Entrepreneurship is deeply embedded into CODE’s DNA. We boost and stimulate our students’ entrepreneurial spirit by encouraging them to work in teams and develop their ideas together. Anyone who visits CODE can see that we don’t have an isolated campus where students are only surrounded by fellow students, researchers, and professors – our network of supporters and mentors spans across the German startup scene.

We support for-profit startups and other entrepreneurial endeavors like non-profits or agencies. Our mission is to make it as easy as possible for our students to turn their ideas into reality.

10%

Student
Founders

70

Companies
Founded

250

Jobs
Created

€60m

Capital
Raised

Startups founded by our students & alumni

We are so proud of the achievements of our students and we wish them the best of luck building their companies. Their success is a reflection of the true potential of our learning concept – and it all started by choosing a study program.

Supporting students on their entrepreneurial journey

A brief chronicle

Back in 2019, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology created the funding initiative EXIST-Potentiale to increase the prosperity of the university-based start-up ecosystem.

Our team saw the potential for CODE students who were already founding their own startups and applied to take part in the concept phase. The application was successful and the concept phase started in March 2019.

Summer Startup Program

The Summer Startup Program is a structured two-month program that aims to turn CODE projects into companies over the summer break. We believe that CODE projects make great companies and we want to assist students on their entrepreneurial journeys.

Over the summer, the teams get an office and are mentored by experienced founders and industry experts. Finally, they a pitch in front of a jury, CODE shareholders, and other investors.

Frank Thelen & Thomas Bachem
in podcast about CODE

In March 2024, CODE founder Thomas Bachem was again a podcast guest of German entrepreneur, investor, and TV celebrity Frank Thelen in his Innovation Pulse podcast.

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