What does an established company have to do to avoid being shown up by a start-up one fine day? This is a topic that concerns many European business leaders. The driverless Google car, for example, poses major challenges for the German auto industry. Medium-sized companies also need new ways to avoid losing touch in times of digitalization and Industry 4.0. Equity capital can play a decisive role here.

In this issue of FYB, BASF answers the question of where a company can get inspiration for real innovations by referring to its own corporate venture capital culture as a "window to new technologies." Such corporate venture capital units, proprietary incubators and independent accelerators are strongly in vogue among German SMEs and Dax companies. There, startups not only have the chance to professionalize, but to learn how to negotiate financing and how to build a business. In this respect, Silicon Valley is still streets ahead of the Germans. There are many companies there that not only give money, but also active assistance in how to grow a business.

One industry in particular is currently being shaken up by the young savages: the financial industry. It's high season in digitization. This refers to fin-tech start-ups that want to revitalize the dusty banking and financial markets. These have been a hot trend among investors in the Anglo-Saxon regions for some time, and have now reached Germany. After all, the Hamburg-based loan broker Kreditech was able to raise an impressive 82.5 million euros in its latest round of financing, albeit from foreign investors including J. C. Flowers, Paypal founder Peter Thiel and Amadeus Capital - not from German ones.