According to a VDMA member survey, more than half of mechanical and plant engineering companies are already working with start-ups. Only 23% of small and medium-sized companies have their own start-up scouting. This is reason enough for the VDMA to support companies in screening start-up trends and initiating partnerships. "Start-ups bring inspiration, innovation and a new spirit to mechanical engineering. Our start-up radar, which reveals which technology and product fields are being used by innovative young companies worldwide, therefore offers huge opportunities," says . Hartmut Rauen, Deputy Managing Director of the VDMA. "Our members can track down new trends and future cooperation partners at an early stage - and on a global scale. The fact that we are also providing more than 3,000 start-up contacts with mechanical engineering relevance in a longlist is a novelty with high practical value for our industry." The longlist can be requested online in a searchable Excel file.

The project partner is AtomLeap - a company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify global technology and market trends. A group of experts made up of VDMA members and VDMA specialists also feeds the special requirements and needs of mechanical engineering into the search process.

Services relevant to mechanical engineering from start-ups

The Start-up Radar uses data analyses to reveal the subject areas in which the majority of start-ups with mechanical engineering relevance operate. This shows that 80% of start-ups with mechanical engineering relevance offer services along eight clusters:

1. Industrial platforms
2. AI and computer vision
3. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
4. Automation software
5. Traditional manufacturing
6. Hardware & services for unmanned aerial vehicles
7. Additive manufacturing and
8. Automation hardware.

Dr. Eric Maiser, Head of the VDMA Competence Center Future Business, explains: "Our 2019 VDMA member survey already showed that Industry 4.0/IIoT and AI as well as computer vision are top topics for our industry and that 93% and 83% of respondents respectively are currently looking for start-ups in these fields. It is all the more pleasing that these fields have the largest number of start-ups, as the global analysis of start-ups for mechanical engineering shows. The supply on the market therefore obviously also covers the demand - the best conditions for our mechanical engineering companies willing to cooperate. The Radar also examines which investments have been made in these eight clusters over the last eight years, how the distribution of start-ups differs in the various economic areas and which start-up trends can be identified from 2008 to 2018. The report thus presents the key empirical trends and draws conclusions for the mechanical engineering sector.

What distinguishes start-ups for mechanical engineering

The global data analyses show that mechanical engineering start-ups have characteristic features. The development and founding dynamics of these start-ups are fundamentally similar to start-ups in other fields of innovation in the B2B sector (such as automotive or infrastructure), in which technology-intensive start-ups primarily focus their business models on commercial customers. Dr. Jan-Peter Ferdinand from AtomLeap explains this as follows: "Experience has shown, for example, that start-up figures in these contexts tend to grow more steadily and less erratically than in consumer-related areas, for example - investor interest also develops comparatively steadily, which shows the sustainability of start-up activity. The fact that, in the case of mechanical engineering-related start-ups, the financing rounds so clearly exceed the number of annual start-ups from 2014 onwards also underlines the high economic potential compared to other fields of innovation. This is a pleasing result and shows the great potential that our VDMA Start-up Radar has for the mechanical engineering sector."

Next step: In-depth analyses

The start-up radar marks the starting point for start-up screening in the VDMA. In follow-up studies, it is planned to drill deeper into the various start-up clusters: "In the upcoming ʻdeep divesʼ into the individual start-up clusters, such as AI and machine vision or the IIoT, we will examine the trend fields more closely for technological developments and business model trends," summarizes Dr. Laura Dorfer, who is in charge of the start-up project at the VDMA. "We will also present the cooperation and disruption potential of individual start-ups. This will enable our members to benefit as much as possible from the international start-up scene and successfully align their start-up strategy around special topics."