garage33

As a beacon for start-ups and corporate entrepreneurship, the garage33 innovation quarter offers the infrastructure for successful start-ups through good networking, the exchange of founders and experienced entrepreneurs, and access to growth capital - for example, through the Technology Fund OWL, which is based here and co-initiated by TecUP, or the Business Angel Network OWL (BAN.OWL). Through courses with a focus on entrepreneurship and innovation management, through events and workshops, as well as through individual support with applications for university-specific funding programs, young people with ideas are shown paths to self-employment. In the meantime, a strong and constantly growing network of sponsors, business angels, investors and premium partners has developed around garage33. 

In the past five years, garage33 has already increased its space fivefold to 2,000 square meters. As the next major growth step, it will move into a new building in the fall of 2023. The Start-up Campus OWL with the project title "Akzelerator.OWL" is to become the new home for founders with its special orientation. The state-of-the-art property of the University of Paderborn on the former Barker Barracks site will house around 7,000 m² of workspaces, a maker space, value centers, co-working spaces and rooms for the development of 150 start-ups. The construction project, which is being funded by the state with around 23 million euros, aims to sustainably strengthen the start-up culture in Paderborn and beyond. Due to its excellent starting point in university-wide start-up support, the University of Paderborn was awarded the status of an Excellence Start-up Center (ESC.NRW) at the beginning of 2019 as one of a total of six universities in NRW. The Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences were integrated into the project and together with the University of Paderborn form the ESC.OWL.