successful here and stay here.Felix Wälder, Project Coordinator BioTech-Hub Mainz
The Guest
Our guest today is Felix Wälder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-w%C3%A4lder-b22a63100/), who works for the City of Mainz’s utility holding company ZBM. Felix’s studies also took him to the University of North Carolina Wilmington. ZBM provides many services for the city and also takes the lead for the Biotech-Hub Project (https://www.zbm.mainz.de/biotech-mainz/). Felix is the project coordinator for BioTech-Hub Mainz.
NOTE: We made a little mistake in the name tag, Felix is not an MD for the City of Mainz, but for the ZBM.
We will coordinate within the city and give startups, investors and interested parties all the answers they need.Felix Wälder, Project Coordinator BioTech-Hub Mainz
The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, April 6th, 2022
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Further Readings / Additional Resources
City of Mainz (wiki) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainz
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Key Takeaways
The city is also home to a growing biotech cluster including spinoffs of the JGU, especially BioNTech, known as the brains behind the BioNTech Pfizer corona vaccines.
This article covers a significant development in the DACH startup and venture capital ecosystem.
The DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) continues to be one of Europe's most dynamic startup markets.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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This founder interview is part of our ongoing coverage of Scaleup Founder Interviews from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
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Joern Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem.
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Quote Highlights
In a world premiere English-language interview, the City of Mainz reveals its ambitions to become a world-class biotech hub.
Mainz is home to a growing biotech cluster including BioNTech, known as the brains behind the BioNTech-Pfizer corona vaccines.
The city has a long history dating back to the Romans and is the native city of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the movable type printing press.
Felix Wälder discusses Mainz's biotech strategy and the city's growing life sciences ecosystem in this exclusive interview.
Related Rhine-Main Coverage
About the Host
Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.
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