MPF Start-up Accelerator
Elevate your Deep Tech Start-up to the next level!
Our MPF Start-up Accelerator offers start-ups that originate from Max Planck Institutes or are affiliated with Max Planck Institutes, e.g. via patents, licenses, or are founded by Max Planck alumni, a pre-seed financing of up to EUR 360k plus expenses for the accompanying accelerator program via a convertible loan.
Since September 2024, we have also been opening the Accelerator to DeepTech start-ups without affiliation to the Max Planck Society.
The MPF Start-up Accelerator GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Max Planck Foundation.
Our Offer
The accelerator program lasts up to 18 months (12 months for software start-ups w/o hardware or regulatory hurdles).
Within our accelerator, we prepare teams for their first VC financing round, connect them with carefully selected mentors, provide coaching, grant access to a broad network of VCs and industry experts, and integrate them into a curriculum tailored to their specific needs.
The curriculum covers topics such as marketing, market entry and go-to-market strategies, winning first customers, ramping up pilot and small-series production, negotiating term sheets, and other relevant subjects.
Depending on the individual goals of each participant, we also offer an immersion trip into the target market the team aims to enter. For example, Batch 2 spent one week in the AI hotspot San Francisco to build connections within the Silicon Valley ecosystem
Kick-Off of Batch 3 of the MPFXLR8 Program in Munich
The third batch of the MPFXLR8 program officially kicked off in Munich, bringing together alumni from the previous cohort and the new teams joining the program. The event was hosted at the Start2 Group office and created an opportunity for exchange, collaboration, and a first look at the journey ahead.
Teams from Batch 2 — Histolution GmbH and red cable robots — joined the new cohort consisting of QuantiLight, Spark7Bio, Blue Ice Labs, Limatica, Oraclase from the Max Planck ecosystem, and Shit2Power. The gathering allowed participants to connect, share experiences, and begin building relationships within the growing MPFXLR8 community.
One highlight of the day was the keynote by Jorrit Lion, CSO of Proxima Fusion. In his talk, “From Scientific Spin-off to Deep Tech Scaleup: What lies on the Way ahead,” he shared insightful and candid perspectives on the path from scientific research to building a scalable deep-tech company.
Another key moment was the goal-setting workshop led by Hendrik Burmeister, where the teams defined their strategic goals for 2026 and identified their priorities for the next 90 days.
The afternoon continued with an introduction to the MPFXLR8 program, followed by exchanges between the different cohorts. During the Deep Tech Mixer, the start-ups presented their ideas in 90-second pitches and continued conversations during the networking session.
The event marked the beginning of an exciting journey for the new cohort, and we look forward to seeing how these ideas develop in the months ahead. 🚀
Immersion Trip to San Francisco
In September 2025, we took our teams to San Francisco – right into the heart of the global deep tech ecosystem. The week impressively demonstrated how much female founders can gain by consistently thinking ahead with their start-ups: through direct exchange with leading female founders, US investors, mentors and ecosystem architects.
Our teams took part in intensive workshops on sales, GTM, US market entry, law, fundraising and pitching – led by top-class experts. They gained insights into how US venture capital works, how to communicate a ‘US-sized vision’ and which cultural codes determine success. And they experienced first-hand how fast Silicon Valley moves: almost enough is good enough.
Particularly valuable were the site visits to the House of AI and Carta, the deep tech roundtables, and the direct proximity to founders who are building global products. Our teams made new contacts, gained concrete VC leads, and gained clear perspectives for their next steps in the US market.
The trip showed that:
🚀 Anyone who wants to develop further, think big and learn how to scale internationally will benefit enormously from this experience.
🤝 And that’s exactly what our accelerator is for: we open doors, create real opportunities and support founders so that they can present themselves with substance, clarity and confidence – in Europe and worldwide. If you are founding a deep tech or science start-up and are ready to take the next step, we look forward to receiving your application.
Testimonials
Maity
, Maity is building a platform that allows anyone to generate lifelike videos from text, translate videos into multiple languages, and deploy intelligent digital agents that can support education, customer service, or language assessment.
The MPF Accelerator helped us refine our core value proposition, strengthen our technological roadmap, and gain clarity on how to bring our product to market more effectively. It also pushed us to think more strategically about scalability, pricing, and investor readiness.
Lucid Genomics
, Lucid Genomics provides an AI-driven platform for comprehensive analysis of the entire human genome. It captures both coding and non-coding regions to reliably identify relevant variants and structural changes such as deletions, duplications, insertions, and inversions.
The MPF has been an invaluable partner for Lucid Genomics, helping us shape our first business cases, making key pharma introductions (some big fishes!), and genuinely transforming us from scientists into high-impact entrepreneurs. As a scientist and entrepreneur, I would strongly recommend MPF to any researcher looking to accelerate their science into the market with the right partner by their side.
niostem
, niostem offers a wireless, app-controlled wearable designed to combat hair loss. Based on 2 clinical trials, the wearable can reactivate hair growth within just six months — without pharma-like side effects.
The accelerator program has been a game-changer for us. From coaching to network and capital, the team supported us with professionalism and genuine engagement. Although we were not too early in our startup journey, we benefited greatly from this program and its impact on us, the management, and on the journey definitely made us grow. Thank you MPF accelerator program.
red cable robots
, red cable robots builds cable robots that move like stadium cameras to make large-scale robotics affordable and combat the shortage of skilled workers. They supply turnkey and AI-integrated robot cells, e.g., for palletizing, painting, or prefabricated construction. Their robots offer the best price-to-working space ratio in industrial robotics.
Das mpfxlr8-Programm ist für uns zum Gamechanger geworden. Es bringt alle Bausteine mit um Deep-Tech Startups zu beflügeln und die Zusammenarbeit mit den Akteure sucht seines gleichen.
The accelerator is made possible as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Max Planck Foundation in partnership with Start2 Group.
