Innovators Challenge
TOPIC
SUITABLE FOR
LOCATION
Frankfurt am Main
PROGRAM DATES
May - June 2026
LANGUAGE
German
APPLICATION DEADLINE
13 May
Program Partners
Turn Challenges into Innovation Opportunities
The Innovators Challenge gives your SME the opportunity to identify and evaluate concrete innovation and transformation challenges. With our help, you can turn the results into implentations and develop and test suitable approaches.
Program Benefits
What is it about?
The Innovators Challenge is a program for medium-sized companies from Hessen, designed to support you in navigating structural change.
The program starts with a 3-hour in-person workshop: a TechInfusion. Together, we work to identify key business challenges, explore potential solutions, and prioritize the most relevant action areas.
Based on the outcomes, you decide how to move forward and which partner best supports your next steps.
Together with Dreiraum, you can develop a transformation strategy in follow-up workshops and advisory sessions and translate it into a clear roadmap with concrete recommendations. Alternatively, if a challenge can be addressed through an external solution, TechQuartier supports you in identifying and selecting suitable startup partners.
>> Read: "TechQuartier and WIBank Celebrate Successful Innovators Challenge"
Program Recap 2025
Recap 2025: From Challenge to Change
The second edition of The Innovators Challenge, by Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen (WIBank) in collaboration with TechQuartier concluded with impressive results and a celebratory dinner in Frankfurt. Over the course of eight weeks, six small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) partnered with six innovative startups to co-develop tailored solutions that are already showing strong implementation potential.
Designed to strengthen regional innovation capacity and foster practical startup–SME collaboration, the program helps companies navigate digital and structural transformation. From automating order management and third-party processes to building AI-ready infrastructures and modular e-commerce platforms, participating SMEs defined real business challenges that startups addressed through concrete, scalable solutions. Following a virtual kickoff and Match Day, seven active collaborations were formed — all supported by mentors.
