Whenever the future of East German start-ups is on the agenda, rooom has a seat at the table. At the invitation of the Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Germany, Elisabeth Kaiser (SPD), founders from the eastern federal states came together at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin. German public radio station Deutschlandfunk covered the meeting in its report "Start-up-Branchentreffen im Finanzministerium – Ein bisschen Wahlkampf" ("Start-up industry meeting at the Finance Ministry: a touch of election campaigning", 18 August 2026). Founder and CEO Hans Elstner attended on behalf of rooom.
No shortage of ideas, but a shortage of connections
Kaiser set out an ambitious goal at the meeting: one of the next DAX-listed companies should come from East Germany. The road there, however, is a long one. On average, new companies are still founded less frequently in the eastern federal states than in the west of the country. It was a finding the Thuringia-born Commissioner herself described in Berlin as regrettable.
Hans Elstner made the reasons clear on Deutschlandfunk. There is no shortage of ideas in the east, he said. The problem lies elsewhere.
"What's missing is access to investors and to major customers," Elstner told Deutschlandfunk, adding that these are simply not based in the eastern federal states. (Translated from the German original.)
How decisive both factors are is illustrated by rooom's own history. The breakthrough came in the middle of the pandemic with a first very large customer: IFA Berlin, the international consumer electronics show, which moved its trade fair into virtual space together with rooom. In Elstner's experience, a state-backed or economically significant major customer is often the real door opener as a reference. The bulk of the company's growth capital was subsequently secured not in Thuringia, but from an investor in Munich.
Today, rooom develops digital twins from its base in Jena, primarily to make industrial products experienceable in three dimensions.
Mobilising capital, strengthening resilience
Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil is likewise counting on private capital. He pointed to the roughly 3.6 trillion euros currently sitting in German savings accounts. If even a portion of that could be mobilised for investment, he argued, new companies and jobs could follow. Klingbeil also sees start-ups as an opportunity for Germany to become more independent and more resilient in times of international crisis, citing defence, energy supply, artificial intelligence and data among the relevant fields.
Whether the east can become Germany's new start-up hub as a result is a question that economist Klaus-Heiner Röhl of the German Economic Institute (IW) answers soberly: it would be more effective to connect more closely to Berlin's start-up ecosystem, build better networks there and thereby gain faster access to capital.
For rooom, the meeting confirms one thing above all: visibility, strong reference customers and access to investors determine whether good ideas in the east also grow into major companies.
Source: Deutschlandfunk, "Start-up-Branchentreffen im Finanzministerium – Ein bisschen Wahlkampf", broadcast 18 August 2026. Listen to the report on Deutschlandfunk (in German)
